Donald Trump invited his wife to take the unprecedented step of signing an executive order.
First Lady Melania Trump was in the White House on Thursday with her husband for the signing of an order that means a lot to her agenda helping children.
First the president signed the order on developing private-public partnerships to help teens transitioning out of foster care. He then asked if his wife would also pen her signature on the order.
He bragged that neither of them used an autopen to brand their signatures.
Melania then delivered short remarks explaining the significance of the initiative, which her husband lauded as especially impressive ‘for someone that speaks five languages’ – which are her native Slovenian, English, French, German, Italian and a Serbo-Croatian legacy language common in her region of former Yugoslavia.
Her signature means nothing official and is purely ceremonial. Still, it marks a historic moment since there is no record of a first lady ever signing an executive order in the past.
In May, Melania also made history as the only first lady to ever sign a bill that the president is making law.
The Take It Down Act was championed by the first lady and provides protections for victims of revenge porn. After Trump signed it during a Rose Garden event this spring, he invited his wife to place her signature on the document, as well.
Melania Trump is the only first lady on record to ever sign an executive order
President Donald Trump holds up his Fostering the Future Executive Order to show off his and First Lady Melania Trump’s stacked signatures
President Trump’s order launches the first lady’s new directive under her Be Best initiative to help support workforce and career development and secure educational and scholarships opportunities for children in foster care.
It was Trump’s first open press event after signing a resolution the night before reopening the government following the longest federal shutdown in US history.
The continuing resolution will fund most of the government through January 30, 2026 with full-year appropriations for necessities like veterans benefits, SNAP assistance and military construction.
While Trump did not say anything about reaching that deal, he did go on a tangent about how the East Wing will look differently after his ballroom construction is completed.
The president turned around during his remarks in the East Room following his wife’s speech and looked at the wall behind him. He said that would be the entrance to his new ballroom and that in the future president would be able to host a lot more people at the White House.
‘And right behind me, by the way, in about two years from now, we’ll use a much bigger room – because we had to turn away a lot of people,’ Trump said.
‘That’s a knock-out panel,’ he continued. ‘It looks pretty nice right now, but it’s gonna look a lot better in a little while. And we’re going to go from this room to a room that seats a few more people and it’s going to be beautiful.’
The ballroom will be able to host thousands of people, while any room in the current residence and structure can only hold hundreds at the very most.
But Trump’s project angered many in Washington who were blindsided when the entire East Wing of the White House was demolished last month to make way for the new construction – especially since the pricey project came in the midst of a government shutdown.
President Trump said that First Lady Melania Trump’s remarks on the Fostering the Future order were especially impressive ‘for someone who speaks five languages’
The Senate passed a short-term funding bill on November 11 in a 60-40 vote, with eight Democrats and one independent crossing the line to side with Republicans.
On Wednesday the House finally agreed in a 222-209 late-night session to pass the legislation to reopen the government after they enjoyed a more than 50-day recess.
Trump stayed in the Oval Office until 10:30 p.m. on Wednesday night to sign the continuing resolution that officially ended the longest shutdown on record.
