WASHINGTON (AP) — Melania Trump was headed to Louisiana on Saturday to announce a partnership between Louisiana State University and her “Fostering the Future” program to provide scholarships for LSU students who came through the foster care system.
The first lady also planned to attend the LSU-Alabama football game in the afternoon.
The foster care program will be featured across the LSU campus in Baton Rouge as well as on the field at Tiger Stadium just before kickoff, the White House said.
Trump and LSU secured $5 million to create an endowment fund for the scholarships, the White House said. It provided no details on the source of the money.
The first lady started working on foster care issues after President Donald Trump’s first term ended in 2021, and created “Fostering the Future” to provide resources and support, including scholarships. LSU is among more than 20 colleges and universities nationwide that participate in the program.
Earlier this year, Melania Trump was on Capitol Hill to push Congress to pass a legislative package that would broaden access to services for young people in foster care by updating a decades-old program. The measures cleared the House and are pending in the Senate.
During the appearance, she told members of the House Ways and Means Committee that young people in foster care face barriers to housing, transportation and other challenges outside of the classroom that affect their performance in school along with their future financial independence.
“We can close this gap,” she said in April. “New legislation for the foster care community is a moral imperative.”
Last November, the first lady spearheaded an executive order signed by the Republican president linking the federal government, colleges and universities, the private sector and charitable groups to create educational and employment opportunities for those in foster care.
She also created “Fostering the Future Together,” a global version of the program with more than 45 participating countries.
Alabama and LSU, meanwhile, are historical regional rivals and both teams entered the week in contention for a College Football Playoff berth.
Donald Trump has attended two prior LSU games as president: one at Alabama in 2019 and one in New Orleans in January 2020, when LSU defeated Clemson for the national championship. Melania Trump accompanied him to the second game.
The president was not scheduled to attend Saturday's game.
AP Sports Writer Brett Martel in Baton Rouge, La., contributed to this report.
First lady Melania Trump attends a meeting with Russian and Ukrainian representatives in the Grand Foyer of the White House, Thursday, Nov. 5, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
First lady Melania Trump speaks during a meeting with Russian and Ukrainian representatives in the Grand Foyer of the White House, Thursday, Nov. 5, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
PAYSANDÚ, Uruguay (AP) — An estimated 40,000 people poured into a city on the Uruguay River on Saturday for Pope Leo XIV’s first Mass in South America, as the pontiff sought to raise the profile of the Catholic Church in Uruguay, the region's most secular country.
The crowd erupted in the stadium chant of “Olé, olé, olé, olé, Pope, Pope!” when Leo's plane landed in Paysandú, in western Uruguay on the border with Argentina. They cheered again, blew horns and waved yellow handkerchiefs when he arrived in his open-sided popemobile at the Mass site in the Parque París Londres, a sprawling green space on the southern edge of Paysandú.
More than 30,000 people — many from Uruguay but also from neighboring Argentina and Brazil — had registered in advance to attend the service, around 375 kilometers (230 miles) from the capital, Montevideo. The Vatican said Saturday another 10,000 had shown up beyond that, despite the morning rain and blustery, gray skies.
It was the first Mass of Leo's three-nation South American tour that had been in doubt after the 71-year-old American pope underwent lung cancer surgery on Oct. 13.
Crowds of faithful in rain ponchos, many in the Vatican’s yellow, began streaming into the site when the gates opened at 5:30 a.m. as a band played popular Spanish hymns. Some in the crowd said they were deeply moved that Leo pressed on with his ambitious 12-day tour despite his recent cancer diagnosis.
“He’s the representative of Christ but he’s human. And we weren’t sure if he could make it, but he pushed through for us,” said Soledad Sánchez, 73, who had driven to Paysandú from northern Uruguay, her eyes filling with tears. “He made it here to give us a message of peace because he knows our world needs it right now.”
Leo, who arrived in Uruguay on Friday and had an intense afternoon and evening of events, is seeking to urge the people in South America’s most secular country, with a population of 3.5 million, to turn to the Catholic faith for strength in confronting today’s problems and challenges.
He was to press that message later Saturday by touring a Montevideo neighborhood beset by drug trafficking and gang violence, where the church is working with municipal authorities to build housing and provide rehab programs for addicts.
His final event, too, was likely to drive home the call to reject religious indifference and embrace the faith: a prayer vigil in Montevideo's Centenary Stadium.
At an evening vespers service Friday in Montevideo’s cathedral, Leo acknowledged many people here don’t even know about the faith or its heritage that is intrinsically tied to Uruguay’s independence and nationhood. The Catholic Church, for example, had no new seminarians in Uruguay in 2024, though a few have since entered training for the priesthood.
Leo told the seminarians, priests and bishops to model themselves on Christ to attract the faithful.
“One of the secrets of evangelization is to resemble the one whom we proclaim,” Leo said. “In this land, where many of our contemporaries barely know Jesus Christ and so many young people have grown up far from the life of the Church, that witness has a special power.”
Located in western Uruguay and just across a bridge from the eastern Argentine city of Colón, Paysandú was easier to reach for many Argentines than any of the stops on Leo’s part of the tour in Argentina, his next stop after Uruguay.
In Argentina, Leo will visit Buenos Aires, Luján and Córdoba before heading to Peru, his second homeland and the final destination of his tour.
“Argentina is a much more religious country than Uruguay, and there’s this desire to be here to witness something historic,” said Luciana Lobato, 20, an Argentine tour agent who organized buses of 180 pilgrims from across the border.
Some young Catholics involved in local church groups hoped the sight of a pope drawing crowds would challenge Uruguay’s image as a country indifferent to religion.
“The reality I see in my town is that there are tons of young people who are really interested in religion, who are trying to find meaning and community in difficult moments,” said Teresa Sabellini, 18, from Paysandú.
“And now look around here. This place is full of people,” she added.
Still, Paysandú itself greeted the pope quietly, as though it were an ordinary weekend, with scant decorations and only a few homes seen flying Vatican flags.
Saturday’s Mass is dedicated to Blessed Jacinto Vera, a 19th-century priest who became Uruguay’s first bishop. Leo praised him on Friday as a pastor who traveled the country’s roads to help the poor, saying that people who met him “found something of Christ’s goodness” even before he preached.
Some younger attendees on Saturday said Leo’s humane tone and emphasis on care for the vulnerable resonated beyond the faithful in their secular country as people grapple with a turbulent world.
“I wouldn’t call myself religious, but I like this pope. He has a really good message for humanity,” said Santiago Biglieri, 18, a Colombian who lives in Uruguay. “Even for the nonbelievers, there’s something to take from his ideas.”
Winfield reported from Montevideo, Uruguay.
Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
Pope Leo XIV blesses a child as he arrives to celebrate Mass at Parque Paris Londres in Paysandu, Uruguay, Saturday, Nov. 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Gustavo Garello)
Pope Leo XIV greets the faithful as he arrives to celebrate Mass at Parque Paris Londres in Paysandu, Uruguay, Saturday, Nov. 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Gustavo Garello)
Pope Leo XIV greets the faithful as he arrives to celebrate Mass at Parque Paris Londres in Paysandu, Uruguay, Saturday, Nov. 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Gustavo Garello
Pope Leo XIV waves after celebrating vespers at the Cathedral in Montevideo, Uruguay, Friday, Nov. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Santiago Mazzarovich)
Pope Leo XIV is transported to the Cathedral in Montevideo, Uruguay, Friday, Nov. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)
Pope Leo XIV celebrates vespers with bishops, priests, deacons, consecrated men and women, and seminarians at the Metropolitan Cathedral, in Montevideo, Uruguay, on the first day of his twelve-day apostolic journey to South America, Friday, Nov. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
Pope Leo XIV arrives to celebrate vespers with bishops, priests, deacons, consecrated men and women, and seminarians at the Metropolitan Cathedral, in Montevideo, Uruguay, on the first day of his twelve-day apostolic journey to South America, Friday, Nov. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
Pope Leo XIV waves after celebrating vespers at the Cathedral in Montevideo, Uruguay, Friday, Nov. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Santiago Mazzarovich)
Catholic faithful hold an Argentine flag bearing images of the late Pope Francis and Pope Leo XIV as they wait for Pope Leo XIV to arrive to celebrate Mass at Parque Paris Londres in Paysandu, Uruguay, Saturday, Nov. 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Gustavo Garello)
