Melania Trump pushed back against social media users on Saturday accusing the First Lady of being tone deaf after she shared photos of herself overseeing the development of a White House construction project. Trump took to Twitter on Thursday to share snapshots of a 1,200-square foot Tennis Pavillion being built on the South Lawn of the White House. Per CNN, the new recreation space will function as a “place to gather and spend leisure time for First Families.”
I am excited to share the progress of the Tennis Pavillion at @WhiteHouse. Thank you to the talented team for their hard work and dedication. pic.twitter.com/Wzown2ho26
— Melania Trump (@FLOTUS) March 5, 2020
Of course, the construction of the new building didn’t fare well with many online, especially those who felt the project in the middle of a major and potential pandemic of epic proportions was something that could have waited until it is met with adequate medical assistance for everyone affected and those in its path. Meanwhile, others chimed in with her husband’s immigration policy and the recent tornadoes that ravaged areas of Nashville, Tennessee.
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“Will the tennis court also have coronavirus test kits or will it serve (heh) as an extra holding cell for the caged children when things get too crowded in the concentration camps?” tweeted journalist, Lesley Abravanel, adding the hashtag, “Be Best” — her program to teach children to be civil online.
“This is the most extraordinary thing to tweet in the midst of an epidemic. You really are amazingly out of touch with real live people,” added another journalist, Victoria Brownworth.
“Meanwhile, kids are starving because her husband slashed SNAP benefits,” one user tweeted. “But there’s [money] for a tennis pavilion. She can’t even spell it. Malaria loves to be places where she can play with balls. The score’s gone from douche to advantage Putin. What a racket. Let them eat asphalt.”
29 people were killed by a tornado in Tennessee, the world is shuddering as a pandemic expands and what is a tennis pavilion?
— Mia Farrow (@MiaFarrow) March 5, 2020
You know who contributed something good & productive in their own community when they resided @WhiteHouse is this wonderful, beautiful women, who is a role model for people world wide. It definitely did not take her to build a tennis pavilion to get there. #BeBest pic.twitter.com/9Uq5t1AgW4
— Guera 🆘 (@JDangzalan) March 7, 2020
“Jimmy Carter builds houses for the poor,” added another.
“Looks like the walls around the tennis court are sturdier than that big floppy wall your… husband?… is building. Also, folks are dying because of a pandemic. Just FYI, Marie Antoinette,” wrote another, referencing the 17th century figure who was unaware of the conditions surrounding the less fortunate.
Retweeting her message earlier Saturday, Trump had a message for those practicing their first amendment rights and touted such criticism as “negative.”
“I encourage everyone who chooses to be negative & question my work at the [White House] to take time and contribute something good & productive in their own communities,” she wrote alongside the hashtag, “Be Best.”
This is not the first time the First Lady has been at the center of “tone deaf” controversy. In June of 2018, she wore a jacket that read “I really don’t care, do u?” during a trip to the Texas border while visiting migrant children being held and separated from their families.
Photo credit: Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images
