By DARLENE SUPERVILLE Associated Press
MARINE CORPS AIR STATION NEW RIVER, N.C. (AP) — Melania Trump and Usha Vance took their first trip together, spending time in North Carolina on Wednesday with service members and their families to show appreciation for their service and sacrifice as the holidays approach.
The wives of President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance, a former Marine, visited with military personnel, their children, and relatives at Camp Lejeune, the largest Marine Corps base on the East Coast, and Marine Corps Air Station New River.
“Thank you for your service. My husband, the president, is sending best regards. We are both thinking of you,” Trump told students at Lejeune High School, where 10 marines stationed out front had saluted as their motorcade arrived.
The first lady added that she and the president always think of U.S. service members but “especially during the holidays” and wished students and teachers a happy Thanksgiving.
She spoke at a gymnasium, where the school was assembling 2,000 care packages for service members stationed far from home. Among the items included in each were dude wipes, handy-wipes marketed toward men, and jerky sticks.
Melania Trump told the students that if they were ever at the White House they’d be welcome to visit her there.
Her speech came after Trump and Vance entered the classroom and met with students in an advanced placement research class from the Lejeune High “Devilpups” — recalling the Marine Corps’ “Devil Dog” nickname — for discussions about technological development and artificial intelligence.
Trump and Vance sat with four tables of students with laptops, and listened to them deliver a presentation on electronic media affecting sleep and adolescent wellbeing, as well as a study on social media addiction and its impact on young people’s esteem and body image.
The students demonstrated how they used AI to generate videos as part of their presentation. The first lady could be heard asking one group how they used AI in school, and was seen nodding along as they chatted. The students described rules that kept them from using AI to improperly complete assignments.
Trump and Vance subsequently visited an elementary school, taking seats at separate tables that each had folders from the first lady’s child-focused Be Best initiative.
Trump told one of the girls she was “beautiful.” The youngster had a patriotic ribbon pinned to her light blue top, meaning she’s related to someone who is actively deployed. Vance later chatted and smiling as she talked to a teacher.
Both women have appeared together at other public events, most notably at the inauguration of their husbands at the Capitol in January.
Other joint appearances came at a White House event celebrating military mothers and a luncheon for Senate spouses, both in May; the opening night of “Les Misérables” at the Kennedy Center in June; and the president’s signing last week of an executive order to help foster children, which also came as part of Be Best.
Melania Trump has centered her work around children, launching Be Best during her husband’s first term to focus on their welfare, online safety and opioid abuse.
Last month, she announced that eight children displaced by the Russia-Ukraine war had been reunited with their families following talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Earlier this year, the first lady helped lobby Congress to pass legislation imposing federal penalties for online sexual exploitation, often targeting young girls. Her husband signed the bill into law in May.
Usha Vance, a former lawyer, launched a “Summer Reading Challenge” to encourage students in kindergarten through eighth grade to read 12 books during the school break. Certificates and prizes were promised to those who completed the challenge.
The second lady often accompanies the vice president on his trips and sometimes brings along their three young children.