Melania Trump’s indefensible defense of her bully husband

Melania Trump. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)

There is a classic dodge that bullies can be relied to fall back on when they abuse someone who is smaller and weaker than they are.

He (or she) asked for it.

First lady Melania Trump, it appears, subscribes to that defense of the indefensible as well.

A day after her husband mocked a 16-year-old girl who has been diagnosed with a disorder that is on the autism spectrum, the White House attempted to square President Trump’s appalling behavior with his wife’s supposed advocacy against bullying. It also asked us to pretend we didn’t see the obvious hypocrisy in the president’s attack on climate activist Greta Thunberg only a week after the first lady expressed outrage at a law school professor who had the temerity to make a play on words with the name of the Trumps’ 13-year-old son, Barron.

What, people wondered, did Melania Trump think of the president’s tweet?

After taking a solar-powered boat from England to New York to attend the United Nations Climate Action Summit, Thunberg discussed what activists need to do. (Video: The Washington Post, Photo: The Washington Post)

Now we know. There is a lot to unpack in this four-sentence statement that White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham issued Friday afternoon: “BeBest is the First Lady’s initiative, and she will continue to use it to do all she can to help children. It is no secret that the President and First Lady often communicate differently — as most married couples do. Their son is not an activist who travels the globe giving speeches. He is a 13-year-old who wants and deserves privacy.”

Let us all agree that the last sentence is absolutely correct, and we should give the president’s youngest child some space. After Stanford law professor Pamela Karlan invoked his first name to make a pun during her recent testimony before the House Judiciary Committee, she recognized her mistake and apologized.

Stanford Law School professor Pamela S. Karlan made a joke about monarchical barons and President Trump’s son Barron during House Judiciary's Dec. 4 hearing. (Video: The Washington Post, Photo: The Washington Post)

Everything else in Grisham’s statement is offensive. Trump was not communicating “differently” Thursday, when he tweeted to his 67.5 million followers that Thunberg “must work on her Anger Management problem.” He was melting down in his own fit of rage over her selection as Time magazine’s Person of the Year.

Nor was Trump airing his differences with her over the issue of climate change. He was calling attention to her demeanor. Thunberg has been diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome. Those who have this condition often do not express their emotions as others do.

But the worst part of all of it is the suggestion that, somehow, Thunberg brought this act of aggression by the most powerful man in the world upon herself. That by speaking up about an issue that she sees as an existential one for her generation, this teen has forfeited any expectation of being treated with decency.

Is this really the “best” that Melania Trump believes that we can be?

Read more:

Molly Roberts: Trump goes after Greta Thunberg — and shows he’s the real baby

Alexandra Petri: Pamela Karlan committed the one unspeakable crime

Jennifer Rubin: Three better choices for Time’s Person of the Year

Patti Davis: Presidents’ young children should be left alone. That rule doesn’t apply to Ivanka and Don Jr.

Timothy Shriver: It’s time we listened to Melania