First lady Melania Trump came under fire last week for a letter she penned urging Russian President Vladimir Putin to protect “children,” a letter critics panned as “pathetic” and “performative.”

After the letters’ content was published, however, some critics are now calling into question whether she even wrote the letter herself.

“In protecting the innocence of these children, you will do more than serve Russia alone – you serve humanity itself,” the letter’s closing words read. “Such a bold idea transcends all human division, and you, Mr. Putin, are fit to implement this vision with a stroke of the pen today. It is time.”

Amanda Marcotte, senior politics writer for Salon, cried foul on Wednesday, arguing that the first lady’s choice of words was “dripping in saccharine” – an artificial sweetener – to such an extent that it “could have very well been written by a generative AI program and not a person.” And the use of GenAI, she wrote, would also be consistent with the White House’s history.

“This White House is notorious for using AI to generate propagandistic documents, no doubt aware that the only people who bother to read them are a handful of journalists they can summarily dismiss as ‘fake news,’” Marcotte wrote in a piece published Wednesday in Salon.

Marcotte also argued that the first lady’s intent behind the letter – a supposed concern for the welfare of children – was a ruse, made evident by how it was promoted in right-wing spheres.

“It was generated in English, not Russian; even the imbeciles at the White House know that if you are trying to communicate with the president of Russia, you ask ChatGPT to write your sub-Hallmark prose in Russian,” Marcotte wrote.

“Instead, it appears this letter was whipped up to appeal to a much different audience: Trump’s MAGA base, especially those needing reassurance that he cares about ‘the children’ after weeks of painful reminders he had a decade-plus close friendship with a man who was reportedly the world’s most infamous pedophile.”

Marcotte went on to chronicle how “a great deal of effort” was put into putting the letter’s content in front of “MAGA audiences,” citing how it was “leaked” to Fox News shortly after being delivered to Putin, shared by Trump on social media, and hyped by the official White House account on X.

“The first lady appears only too happy to fake compassion – with the likely help of AI – in exchange for living the coddled life of a trophy wife,” Marcotte wrote.

“She probably likes all these MAGA people flattering her by talking about the grace and decency she likely does not, in fact, possess. Plus, she gets to have it all without having to do even the basic work of writing her own bizarre letters. Playing Submissive Mommy to please the MAGA audiences is work best left to ChatGPT.”