Melania Trump went to Capitol Hill on Monday to lobby for a bill that would make it a federal crime to post intimate imagery online, whether they are real or AI-created, without an individual’s consent and require technology companies to swiftly remove such content.
It was her first solo public appearance since she resumed the role of first lady on Jan. 20.
The first lady said it was “heartbreaking” to see teenagers and especially girls grapple with the fallout after they become the targets of malicious and sexually explicit online content. She called on Congress to prioritize the well-being of young people.
“This toxic environment can be severely damaging. We must prioritize their well-being by equipping them with the support and tools necessary to navigate this hostile digital landscape,” she said during a roundtable discussion about the “Take It Down Act" at the U.S. Capitol.
“Every young person deserves a safe online space to express themself freely, without the looming threat of exploitation or harm,” she said.
The “Take It Down Act,” sponsored by Sens. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., passed the Senate in February. Melania Trump's public support for the legislation could help get it through the Republican-controlled House and to President Donald Trump's desk to become law.
Cruz was among the lawmakers who joined the first lady for the discussion in the Capitol's Mansfield Room. Online safety advocates and survivors of non-consensual intimate imagery also participated.
Cruz said Monday on social media that the measure was inspired by Elliston Berry and her mother, who visited his office after Snapchat refused for nearly a year to remove an AI-generated nonconsensual graphic image, also known as a “deepfake.”
“No one should have to experience the pain, humiliation, and trauma that so many Americans have at the hands of AI deepfakes,” Cruz said.
Meta, which owns and operates Facebook and Instagram, supports the legislation.
The bill would make it a federal crime to knowingly publish or threaten to publish intimate imagery online without an individual's consent, including realistic, computer-generated intimate images of people who can be identified.
If the bill becomes law, social media platforms would be required to remove such images within 48 hours of a victim's request and take steps to delete duplicate content.
“Having an intimate image – real or AI-generated - shared without consent can be devastating and Meta developed and backs many efforts to help prevent it,” Meta communications director Andy Stone said on X.
In the first Trump administration, Melania Trump led a youth initiative she called “ Be Best,” which included a focus on online safety. She has said she’s interested in reviving the program.
The first lady has made few public appearances since the start of the administration.
She accompanied the president to survey natural disaster sites in North Carolina and California at the end of inauguration week in January, and on Feb. 22 joined her husband to host the nation's governors for a black-tie dinner at the White House.
The first lady is expected at the Capitol again on Tuesday for the president’s prime-time address to a joint session of Congress.
Albania's Prime Minister Edi Rama says his new Cabinet will include an artificial intelligence “minister” in charge of fighting corruption. The AI, named Diella, will oversee public funding projects and combat corruption in public tenders. Diella was launched earlier this year as a virtual assistant on the government's public service platform. Corruption has been a persistent issue in Albania since 1990. Rama's Socialist Party won a fourth consecutive term in May. It aims to deliver EU membership for Albania in five years, but the opposition Democratic Party remains skeptical.
The Trump administration has asked an appeals court to remove Lisa Cook from the Federal Reserve’s board of governors by Monday, before the central bank’s next vote on interest rates. Trump sought to fire Cook Aug. 25, but a federal judge ruled late Tuesday that the removal was illegal and reinstated her to the Fed’s board.
President Donald Trump's administration is appealing a ruling blocking him from immediately firing Federal Reserve Gov. Lisa Cook as he seeks more control over the traditionally independent board. The notice of appeal was filed Wednesday, hours after U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb handed down the ruling. The White House insists the Republican president had the right to fire Cook over mortgage fraud allegations involving properties in Michigan and Georgia from before she joined the Fed. Cook's lawsuit denies the allegations and says the firing was unlawful. The case could soon reach the Supreme Court, which has allowed Trump to fire members of other independent agencies but suggested that power has limitations at the Fed.
Chief Justice John Roberts has let President Donald Trump remove a member of the Federal Trade Commission, the latest in a string of high-profile firings allowed for now by the Supreme Court.
President Donald Trump has fired one of two Democratic members of the U.S. Surface Transportation Board to break a 2-2 tie ahead of the board considering the largest railroad merger ever proposed.
The Rev. Al Sharpton is set to lead a protest march on Wall Street to urge corporate America to resist the Trump administration’s campaign to roll back diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. The New York civil rights leader will join clergy, labor and community leaders Thursday in a demonstration through Manhattan’s Financial District that’s timed with the anniversary of the Civil Rights-era March on Washington in 1963. Sharpton called DEI the “civil rights fight of our generation." He and other Black leaders have called for boycotting American retailers that scaled backed policies and programs aimed at bolstering diversity and reducing discrimination in their ranks.
President Donald Trump's administration last month awarded a $1.2 billion contract to build and operate what's expected to become the nation’s largest immigration detention complex to a tiny Virginia firm with no experience running correction facilities.
Cracker Barrel said late Tuesday it’s returning to its old logo after critics — including President Donald Trump — protested the company’s plan to modernize.
Donald Trump has a message for critics who think turning the U.S. government into a major stockholder of Intel is a “socialist” move: More is coming.
Federal Reserve Gov. Lisa Cook's lawyer says she'll sue President Donald Trump's administration to try to prevent him from firing her. Longtime Washington attorney Abbe Lowell said Tuesday that Trump “has no authority to remove” Cook. If Trump succeeds in removing Cook from the Fed's board of governors, it could erode the Fed’s political independence, which is considered critical to its ability to fight inflation because it enables the Fed to take unpopular steps like raising interest rates. The Republican president said Monday he was removing Cook because of allegations she committed mortgage fraud. Cook was appointed by Democratic President Joe Biden in 2022 and says she won't step down.
