Latest news with #starvingchildren
Telegraph
03-08-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
Melania has been shaping Trump's foreign policy for longer than we realise
As Donald Trump was flying back from Scotland, he revealed how he had discussed the horrific images of starving children in Gaza with his wife, the first lady. 'She thinks it's terrible,' he told The Telegraph aboard Air Force One. 'She sees the same pictures that you see and we all see. Everybody, unless they are pretty cold-hearted or worse than that, nuts … there's nothing you can say other than it's terrible when you see the kids.' Melania Trump has kept a low profile during her husband's second term. Her rare appearances at the White House have sparked 'Where's Melania?' headlines and questions about whether she is a part-time first lady. But her influence can be spotted in Mr Trump's policies, and she is credited by insiders for being the 'quiet force' behind the president's tougher stance on Russia. For Melania, it is not a new role. The Telegraph can reveal that she was a key factor in Mr Trump's decision to launch air strikes on Syria during his first term following a chemical weapons attack by the regime of Bashar al-Assad. A former White House official said she was horrified by videos of children dying in Khan Shaykun in 2017 and impressed upon her husband the need to act. Mr Trump abandoned his campaign promises not to intervene in Syria's civil war, and launched 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles from the Mediterranean Sea at a government airbase in Syria. It was the first time that the US acknowledged striking Assad targets. The former official said Mrs Trump was highly influential in the decision. 'I think she reacts to human suffering as a mom, without a policy or political filter, and shares her gut reaction with her husband,' they said. Katherine Jellison, a history professor at Ohio University and an expert in the role of first ladies, said Mrs Trump was performing her role in a highly unconventional way, rejecting the traditional role of simply appearing beside her husband at public events. Her approach may mean she is underestimated by the media and public at times. 'It may be that she does have more influence on her husband's thinking about issues than the general public might initially recognise because they seem to have this very traditional marriage in terms of gender role: He's the boss. She's the helpmate,' she said. 'But I think there has to be more to her than that, in that she has gone her own way a number of times.' Mrs Trump, 55, was born Melanija Knavs in the part of Yugoslavia that is now Slovenia. She launched her career as a fashion model at the age of 16, and met her future husband in 1998, when she was 28. Mr Trump was recently separated from Marla Maples, his second wife. They married seven years later and their son, Barron, was born in 2006. She was an unconventional first lady from the start, being only the second foreign-born woman to hold the position (after England-born Louisa Adams) and the first to have once appeared naked on the front cover of a magazine. She did things her own way during Mr Trumps' first term, waiting for five months to move down to Washington DC from New York so Barron could finish his school year, and broke with her husband over family separations at detention facilities at the southern border. She made headlines in 2018 with a jacket she wore during a visit to see migrant children separated from their families. 'I really don't care,' read a statement on the back, 'do u?' It caused an uproar on social media as commentators pondered its meaning. Mrs Trump later said it was a message to reporters who used anonymous sources to undermine her. 'In fact, I decided to let them know that their criticism would never stop me from doing what I feel is right,' she said in her 2024 memoir, entitled Melania. She also used her book, published a month before the election, to speak up for abortion access. It marked a clear break with much of the Republican Party and her husband, who had taken a more conservative stance. 'Some people, they see me as just the wife of the president, but I'm standing on my own two feet, independent. I have my own thoughts,' she told Fox News ahead of Mr Trump's second inauguration. 'I don't always agree [with] what my husband is saying or doing, and that's OK.' Mr Trump recently described his wife's influence when it came to the conflict in Ukraine, describing her sceptical take on Vladimir Putin, the Russian leader, and his warm words. 'I go home, I tell the first lady: 'I spoke with Vladimir today. We had a wonderful conversation,'' Mr Trump said. 'She said: 'Oh really? Another city was just hit.'' That turned her into an immediate heroine in Ukraine. She was nicknamed 'Agent Melania Trumpenko' and memes quickly spread showing Ukrainian iconography on her clothing. Agent Melania Trumpenko — Kate from Kharkiv (@BohuslavskaKate) July 14, 2025 Prof Jellison added that Melania was often underestimated in public because of her heavily accented English. 'It wouldn't surprise me that she does have some differing opinions, and might assert those to her husband behind closed doors and might have an influence on his thinking,' she said. The first lady's office did not respond to a request for comment. For her part, Mrs Trump told GQ in 2016 that she had plenty of opinions and shared them with her husband. 'Nobody knows and nobody will ever know,' she said about the advice she gives him... 'Because that's between me and my husband.'
Yahoo
27-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Kemi Badenoch: Pictures of starving children haven't shifted my support for Israel
PICTURES of starving children in Gaza have not affected Kemi Badenoch's support for Israel, the Tory leader has said. Asked about Israel's engineered famine in [[Gaza]], Badenoch claimed that Israel was 'trying to defend itself' during an interview with Sky News on Sunday. Her comments come amid widespread international condemnation of Israel for blocking aid from entering the besieged Palestinian territory, which has resulted in children starving to death. READ MORE: Speaking on Sky News' Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips show, Badenoch said: 'War is a difficult situation and what I see when I see Israel is a country that is trying to defend itself, mostly from Iran and a lot of its proxies, Hezbollah, Hamas, the Houthis. I think they are in a very difficult situation. (Image: .) 'What worries me is that the length of time that this war has been going on is making it very difficult for the people in the Palestinian territories and also for Israel. 'We need to bring things to an end.' Her comments came as Israel announced a 'tactical pause' in its assault on Gaza to allow humanitarian aid into the territory beginning on Sunday. Israel has said it had allowed aid packages to be dropped into the territory from the air, which has been criticised by humanitarian agencies. Ciaran Donnelly of the International Rescue Committee said last week: 'Aid drops are a grotesque distraction from the reality of what's needed on the ground in Gaza right now. They can never deliver the volume, the consistency or the quality of aid and services that's needed.' READ MORE: Asked about the policy on Sky News on Sunday, Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury James Murray said: 'I absolutely accept and recognise that there are real limits and drawbacks with airdrops when it comes to aid, but I also think that until the restrictions are lifted, until aid is able to get in at the scale and quantity that is needed, we need to be doing everything we possibly can to help.' Keir Starmer is expected to press the case for a ceasefire when he meets US president Donald Trump in Scotland later on Sunday.
