US President Donald Trump, 79, was assisted by first lady Melania Trump during a televised dinner with technology industry chiefs on Thursday after he failed to catch a question posed by a journalist regarding his intentions to communicate with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“After your phone call with Ukrainian President Zelensky today, do you plan to speak with Russia’s President Putin in the near future?” a reporter enquired during the artificial intelligence event.
“What?” Trump murmured quietly, turning his head towards the first lady. “If you’re going to speak with President Putin in the near future,” the first lady reiterated.
The public dinner, which occurred in the freshly refurbished White House Rose Garden, was attended by two dozen chiefs in the technology sector, including Microsoft founder Bill Gates, OpenAI founder Sam Altman, Google founder and CEO Sergey Brin and Sundar Pichai, Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg and Apple CEO Tim Cook.
Numerous technology executives have abandoned policies championing diversity, equity and inclusion in order to demonstrate allegiance to Trump since he resumed office earlier this year. Last month, Apple’s Cook presented Trump with a gilded, glass trophy during his White House visit in recognition of his company’s $100 billion pledge to U.S. manufacturing, reports Mirror US.
Questions surrounding Trump’s actual health condition erupted over the weekend following the president’s notable disappearance from public view for almost a week.
His absence sparked a flood of conspiracy theories, highlighting a diagnosis he received in July for chronic venous insufficiency and repeated photographs and footage showing a persistent bruise on his hand.
Some theorists even suggested that Trump had passed away over the weekend.
He emerged at the White House for a press conference early this week, nevertheless, and dismissed health-related speculation when questioned about them.
In rescuing the president from a hearing-related blunder on Thursday, the first lady strengthened her more powerful position in Trump’s matters during his second term.
Despite rarely being spotted with Trump publicly, spending most of her time in Manhattan and Palm Beach, the first lady is reported to be in continuous contact with Trump throughout the day, sources close to the pair told CNN last week.
“I tell the first lady, ‘You know, I spoke to Vladimir [Putin] today – we had a wonderful conversation,'” Trump recalled during an Oval Office meeting in July with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte.
“She said, ‘Oh, really? Another city was just hit.'” The First Lady made her presence felt during Trump’s “peace summit” with Putin last month in Alaska, which concluded earlier than planned after Trump failed to broker an agreement. She penned a heartfelt letter to Putin, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for the war crime of unlawful deportation of children, urging him to consider the innocent children affected by his ongoing conflict with Ukraine.
She implored the Russian leader that he has the power to “singlehandedly restore their melodic laughter.”
Trump reportedly hand-delivered her letter to Putin ahead of their meetings.
Whilst Melania Trump has not publicly stated her views on the conflicts in Ukraine or Gaza, both have seen the mistreatment or death of thousands of children – an issue that those close to her say deeply concerns her.
“I think that a lot of people underestimate how normal of a couple they are. … He listens to her and seeks her counsel,” a source familiar with the Trumps told CNN. “She only wades in when she really will go to the paint on something – and she really cares about kids.”
