The United States will assume the rotating precedency of the U.N. Security Council (UNSC) on Monday, and first lady Melania Trump is scheduled to become the first sitting first lady to preside over a council meeting.
A source close to the first lady told Fox News Digital on Friday that she will deliver a speech stressing “the importance of education and knowledge in creating ongoing and everlasting peace.”
“The first lady is reinventing her role and this marks just another groundbreaking achievement for her. It is the first time in history a first lady will address the security council, keeping to her mission of empowering the next generation with education and technology,” the source said.
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U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Mike Waltz said it was “fitting” for Mrs. Trump, a “passionate and tireless advocate for children,” to preside over the first day of America’s UNSC presidency.
“Her message of helping the helpless through education and technology fits exactly with our mission at the U.N., to achieve meaningful and lasting peace,” Waltz said.
“As a green beret and now diplomat, I have seen firsthand that peace prevails where children are taught and not terrorized,” he added.
UNSC has five permanent members – the United States, China, France, Russia, and the United Kingdom – plus ten non-permanent members who are elected to two-year terms.
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The presidency rotates every month. The United States takes over from the United Kingdom in March and will pass the presidency along to non-permanent member Bahrain in April. UNSC meetings are usually presided over by the ambassador from the country that holds the rotating presidency, or a senior cabinet official.
Mrs. Trump launched an initiative for protecting young people online called “Be Best” in 2018. She is leading the Presidential A.I. Challenge during the second Trump administration to “inspire young people and educators to create A.I.-based innovative solutions to community challenges while fostering A.I. interest and competency.”
In August 2025, the first lady wrote a letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin ahead of his meeting with President Donald Trump in Alaska, asking the Russian leader to protect the innocence of children and “serve humanity itself.”
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“Undeniably, we must strive to paint a dignity-filled world for all — so that every soul may wake to peace, and so that the future itself is perfectly guarded,” Mrs. Trump’s letter said.
In October, Melania Trump announced that eight children displaced by the war between Russia and Ukraine had been reunited with their families, thanks to the “open channel of communication” that was established when Putin responded to her August letter.
The first lady’s office said on Friday that the theme of her UNSC meeting on Monday will be “Children, Technology, and Education in Conflict.”
U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said the first lady’s appearance demonstrated “the importance that the United States feels towards the Security Council and the subject at hand.”
