Melania Trump update: FLOTUS speaks to New Jersey First Lady Tammy Murphy about child welfare and well-being

First Lady Melania Trump’s Be Best initiative puts its main focus on children, from cyberbullying to promoting safety when online or on social media. The first lady recently held a conference call with New Jersey’s first lady Tammy Murphy to discuss what the state has been doing that also touches on Melania’s initiative.

The White House released a readout of Melania’s conference call to Mrs. Murphy, where the two first ladies talked about what the state of New Jersey has done in terms of social services. The New Jersey Department of Human Services Commissioner Carole Johnson was also present during the call. They talked about the state’s mental health hotline as well as how technology has now made accessing mental health services a lot easier.

Aside from better access to mental health services, the two first ladies also discussed Mrs. Murphy’s awareness campaign on infant and maternal mortality and morbidity called Nurture NJ. Mrs. Trump and Mrs. Murphy touched on the importance of equality in care and outcomes for everyone and some measures to lower the high mortality rate of African-American moms in the state. This also comes at a time where the United States is still in the middle of battling the coronavirus pandemic, where the country is approaching a death toll of 115,000 with over 2 million confirmed cases.

Melania is president Donald Trump’s third wife and acts as step-mother to her husband’s eldest daughter Ivanka Trump. Both are often seen together especially as Ivanka serves as her father’s senior adviser. Many have wondered just how close the two women are, particularly as they are only 11 years apart in age. A body language expert, Bruce Durham of Believingbruce, revealed that Ivanka appears to turn to Melania for guidance and security, the First Lady likely having played a part in boosting her confidence as time went on.

“I see typical parent-child behavioral patterns. Ivanka is most definitely on her own journey, but as much as she may want to be “the boss” as is typical on our journey to adulthood, she frequently “checks in” with Melania,” noted Durham.

As for the first lady, Durham notes that Melania has always presented the “same emotional baseline” for years which is evident in any situation regardless of whether there is an audience or not.