Melania Trump was booed when she spoke about the battle with opioid addiction at a Youth Summit in Baltimore Tuesday.
The first lady was loudly booed by the audience of middle and high school students for about a minute when she walked on stage and again when she concluded her short remarks.
Students also talked loudly over her when she addressed them, resulting in the first lady to briefly interrupt her remarks with a ‘hello.’
It is believed to the first time Melania Trump was booed at a solo event. She was met with protesters at a Boston hospital event earlier this month.
‘Thank you for the warm introduction and for inviting me to join you today for such an important event centered on opioid awareness,’ she began as the boos continued.
President Donald Trump has been a critic of the majority-black city, calling it a ‘rat and rodent infested mess.’
Melania Trump was booed when she spoke about the battle with opioid addiction at a Youth Summit in Baltimore
The first lady smiled and waved to the crowd, despite the boos
The audience was made up of high school and middle school students
It was in July the president tweeted his criticism of Baltimore, specifically calling out the part where the late Rep. Elijah Cummings lived as a place where ‘no human being would want to live.’
Melania Trump was speaking at the B’MORE Youth Summit on Opioid Awareness, sponsored by the Drug Enforcement Agency and actor Mark Wahlberg’s youth foundation.
She smiled and waved to the crowd despite the boos.
More than 2,500 middle and high school students were scheduled to participate in Baltimore’s largest youth summit on opioid awareness but the auditorium was about half full.
Fighting opioid addiction is one of the three pillars of the first lady’s Be Best campaign.
Speaking with the aid of a teleprompter, Melania Trump stayed on message in delivering her warning about the dangers of drug addiction.
‘We are here today to raise awareness of the opioid epidemic in our country and to educate young lives on how to live a drug-free life. Addiction and drug abuse are universal issues– they do not discriminate based on income, age, race or where you live,’ she said in her five minutes of remarks.
There were some cheers when the first lady took the stage and a few students yelled back ‘hi’ when she greeted them.
‘I’m in this fight with you and I’m fighting for you,’ she told them.
She wished the students ‘Happy Thanksgiving’ before she left the stage.
‘Wishing you all a Happy Thanksgiving. May God Bless you, your families and the United States of America,’ she concluded.
When she walked off the stage more boos were heard.
Melania Trump wished the students a ‘Happy Thanksgiving’ before she left the stage
The students were at an opioid summit
Earlier this month, during a visit to a Boston Medical Center program to help babies born addicted to drugs, the first lady was protested by hospital staff who disagreed with her husband’s immigration policies.
The protesters – a mix of doctors, nurses, and hospital staff – cited concern about how the first lady’s stop will appear to their immigrant patients and told local reporters they wanted to demonstrate they don’t support the Trump administration’s immigration policies.
They held signs outside the hospital – a safety-net hospital that has many immigrants as patients – as the first lady made her visit.
Two women wore a white doctor’s coat that had ‘we really care do u?’ written on the back – a reference to the time the first lady wore the ‘I don’t really care, do u?’ jacket on her visit to the Texas border to visit children of immigrants separated from their families due to Trump administration policy.
Trump got into a Twitter war with Cummings, the longtime African American representative from inner-city Baltimore, this summer before the lawmaker died.
Cummings was the chairman of the House Oversight committee, which was one of the congressional panels investigating the president.
Trump defended his attacks on Cummings and Baltimore, saying there was ‘nothing racist’ about his comments.
‘There is nothing racist in stating plainly what most people already know, that Elijah Cummings has done a terrible job for the people of his district, and of Baltimore itself,’ Trump tweeted in July. ‘Dems always play the race card when they are unable to win with facts. Shame!’
In another tweet, Trump also blasted Democrats for ‘playing the Race Card’ and making him out to be a racist for his digs at Cummings, who is black.
‘The Democrats always play the Race Card, when in fact they have done so little for our Nation’s great African American people,’ Trump posted to Twitter. ‘Now, lowest unemployment in U.S. history, and only getting better. Elijah Cummings has failed badly!’
Donald Trump defended his criticism of Congressman Elijah Cummings and his district, claiming there was ‘nothing racist’ about him speaking the truth about the conditions in Baltimore, Maryland and how Cummings has dealt with it
In response to claims his comments were racist, Trump tweeted he was just ‘stating plainly what most people already know’
He said Cummings needs to focus on ‘fixing the mess’ in Baltimore instead of seeking impeachment investigations on the House Oversight Committee or criticizing the conditions at the border
Trump issued attacks on Cummings and his district after the lawmakers criticized conditions migrants were being held in at the southern border
In another tweet following up on the initial attacks, Trump said the congressman should focus more on ‘fixing the mess’ in Baltimore instead of border issues and pursing impeachment.
‘If racist Elijah Cummings would focus more of his energy on helping the good people of his district, and Baltimore itself, perhaps progress could be made in fixing the mess that he has helped to create over many years of incompetent leadership. His radical ‘oversight’ is a joke!’ Trump tweeted.
Trump said Cummings was a ‘bully’ to Customs and Border Patrol agents and claimed the situations at border facilities are better than in Baltimore, which Cummings represents in Congress
Cummings replied to the president that he visits his home district every day – Baltimore is about an hour drive from Washington D.C.
Trump first launched his Twitter attack on Cummings after the Oversight Committee chairman criticized conditions at the Southern border.
The outraged president defended the border detention centers as ‘clean, efficient and well run, just very crowded’, and then claimed the facilities are superior to Cummings’ own district in Maryland.
‘Cumming District is a disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess. If he spent more time in Baltimore, maybe he could help clean up this very dangerous & filthy place,’ Trump tweeted Saturday.
‘Why is so much money sent to the Elijah Cummings district when it is considered the worst run and most dangerous anywhere in the United States,’ Trump wondered in another tweet. ‘No human being would want to live there. Where is all this money going? How much is stolen? Investigate this corrupt mess immediately!’
Some insinuated Trump was taking a dig at Baltimore residents, who are more than 60 per cent black and African American, and suggesting they were not humans.
Cummings responded to Trump’s insults saying, ‘Mr. President, I go home to my district daily. Each morning, I wake up, and I go and fight for my neighbors.’
‘It is my constitutional duty to conduct oversight of the Executive Branch. But, it is my moral duty to fight for my constituents,’ he added.
Cummings died in January.