UNITED NATIONS (AP) — U.S. first lady Melania Trump will preside over a U.N. Security Council meeting in what the United Nations on Thursday said would be a first.
When the wife of President Donald Trump takes her seat in the president’s chair on Monday afternoon, it “will be the first time a first lady, or first gentleman for that matter, has ever presided over a Security Council meeting,” U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters.
The United States takes over the rotating presidency of the 15-member council for the month of March, and the first lady’s office said the meeting she will preside over will “emphasize education’s role in advancing tolerance and world peace.”
Melania Trump has made children in conflict one of her signature issues, writing a letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin last year ahead of a summit with President Trump and later announcing that the effort had led to a group of children displaced by the Russia-Ukraine warreuniting with their families.
It comes as President Trump has criticized the United Nations, saying repeatedly that the 193-member world body has not lived up to its potential. He has withdrawn the U.S. from U.N. organizations, including the World Health Organization and the cultural agency UNESCO, while pulling funding from dozens of others.
The U.S. also owes the United Nations billions of dollars. Until earlier this month, the Trump administration had not paid any of its mandatory dues for the U.N.’s regular operating budget for 2025 or this year. It paid $160 million, about 4% of the nearly $4 billion it has owed the U.N. overall, including for U.N. peacekeeping operations.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned late last month that the United Nations faces “imminent financial collapse” unless its financial rules are overhauled or all member nations pay their dues, a message clearly directed at the United States.
Trump also raised concerns among allies that his wider ambitions for the Board of Peace to play a role in other global conflicts beyond Gaza would sidestep the U.N. Security Council.
Pushing back against the criticism during the first meeting of the Board of Peace last week, Trump said that “we’re going to make sure the United Nations is viable” and that “I think it’s going to eventually live up to its potential.” He added, “Someday, I won’t be here — the United Nations will be.”
As for the significance of Melania Trump presiding over the Security Council meeting, Dujarric called it “a sign of the importance that the United States feels towards the Security Council and the subject.”
Whatever country holds the council presidency for the month gets to choose the subject for some signature meetings.
Dujarric said U.N. political chief Rosemary DiCarlo will be briefing the Security Council on behalf of the secretary-general at Monday’s meeting presided over by the first lady and officially entitled “Children, Technology, and Education in Conflict.”