The first lady was in Louisiana, a state that didn’t turn blue in the midterms.
Melania Trump, 56, spent her Saturday in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, getting booed during a college football game.
The first lady was there to announce a partnership between Louisiana State University and its “Fostering the Future” program to provide scholarships to LSU students who have spent time in the foster care system.
Photo illustration by Victoria Sunday/The Daily Beast/Getty Images/Reuters
After the announcement, she stayed for the LSU-Alabama game, where her presence was announced on the big screen as “Miss Melania Trump.”
The crowd initially offered subdued cheers, but a large chorus of boos quickly overwhelmed them, prompting organizers to blast music over stadium speakers in an apparent attempt to drown out the negative reception.
Melania’s spokesman, Marc Beckman, denied that the crowd booed her, citing as evidence the first lady’s press report written by a New York Post reporter and providing alternative video of the events.
The video, which begins around the same time as the one viewed by the Daily Beast, stops seven seconds after Melania’s announcement, just as the boos clearly audible in the first video become overwhelming.
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LSU players sported Melania’s “Be Best” slogan on their helmets and jerseys, while the message was also projected on the big screen during the boo-fest. The initiative, launched during Donald Trump’s first term, initially focused on the well-being of children and the fight against cyberbullying.
The $7.2 million “Fostering the Future” partnership will use private donations secured by the first lady and LSU to create an endowment fund for scholarships.
Melania Trump poses during an event to announce the $5 million “Fostering the Future” endowment fund at Louisiana State University.
MMR Group Inc., a Baton Rouge-based electrical company, committed $5 million, and additional donors from the LSU Foundation provided more than $2 million.
Melania arrived in Baton Rouge wearing a brown bomber jacket and dark sunglasses, and wearing a big smile despite the events of the last week.
The Alabama-LSU game should have been friendly territory for a Republican first lady, given that both states largely escaped Tuesday’s blue wave.
U.S. First Lady Melania Trump leaves Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, for Louisiana on November 7, 2026.
Louisiana was not entirely immune to the Democratic surge, however.
The Louisiana Senate race was a contest in which Trump, 80, stepped in, supporting a primary challenger in Sen. Bill Cassidy, who voted to convict him in his second impeachment trial.
Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA) speaks to reporters following a Senate Republican Steering Committee luncheon with the President in Washington, DC
Cassidy lost her primary to Trump-backed Julia Letlow, who went on to face Democratic farmer Jamie Davis.
Letlow is expected to win the seat, but by an uncomfortably narrow margin, with Davis receiving 49.1 percent of the vote to Letlow’s 50.9 percent.
In 2020, Cassidy was re-elected with 59.3% of the vote; his closest challenger received only 19 percent.
Whether or not the boos reflect Americans’ post-midterm frustrations, Melania has another popularity problem: She is the least popular modern first lady on record.
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