As part of her new “Fostering the Future” initiative, connected to her Be Best venture, Melania Trump wanted to partner with a computer science school to provide scholarships. When the scholarships ended up not coming to fruition, she released a statement that said, in part, “It was made clear to me that the school’s Board of Directors organized a politically-motivated decision” and asserted that they were trying to “cancel her.”
Though she did not name the school, it is based in Silicon Valley with an Oklahoma campus. The New York Times later deduced that the school is Holberton School. Julien Barbier, chief executive of Holberton, confirmed to the Times that they were the ones alluded to in the statement, but that the scholarships were never confirmed upon. “We were approached about a scholarship by her team but never reached an agreement on the logistics of the scholarship,” he told the newspaper.
This agreement falling through comes at a time when officials are investigating Melania’s fundraising in her home state of Florida, as state law requires anyone receiving or soliciting donations to be registered with the state. However, the state reportedly does not have registrations on behalf of Melania or her organizations Be Best or Fostering the Future, per the Times. Officials began looking into her charitable work after her Tulips & Topiaries charity event was announced for April.
