Melania Trump’s North Carolina Visit Draws New Scrutiny of Trump and Don Jr.

0:00Ben Meiselas:Melania Trump was throwing Donald Trump, the entire Trump family, including herself, under the bus. Again, she tried to do a photo op in Ash County, North Carolina yesterday, but she just exposed what a despicable individual she is and, of course, what a vile family she is a part of, especially what a vile human Donald Trump is. Let's break this all down. So here's the announcement that she made for this photo op in Ashe County, North Carolina. First Lady Melania Trump's special visit to Ashe County, North Carolina, bearing witness to a community's resilience. Yeah, a resilience against the Trump regime, against your family that has inflicted a lot of pain and suffering on North Carolina.

0:52Ben Meiselas:So Ash County, like a number of these surrounding areas, was heavily impacted by Hurricane Helene, which hit about two years ago. When the Trump regime came into power, after Donald Trump spread all of this disinformation about Biden's efforts to actually utilize FEMA to help Ash County and lots of areas in North Carolina, what did the Trump regime do? they immediately denied the request of North Carolina for emergency aid through FEMA. And so the governor of North Carolina appealed and FEMA repeatedly denied it. Also, the Trump regime cut FEMA staff unlawfully in half. So it lost tens of thousands of FEMA workers who would be able to respond to tragedies like Hurricane Helene.

1:48Ben Meiselas:So the resiliency that Melania spoke of when she visited Ash County and she took these photo ops where she spoke with these elementary school students, yeah, a lot of the resiliency was against the Trump regime's behavior. It should also be noted that while she was in Ash County, she was asked about Don Jr.'s connection to that guy, Umar Kremlov, the Russian oligarch, Putin's buddy who helped bankroll Don Jr.'s wedding. Don Jr.'s wife, Bettina, was like, Umar, he's our close friend. Of course, he's going to fund the Bahama Island where the wedding takes place. Of course, he's going to pay for the funfetti and fire.

2:33Ben Meiselas:That's what Russian oligarchs do. Duh. Well, Melania's office also put out a statement and she said, I am not behind that. I do not like Kremlev. I do not know who he is. That's just Don Jr. Blame him. And one of the things that Melania always tries to co-opt is, she always says that she's reuniting Ukrainian families and Russian families. She doesn't really say if they're Ukrainian or Russian families. They're just like, she did her fifth reunification, which in theory would be something significant if we actually knew who these families were. Do we have photos of them? Are they being reunited to Russia or Ukraine?

3:14Ben Meiselas:What was the process? Who are these people? You can't just announce reunification. Then her fixer always goes on TV and he's like, she deserves a Nobel Peace Prize. Give her a prize or at least give her another documentary with Amazon. The whole thing is so freaking deranged. Oh, and by the way, when she was in Ashe County and she went to this elementary school. She's like, I come here to give you AI. I want to give you AI, gifts of AI. Okay. I don't really think we should be giving elementary school students gifts of AI right now, especially everything that's going on. I give you gifts of AI.

3:53Ben Meiselas:This is how it was reported by the USA Today Network doing their best propaganda for Melania on this trip. Access journalism at its finest. Melania Trump gifts AI tools to North Carolina students amid growing industry concerns. It's at least a decent headline, but here's how they describe it. First Lady Melania Trump called on students in North Carolina to lean into AI tools during a September 15 appearance. Speaking at Mountain View Elementary school in Ash County, Trump honored people affected by Hurricane Helene nearly two years later. It was a rare speaking engagement for the first lady and an important part I want you all to know.

4:38Ben Meiselas:She wore a dark green leather jacket, matching stilettos, and an off-white sweater and a skirt for the occasion. What occasion? What's the occasion? The occasion is speaking in front of elementary school students, using them as props, giving them random AI tools and telling them that they're resilient. Of course they're resilient, but you've made them, you've made their lives worse, demonstrably worse. I'll show you the data. This is May 22nd, 2025. This is a letter from the Trump regime to governor Josh Stein, the governor of North Carolina, who was just asking for the same amount of FEMA resources that Biden gave.

5:20Ben Meiselas:Remember when And Trump was like, Biden's not giving you the resources. He's giving it to the illegal immigrants. Remember that lie? Well, Governor Stein of North Carolina said, hey, we need help right now, federal government. This is why people pay taxes, damn it. And you know how the federal government responded? Dear Governor Stein, this is in response to your April 25th, 2025 appeal of the denial of your request for an extension to the cost share waiver under major disaster fema-4827-dr that was declared on september 28 2024 due to tropical storm helene you specifically requested an extension of the 100 federal cost share for the debris removal and emergency protective measures including direct federal assistance for an additional 180 days after a careful and thorough review of all information available including that contained in your initial request for a cost share adjustment and appeal we have concluded that an extension of the 100 federal cost share for debris removal and emergency protective measures including direct federal assistance for an additional 180 80 days under the major death disaster declaration is not warranted, is not warranted.

6:48Ben Meiselas:And Melania goes in there and says, I thank you for how resilient you are. And a hundred people died and you are all so strong. You're all so strong. Melania, you and your sick, vile family created the problem. At least you made the problem worse. that's an objective reality so here was melania saying that you can see for yourself here play this clip tragically 108 lives were lost for children here at mountain view elementary the storm took away much more than just your daily routine your neighborhood was flooded and your school was transformed into a distribution center. For too many kids across the state, the familiar daily routines of classrooms, teachers and friends were suddenly gone.

7:47But as the water levels rose, you stepped up for one another. Families welcomed others into their homes. brave individuals rushed towards the dangers to assist, and faith leaders gave comfort. Teachers became anchors of stability, and your school turned into more than a place to learn. It turned into a lifeline providing food, water, supplies, counseling, and hope. Life insurance. We all know we need it, but we keep putting it off. because we think it's complicated or expensive or that we'll live forever. Stop telling yourself you'll handle it later and take care of it today with SelectQuote. In 15 minutes, you could have coverage that fits your life and budget.

8:38Here's what makes SelectQuote different. Their licensed insurance agents work for you, not the insurance company. They compare options across multiple carriers to find you the right coverage at the lowest price. They've been doing this for nearly 40 years and have helped over 2 million people find coverage. Even if you have health issues, they can help. High blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease, their agents know which carriers will give you the best rate for your specific situation. If you're healthy, they can get you same-day coverage with no medical exam. Other brokers push policies that pay them the most.

9:14SelectQuote's agents actually shop for you. SelectQuote, they shop, you save. Get the right life insurance for you for less at selectquote.com slash Midas. Go to selectquote.com slash Midas today to get started.

9:32Ben Meiselas:And by the way, she's saying that at a time when a federal judge in the past 48 hours ruled that the Trump regime's plan to cut FEMA workforce by 50 % violated congressional protections that govern the agency. Trump gutted FEMA. It was a violation of congressional law. And then the Trump regime tried to cover it up. And now they're scrambling, oh, I guess we need FEMA workers. And they're gone. The FEMA workers are gone. Thousands are not returning. We gutted FEMA? I mean, it's so despicable. It's U.S. District Judge Susan Elston ruled that the Department of Homeland Security violated post-Katrina reforms and the APA, the Administrative Procedures Act, by directing FEMA to slash its workforce from 23 ,000 to 11 ,500 employees by the end of fiscal year 2026.

10:33Ben Meiselas:The cuts targeted the core positions vital for disaster response, with the judge calling the target number arbitrary and capricious and criticizing auto-deleting signal messages used in the planning to cover up what they did. Unions helped bring this suit, and they said this is demonstrative of the Trump regime's despicable behavior. But while Melania was there talking about the resiliency, oh, you're all so resilient, kiddos. You're all resilient. Mark Wayne Mullen, the Department of Homeland Security Secretary who took over from Kristi gnome he defended the fema staffing cuts and he said throwing people at a problem that aren't passionate about or not being an added value doesn't help did you hear what i just said and so while melania is there he's taught using these kids as photo ops mark wayne mullen the department of homeland security referred to fema workers who dedicated their life to this stuff to saving lives throwing people at a problem that aren't passionate about or not being an added value to it doesn't help go f yourself all of you vile sick trump people that aren't passionate about it and then he goes when you're in a disaster you need a hundred percent of people doing the majority of the work every single day.

12:08Ben Meiselas:So when some federal judge tries to come in and tell us how many people we have to have on staff, yet they're not in the building, they're not running the agency, it's laughable. Stay in your lane, judge. Deal with the law. Prosecute criminals. Send them to prison and rule from the bench. These are vile, vile people. And so let me show you while Melania was there, hat tip to my buddy Dunk Media. What's up, Dunk? Posted the following, Melania doing these photo ops. You can see how miserable she is, but this is all for show. This is all in my opinion for cover up and show. I'm giving you my opinion.

12:50Ben Meiselas:You could share your own opinion. My opinion is protected by the First Amendment of the Constitution, as is this video, But feel free to have your own opinions opinion speeches protected speech. So this video is opinion speech Here's the live feed getting cut out as soon as Melania took that last photo op play

13:41Ben Meiselas:And Melania seemed very unimpressed with the projects between the photo ops. You can see it over here.

14:14Ben Meiselas:And she also seemed to have trouble with simple instruction in her schoolroom visit. Let's play it.

14:36Ben Meiselas:But she wanted all the kids to know they get AI. The children, that's what we need to give our children. More AI right now. the children who suffered from Hurricane Helene or Tropical Storm Helene who witnessed dozens of people die and you heard what Melania said in the other one of the videos right where she said you know and this was turned into a hospital and all these things yeah you know what you didn't say Melania in that video where was the federal government oh wait you threw the state under the bus and fired all the FEMA workers. Anyway, I'll show you this last thing of Melania. It is wonderful to be with all of your students at the Mountain View today.

15:22You kids are the stars. Shortly, I will visit your classrooms, and I cannot wait to see what you have been learning. I'm especially excited to hear about your work with AI. As you begin new school year, remember to take your education seriously. Stay curious and always challenge yourself. There it is. Okay.

15:51Ben Meiselas:Thank you for watching. Appreciate you. Let's get to 7 million. Hey, if you want the full story, how democracy got here and how we take it back, pre-order our new book, WTF America, today. Just scan the QR code or click the link in the description. Let's do this.