The Heartbreaking Reason Melania Trump Reportedly Wanted To Send Mirrors To Kids In Africa

For much of former president Donald Trump's four-year presidency, his wife, Melania Trump, chose to stay out of the public eye. At one point, when Melania apparently had to have surgery, she seemingly disappeared after not being seen in public at all for 20 days, according to The Guardian. She also did not take many official trips on her own, but when she chose to go visit the Mexican border and see how migrant children were living in detention facilities in June 2018, she caused a stir.

The first lady wore a green khaki jacket onto the plane with the words, "I Really Don't Care, Do You?" painted in a splash of white on the back. She reportedly did not wear the jacket when she actually landed and later said the message was not about the children. Instead, it was about the press and she was telling them she really didn't care about what they thought of her (via CNN). Several months later, in October 2018, Melania took her first international solo trip, again visiting children. What she wanted to do when she returned is surprising.

According to former White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham's new tell-all book, "I'll Take Your Questions Now," Melania Trump wanted to send mirrors to the children she met at Chipala Primary School in Malawi due to a surprising request from the children when she was there.

Grisham, who was Melania's press secretary at the time, wrote in her book that Melania and her aides were surprised when the children asked to take cellphone photos with their guests because they wanted to see what they looked like. That moved Melania so much that as soon as she returned to the White House, she asked to send full-length mirrors to the children. "We need to send the school mirrors. Children need to know what they look like and see that they are very strong or very beautiful," Grisham claims Melania said (via Insider).

Unfortunately, the first lady's chief of staff at the time, Lindsay Reynolds, was against it because she thought the idea of a former model sending mirrors to children in Africa would be poor optics.