President Donald Trump hand-delivered a personal letter from First Lady Melania Trump to Russian President Vladimir Putin during their historic summit in Anchorage on Friday.
The meeting, held on Aug. 15, was already being watched closely as a rare US-Russia dialogue on American soil. But an unexpected moment came when Trump presented Putin with what he described as a “peace letter” from the First Lady, written about the humanitarian toll of the war in Ukraine, and specifically, the fate of children uprooted or abducted in the ongoing conflict.
According to those present, Putin read the letter immediately in front of the two assembled delegations. The note urged the Russian leader to take steps to protect children caught in the crossfire, with language that transcended politics.
“Every child shares the same quiet dreams in their heart, whether born randomly into a nation’s rustic countryside or a magnificent city-center. They dream of love, possibility, and safety from danger,” Melania Trump wrote, in a passage released by the White House.
She went on to call on Putin directly: “In protecting the innocence of these children, you will do more than serve Russia alone — you serve humanity itself.”
The first lady did not travel to Alaska with the US delegation but was in Anchorage in 2017 to visit with military families and children at JBER. She also accompanied the president in 2019, when Air Force One stopped at JBER for refueling on the way to Japan.
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Melania Trump is the most involved First Lady in humanitarian issues since Eleanor Roosevelt. She is, though less political than Roosevelt. She understands eastern Europe better than many of our diplomats and recognizes why Russia is abducting Ukranian children. It is essential that any agreement include this issue.