"We care," Melania Trump declared in 2018 during a visit to Egypt as first lady to promote her partnership with the U.S. Agency for International Development.

"We care, and we want to show the world that we care, and I've partnered and am working with USAID," she continued. "And that's what I want to share -- that we care."

On her four-country jaunt through Africa in 2018 -- her first major solo international trip as first lady -- Melania Trump offered praise for what she described as "successful" USAID programs as she observed them up close.

In Malawi, for example, she handed out bags, school supplies and soccer balls as part of her "BeBest" initiative as part of a collaboration with a USAID literacy program.

"It's really touching," she told ABC News in an exclusive interview during the visit. "I'm glad that I'm here to see in person what the children are going through, and [see that] they're educating them in the right way.

Six years later, her husband, President Donald Trump, is working to dismantle the very programs his wife celebrated – and denigrating the aid agency that supported those initiatives as a "tremendous fraud."

In 2019 then-President Trump signed a memorandum launching a new "Women's Global Development and Prosperity" Initiative aimed at empowering women in the developing world. The $50 million fund, known as W-GDP, was developed to be distributed by USAID with an ambitious goal of empowering 50 million women in developing countries by 2025.

The initiative was led by the president's daughter and then senior adviser, Ivanka Trump.

Ivanka Trump told ABC News at the time the initiative was not only seen as an opportunity to provide economic assistance to women in the developing world, but also related to national security.