Be Best is a public awareness campaign promoted by the First Lady of the United States Melania Trump, focusing on well-being for youth, and advocating against cyberbullying and drug (particularly opioid) use.[1][2]
Be Best is a public awareness campaign promoted by the First Lady of the United States Melania Trump, focusing on well-being for youth, and advocating against cyberbullying and drug (particularly opioid) use.[1][2]
Melania Trump made the initiative as a way to address online behavior and the opioid crisis, and came up with the name "Be Best". Her husband Donald Trump reportedly tried to persuade her to change topics so she could avoid dealing with his own Twitter habits, but Mrs. Trump said she was willing to face any criticism.[3][4] She formally introduced the campaign on May 7, 2018. Following her speech in the White House Rose Garden, President Donald Trump signed a proclamation declaring May 7 "Be Best" day.[5][6][7] Unlike policy initiatives by previous first ladies (such as Michelle Obama's Let's Move! campaign against childhood obesity, or Nancy Reagan's Just Say No to drugs campaign), Be Best is broad in scope. The initiative focuses on physical and emotional well-being, and also advocates against cyberbullying and opioid abuse.[8]
The initiative began with a slow start, as Mrs. Trump underwent kidney surgery one week after the campaign was launched. She made no public appearances for the next several weeks.[9] On July 24, 2018, she visited the Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt in Nashville, Tennessee and talked about children with neonatal withdrawal.[10] On August 6, 2018, she tweeted: "It's #Backtoschool for many youth this month. As you begin a new year, how will you be the best you? #BeBest".[11] She held a cyberbullying summit outside Washington, D.C. on August 20, 2018.[12]
The campaign was accompanied by a booklet that was promoted as having been written "by First Lady Melania Trump and the Federal Trade Commission" (FTC), but it was nearly identical to a document prepared by the commission in 2014.[13] The similarities prompted accusations of plagiarism, to which her office responded by admonishing the press for reporting on the issue.[14] Following the plagiarism accusations the White House's website changed the copy to read "a Federal Trade Commission booklet, promoted by First Lady Melania Trump".[15]
The fact-checking site Snopes found the charge of plagiarism "Mostly False", saying: "Melania Trump did not claim she had written the pamphlet herself, and she contributed an introduction to a slightly revised version of the booklet. The FTC was always credited for the creation of the booklet and supported its inclusion in the First Lady's "Be Best" campaign."[16]
The slogan "Be Best" has also been criticized for having an apparent grammatical error, as it is missing a definite article.[17][18][19][20] The Guardian noted Mrs. Trump's native language, Slovenian, does not use definite articles, and speculated whether the name constituted one-upmanship after Michelle Obama's call to "Be Better".[21] Mrs. Trump's senior adviser, Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, called the slogan "illiterate" and pushed for an alternative slogan, "Children First", which the First Lady rejected due to the similarities with her husband's "America First" branding.[22]