WASHINGTON (AP) — First lady Melania Trump visited with sick patients at Children’s National hospital in Washington on Thursday as the children made Fourth of July arts and crafts ahead of the holiday.
Trump, continuing a tradition of support by first ladies for the pediatric care center, also stopped by the hospital's rooftop “healing” garden she dedicated during the first Trump administration to first ladies of the United States.
The first lady decorated rocks for the garden with the children, drawing a red heart on one. A few kids played with stretchy slime while Trump engaged them in questions.
“Wow, that’s a big slime!” she told one child that was more focused on stretching the sticky goo.
Trump gave each of the children gift bags with blankets and teddy bears that had shirts reading, “Be Best,” her campaign focused on children’s well-being.
She quizzed the kids on their favorite sports, what music they like and how they’re feeling. Trump also took an informal poll, asking the kids whether they like chocolate and ice cream.
Most of the hands shot up, including the first lady’s.
“I like it too,” she said.
She then took the children out to the Bunny Mellon Healing Garden, where they placed small American flags and patriotically-colored pinwheels into the soil.
The garden, decked out in decorations for Independence Day on Friday, was named to honor Rachel “Bunny” Mellon, a friend of first lady Jacqueline Kennedy.
Mellon was a philanthropist and avid gardener who designed the Rose Garden and other White House gardens during the Kennedy administration.
The garden was dedicated to America’s first ladies because of their decades-long support for the hospital and its patients, including a traditional first lady visit at Christmastime that dates back to Bess Truman.
Trump, along with chief White House groundskeeper Dale Haney, inspected a new yellow rose bush donated by the White House and planted earlier in the week at the hospital garden.
After, the first lady visited the heart and kidney unit at the hospital and met privately with a 3-year-old patient.
Later Thursday, the first lady was expected to join President Donald Trump in the Oval Office where they set to meet with Edan Alexander, the last living American hostage in Gaza, who was released in May.
