U.S. first lady Melania Trump in the East Room at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., May 6, 2026. REUTERS/Kylie Cooper
First Lady Melania Trump is rebuffing her husband's war with the media and paving her own path.
In a panel discussion with CNN's Manu Raju, senior reporter Betsy Klein revealed that she's been approved to cover the First Lady in her effort to promote her Fostering the Future Together initiative, which aims to empower children through education and technology, USA Today reported.
Klein, along with others, was ousted from the White House on Saturday when Trump decided to remove CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the press room.
"This is also a very big week for foreign policy," Klein said Monday. "And right now there's not going to be a pool camera traveling with the president. And that is very notable. Now interestingly, we do have one new data point, which is that my credential to cover an event with the First Lady on the sidelines of the United Nations tomorrow has been approved. So, that's sort of an interesting space to watch."
Mrs. Trump will be joined by the first spouses of 57 nations, during which she intends to highlight a new private-sector partnership with tech companies. It will include female company leaders and other C-suite executives whom the first lady hopes can harness their collective power for good. She'll then launch her "Davos for Women" effort, in which she seeks to bring together 3,000 "global leaders, including heads of state and corporate chief executive officers," the report said.
Davos, the invitation-only economic forum held in Switzerland each year, does not ban women, but in past years it hasn't included many women. Roughly 2 percent of attendees at the Davos conference 25 years ago were women. It has increased recently, with 28 percent of attendees being women in 2026, according to APCO.
Raju said he found it notable that Trump posted on Truth Social Monday morning that his justification for the media blackout comes from so-called "fake news." He said that it "is a threat to our national security and must be stopped NOW!"
"But the national security thing he's been citing now on the White House building, the White House ballroom, the arch, this triumphal arch that he wants to build by the Arlington Cemetery — it's national security, he's saying," Raju noticed.
Wall Street Journal politics reporter Sabrina Rodriguez referred to the phrase "national security" as a "tagline" the administration is using to justify its demands.
"I think the question is really how convincing is this to the American public as they hear these attacks?" she questioned. "I think, you know, attacks get old over a certain amount of time. And I think there's a lot of questions around how effective that is going to be when people are questioning, why are you doing this in the first."