Melania Trump's speech guests will highlight administration feats

First lady Melania Trump has invited key Americans to her husband’s address Tuesday to a joint session of Congress, a guest list that will give a face to President Trump’s policies.

Included is the family of Laken Riley, the young woman killed last year by an illegal immigrant, and men who have benefited from the president’s trade policy.

The first lady has invited 15 guests, each with a story that aligns with the decisions Mr. Trump has made in just over a month of his second term.

“These men, women and families come from all different walks of life with incredible stories about the disaster wrought by the previous administration, and the historic achievements President Trump has already enacted,” the White House said in a statement.

Helen, Allyson and Kaylee Comperatore, the widow and daughters of Corey Comperatore, will be in attendance. Comperatore was a firefighter who was killed at the Butler, Pennsylvania, Trump rally where the president was almost assassinated. He often mentioned Comperatore at rallies and at the Republican National Convention that was just days after the bullet hit his ear in July.

Riley’s family that will be in the Capitol will include mother Allyson and sister Lauren Phillips. The first bill Mr. Trump signed as president this year was the Laken Riley Act, which requires illegal immigrants to be jailed for certain crimes.

In keeping with the president’s tough migrant stand, he and the first lady also invited Alexis Nungaray, the mother of Jocelyn Nungaray, a 12-year-old killed by two illegal Venezuelan immigrants while she was walking to a convenience store in Houston, and, said the White House, Roberto Ortiz, a former U.S. Border Patrol agent and Navy veteran from Texas who “has been shot at repeatedly by cartel members.”

Stephanie Diller, the widow of Jonathan Diller, a New York City Police Department officer who was shot on duty in Queens last March, will also be a guest. Mr. Trump attended the Long Island memorial service for Diller, who was performing a traffic stop when he was killed.

Mrs. Trump was on Capitol Hill Monday to lobby for the passage of the “TAKE IT DOWN Act,” which would make “revenge porn” illegal, including photos created by artificial intelligence. Elliston Berry, a 15-year-old from Texas, will be welcomed by the Trumps Tuesday evening. She was the victim of fake pornographic images created by another student.

Another guest close to Mrs. Trump’s heart is Haley Ferguson. Ms. Ferguson is a former foster child who now studies elementary education at Tennessee State University. She received a Fostering the Future scholarship through the first lady’s Be Best organization.

Marc Fogel, the American teacher who was held in Russia for over three years and brought back to the U.S. last month, will be in attendance with his mother, 95-year-old Malphine Fogel. Mr. Fogel was released due to a deal struck by Mr. Trump, his Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff and other advisers.

Jeff Denard, a three-decade-long steel plant worker from Alabama, was invited to put a face to Mr. Trump’s trade policies. Mr. Denard’s solid job has let him serve as a volunteer firefighter and organize responses to natural disasters, including Hurricane Helene.

Last month Mr. Trump signed an executive order banning transgender women from participating in girls’ and women’s sports. January Littlejohn, “a mother and parents’ rights advocate who sued the School Board of Leon County [Florida] after school officials at her daughter’s middle school socially transitioned her daughter to a different sexual identity without January and her husband’s knowledge or permission,” will be hosted by the Trumps, the White House said.

Also, Payton McNabb, a former high school athlete from North Carolina “who had her dreams of competing in college sports crushed in a September 2022 volleyball match when a biological man playing on the opposing women’s team spiked the volleyball at Payton’s face, leaving her with a traumatic brain injury,” will be in attendance, the release said.