The president and first lady appeared together in the White House Rose Garden on Monday afternoon so he could sign into law a piece of revenge porn legislation she championed.
“I want to thank my husband, President Trump, for standing with us on this effort,” Melania Trump said, a riot of pink roses in bloom behind her.
The bill, known as the Take It Down Act, mandates social media platforms remove sexually explicit images and videos of others that were taken or posted without consent, including A.I.-generated “deepfake” content, within two days of being notified of them. It was written with teenage victims in mind.
“Artificial Intelligence and social media are the digital candy for the next generation — sweet, addictive and engineered to have an impact on the cognitive development of our children,” the first lady said. “But unlike sugar, these new technologies can be weaponized, shape beliefs and, sadly, affect emotions and even be deadly.”
Mrs. Trump had been pushing for the passage of this bill pretty much since the day of her husband’s second inauguration, when it was first brought up to her by Senator Amy Klobuchar, Democrat of Minnesota, during an inauguration-day lunch. The bill dovetailed neatly with Be Best, Mrs. Trump’s anti-cyberbullying initiative from the first Trump term.
In early March, she made a rare appearance in Washington to hold a roundtable on Capitol Hill with girls who had been victims of online smear campaigns, as well as the father of a young boy who died by suicide as a result of online “sextortion.” It was emotionally charged, teary at times, and the next day, Mrs. Trump took some of those guests with her to the House chamber to watch the president’s address to Congress, in which he mentioned the bill.
The passage of the Take It Down Act represented a rare moment of comity in the capital, clearing with overwhelming bipartisan support, 409 to 2. It was introduced by Ms. Klobuchar and Senator Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas.
“Many thanks to members of Congress, both parties for passing this legislation,” Mrs. Trump said. “Thank you all for coming together to prioritize people over politics.”
Mrs. Trump has been highly selective as to when and how she chooses to appear in Washington. The bill-signing ceremony at the White House was her highest profile appearance yet. The president seemed thrilled to stand by her side.
“It’s the first time I’ve seen such a level of bipartisanship, and it’s a beautiful thing,” he chirped. “I’m not even sure you realize, honey, you know, a lot of the Democrats and Republicans don’t get along so well. You’ve made them get along.”
Before the signing ceremony, he had been on the phone with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, attempting to negotiate an end to the war in Ukraine. Mr. Trump started to recount how the call had gone. And then he got the Rose Garden crowd cracking up when he said: “Putin just said, ‘They respect your wife a lot.’ I said, ‘What about me?’ No, they like Melania better.”
He added: “I’m OK with it.”
They sat beside each other, he scrawled his signature across the bill, and then, just for the hell of it, he handed the pen to his wife. “You want to sign it anyway?” he said. “Come on, sign it anyway. She deserves to sign it.”
And so she did.
Shawn McCreesh is a White House reporter for The Times covering the Trump administration.
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