Mrs Trump promotes US agency in Malawi

Melania Trump spent Thursday in southern Africa promoting the work of a US international development agency whose funding President Donald Trump has twice proposed slashing by nearly a third. Lawmakers essentially ignored those requests.

Mrs Trump toured classrooms at Lilongwe’s Chipala Primary School, which gets textbooks and other education assistance from the US Agency for International Development.

A batch of 1.4 million books donated on Thursday brought to nearly 10 million the total Malawi has received in recent years under USAID’s national reading program, officials said.

Malawi’s education minister said the partnership had “significantly” improved student literacy.

But the Trump administration sought a roughly 30% cut in funding for the State Department and USAID in its first two budgets. Widespread bipartisan opposition in Congress averted the reductions.

But none of that was up for discussion as Mrs Trump visited with happy school children and their teachers in the Malawian capital.