A Silicon Valley School Just Flat Out Refused Melania Trump's Donation
When it came to being first lady, Melania Trump was not really big on the spotlight, which seems to be the way in which she's leading her civilian life post-White House. Unlike her former president husband who seems to crave that attention, Melania Trump has been keeping to herself for the past year. In her farewell speech, she told the American people to be personal ambassadors for her anti-bullying Be Best campaign. She asked everyone to "focus on what unites us. To rise above what divides us. To Always choose love over hatred, peace over violence, and others before yourself."
Despite the lackluster success of Be Best so far, that isn't stopping Melania Trump from pushing forward with her plans. Her newest Be Best venture, "Fostering the Future," comes just a few weeks after Melania Trump's NFT sold for just shy of $200,000, which was then revealed to have been purchased from her own funds, per Bloomberg. According to Insider, the new program is focused on the foster care community, although the scope isn't clear beyond being a means to provide scholarships to children in the system.
Given Donald Trump's problematic history of misusing charity funds and the lack of groundwork in the Be Best initiative as a whole, it should be no surprise that organizations are not jumping at the chance to be involved. Even so, when those situations do arise, the situation is labeled as an act of political derision.
Melania Trump called her charity offer rejection an attempt to 'cancel her'
As part of her new "Fostering the Future" initiative, connected to her Be Best venture, Melania Trump wanted to partner with a computer science school to provide scholarships. When the scholarships ended up not coming to fruition, she released a statement that said, in part, "It was made clear to me that the school's Board of Directors organized a politically-motivated decision" and asserted that they were trying to "cancel her."
Though she did not name the school, it is based in Silicon Valley with an Oklahoma campus. The New York Times later deduced that the school is Holberton School. Julien Barbier, chief executive of Holberton, confirmed to the Times that they were the ones alluded to in the statement, but that the scholarships were never confirmed upon. "We were approached about a scholarship by her team but never reached an agreement on the logistics of the scholarship," he told the newspaper.
This agreement falling through comes at a time when officials are investigating Melania's fundraising in her home state of Florida, as state law requires anyone receiving or soliciting donations to be registered with the state. However, the state reportedly does not have registrations on behalf of Melania or her organizations Be Best or Fostering the Future, per the Times. Officials began looking into her charitable work after her Tulips & Topiaries charity event was announced for April.