First lady Melania Trump says Kavanaugh is ‘highly qualified’

With the Great Sphinx of Giza and the pyramids visible over her shoulder, first lady Melania Trump expressed support for Brett Kavanaugh, her husband’s nominee for the Supreme Court, on the final day of a trip to Africa trip that focused on her advocacy for children.

The first lady had stayed largely quiet about the Supreme Court battle that had raged in Washington since Kavanaugh was publicly accused of sexual assault by Christine Blasey Ford last month, but Melania Trump spoke about what the heated confirmation fight after arriving in Egypt on Saturday.

“If we’re talking about the Supreme Court and Judge Kavanaugh, I think he’s highly qualified for the Supreme Court,” she said. “I’m glad that Dr. Ford was heard; I’m glad that Judge Kavanaugh was heard. FBI investigation was done — it’s completed — and the Senate voted.”

When asked whether she believed Ford’s allegations that Kavanaugh assaulted her, Trump pivoted.

“We need to help all the victims, no matter what kind of abuse they had,” she said. “But I am against any kind of abuse or violence.”

Melania Trump also commented on her husband’s use of his phone and Twitter during the stop.

She laughed and said she often tells him to put the phone away in an attempt to temper his use of the social media platform.

“I don’t always agree [with] what he tweets, and I tell him that,” she said. “I give him my honest opinion and honest advice, and sometimes he listens and sometimes he doesn’t. But I have my own voice and my opinions, and it’s very important for me that I express what I feel.”

However, she avoided commenting directly on multiple reports that the president previously described African nations as “shithole countries” in January.

The first lady said that no one during her trip mentioned the comment, she never heard him say it and dismissed it as something that came from an anonymous source.

Melania Trump’s visit to Egypt is the final stop on the first lady’s Africa trip. She also visited Ghana and Malawi, which the first lady said she very much enjoyed.

“They were all very warm and welcoming, and I saw successful programs that USAID is providing to the countries and we are helping them on the journey to self-reliance,” she said.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and his wife, Entissar, met Melania Trump when she arrived in Egypt on Saturday.