Melania Says Children Should Be Kept Out of Politics, Twitter Reminds Her of All the Kids Her Husband Caged

Melania Trump has been described as a hypocrite after making a rare public political statement on Stanford University professor Pamela Karlan's comment about Barron Trump.

The first lady was one of a number of people who reacted to Karlan's quip about the president's youngest son before the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, December 4.

Karlan, a witness for the House Democrats, used Donald Trump's 13-year-old son as a reference point when asked to compare the president's conduct to that of a monarch.

"Kings could do no wrong, because the king's words was law. And contrary to what President Trump has said, Article 2 [of the constitution] does not give him the power to do anything he wants," Karlan said.

"I'll just give you an example that shows you the difference between him and a king: The Constitution says there can be no titles of nobility, so while the president can name his son Barron, he can't make him a baron."

In response, the First Lady, who runs the White House's anti-bullying Be Best initiative, tweeted: "A minor child deserves privacy and should be kept out of politics.

"Pamela Karlan, you should be ashamed of your very angry and obviously biased public pandering, and using a child to do it."

Reacting to the tweet, a host of social media users pointed out that under her husband's presidency, thousands of children were separated from their parents at the border and held in detention center "cages."

Similarly, thousands of people tweeted using the #FakeOutrage hashtag, noting that the First Lady did not comment about President Trump verbally attacking 16-year-old climate change activist Greta Thunberg.

Other social media users also reminded about the furore over her "I really don't care, do U?" khaki jacket, which she wore while heading to see detained migrant children in McAllen, Texas, in June 2018.

Melania Trump said the message on the back of her jacket was aimed at the "left-wing media who are criticizing me."

And earlier this year, social media users reminded the first lady about the migrant children who were detained on the border after she tweeted a message to pupils returning to school in September while using the hashtag #BeBest.

Several prominent conservative figures also condemned Karlan's comments about Barron Trump, including the president's eldest son Donald Trump Jr., TV host Jeanine Pirro and Fox News' Tucker Carlson.

In a statement, Trump 2020 campaign spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany said: "Only in the minds of crazed liberals is it funny to drag a 13-year-old child into the impeachment nonsense.

"Pamela Karlan thought she was being clever and going for laughs, but she instead reinforced for all Americans that Democrats have no boundaries when it comes to their hatred of everything related to President Trump.

"Hunter Biden is supposedly off-limits according to liberals, but a 13-year-old boy is fair game. Disgusting."

Later on in the proceedings, Karlan did apologize for her remarks, adding it was "wrong" of her to say it.

"I wish the president would apologize for the things that he's done that's wrong, but I do regret having said that," she added.

Newsweek has contacted the White House for comment.