Melania Trump will join First Lady Jill Biden and every other living former first lady to promote efforts to build a monument in Washington, DC, dedicated to the early American women’s equality movement.
In a tweet met with gratitude and criticism, Trump wrote on Wednesday that she is “honored” to join the Women’s Suffrage National Monument Foundation as an honorary chair to help secure a National Mall monument “of enduring inspiration for women and future female leaders.”
Trump joining former first ladies for a cause is notable after her husband former President Donald Trump avoided working with every living former president in public service announcements for COVID vaccinations.
Her tweet came the same day as her husband is set to be deposed in a 2019 defamation case by magazine writer E. Jean Carroll, who said the former president raped her in a dressing room nearly three decades ago.
The Women’s Suffrage National Monument Foundation announced its honorary chairs on Monday would include Biden, Trump, Michelle Obama, Laura Bush, Hillary Clinton, and Rosalynn Carter.
The foundation is tasked with carrying out a law, signed by Trump, to build the monument. There are currently no women from American history memorialized on the National Mall and fewer than 5% of statues in the capital depict women.
The Women’s Suffrage National Monument will be unveiled in the summer of 2027, according to the foundation.
