Shealah Craighead/White House
The White House usually picks a photo of the day. On June 28, the image they chose showed two girls from Nigeria who were abducted in 2014 by Boko Haram but managed to escape: Joy Bishara and Lydia Pogu. They’re flanked by President Donald Trump and his daughter, Ivanka Trump. The photo had been taken the day before.
Trump is giving a thumbs up.
The meeting was not publicized in advance. NPR’s White House correspondent Tamara Keith says the administration didn’t notify the press corps about it, it didn’t appear on the White House daily schedule and it was not discussed in any of that day’s briefings.
How did these two girls get to the White House? Doug Wead, who is also in the photo, was the point of contact.
He’s the president of Canyonville Christian Academy, the Christian boarding school in Canyonville, Ore. that the girls just graduated from.
Wead was an assistant to President George H.W. Bush and has published many books, including Game of Thorns: The Inside Story of Hillary Clinton’s Failed Campaign and Donald Trump’s Winning Strategy. He told NPR that Ivanka Trump reached out to him after his appearance on a BBC program about presidential children. The two got in touch via email and kept in contact.
Wead asked her if she wanted to meet the girls because of her concern about human trafficking. She said “absolutely,” Wead says.
Wead said the girls had some issues they wanted to discuss privately with the president, but neither he nor the girls would share details about what was said during the ten-minute meeting. Bishara did note that Ivanka hugged her and the President Trump smiled and said, ‘God bless you, too.”
And she and Pogu got a White House tour.
“I enjoyed [the visit], it was wonderful,” she says. “Her [Ivanka’s] work is a really good one, at least she’s helping people around the world who have been hurt,” Bishara says.
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SOURCE: NPR, Courtney Columbus
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