Melania Trump Disappointed As School Turns Down Her Donation, Says It Is Politically Motivated

Melania Trump had offered a charitable donation for scholarship funds to a school, but it was rejected.

The school was not named, but the former First Lady said Friday that it was established in Silicon Valley and has a campus in Oklahoma. She said that initially the computer-science school agreed to work with Fostering the Future, but then later told her it was backing out. Her initiative is focused on education and scholarships for children, reported Business Insider.

Melania said that the school would "not accept scholarship dollars for deserving students, even as an anonymous gift." She added that it was made clear to her that the school's Board of Directors organized a "politically-motivated decision." She shared that she was "disappointed but not surprised" and that "this is not the first time where politics got in the way of my mission to support children." She added that supporting children is "not, and should never be, part of a political agenda."

According to The New York Times, the school's description matched Holberton School, which is based in San Francisco and has a campus in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The school confirmed that it had been in touch with Melania about a scholarship donation. Julien Barbier, the school's chief executive, said that they were approached about a scholarship by Melania's team, but "never reached an agreement on the logistics of the scholarship."

Melania's said that this is not the first time her charitable donations have been turned down. In 2017, she tried to donate some of Dr Seuss' books to the Cambridgeport elementary school library in Massachusetts. But the school's librarian, Liz Phipps Soeiro, didn't accept them.

On her rejection of the books, Soeiro said that "you may not be aware of this, but Dr Seuss is a bit of a cliché, a tired and worn ambassador for children's literature." She noted that many people are unaware of the fact that "Dr Seuss's illustrations are steeped in racist propaganda, caricatures, and harmful stereotypes."

In Melania's Friday statement addressing her latest charitable rejection, she mentioned what would be a third rejection that happened in the past. At the time, "a prospective corporate partner refused an opportunity to further our shared philanthropic goals surrounding my visit to Africa."

The former First Lady said that those who attack her initiatives and create the appearance of impropriety are "quite literally dream killers." She added that they have "canceled the hopes and dreams of children by trying to cancel me."