Melania Trump attempted to honor Juneteenth on Friday by reading a children’s book about the holiday — but was accused of not reading the room.
The first lady took to Twitter to read “All Different Now” by Angela Johnson, which tells the story of Juneteenth, a day that celebrates the end of slavery, through the eyes of a young girl.
In the tweet, Trump also reminisced about a trip to Ghana where she toured the House of Slaves, a place where millions of kidnapped Africans were held before being forced onto slave ships bound for the New World.
Many Twitter users found the first lady’s video insensitive for a variety of reasons, but especially because of her past support of the racist “birther” conspiracy theory championed by her husband, President Donald Trump, that falsely claimed that former President Barack Obama wasn’t born in the U.S.
Others focused on the video’s visual details — notably the decision to sit the first lady on a gilded bench in an ornate room and film her at a distance.
But sometimes the most telling comments are also the shortest.
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