Why is Melania Trump launching a program for female CEOs, you might wonder? After all, the president spent the better part of his first year in office steadily dismantling anything that could even be considered “DEI.” One of his more recent executive orders says that “DEI activities are not only unethical and often illegal, but also cause inefficiencies, waste, and abuse within entities that engage in such practices” and orders any company with federal contracts to “not engage in any racially discriminatory DEI activities.”

Trump’s anti-DEI spree has often focused on race in hiring and promotions, but it has impacted women too. Organizations that support women in tech and business have seen their funding evaporate, as companies fear getting close to anything that could even be perceived as DEI.

The three-letter bogeyman wasn’t mentioned once as Trump took the stage yesterday. In front of an audience of women business leaders, she gave a speech highlighting women’s economic power. (You can watch it here.) “People still do not understand the full scale of women’s power in the economy,” she said. “We are its foundation and infrastructure.” Women are no longer just fighting for a seat at the table, she said. The “next chapter” is owning businesses, equity, real estate, investment assets, ideas, and IP. “Now is the time to move beyond mentorship to ownership,” she said.

The first lady emphasized how fundamental women are to today’s economy. “Remove women as caregivers … and the modern economy would not work. Remove women from consumer decision-making and every sector would feel the [impact],” she said. “Remove women from the workforce and we would lose doctors, engineers, bankers,” she said. (Women accounted for 100% of the decline in the U.S. labor force in July.)

After Trump spoke, she was joined onstage by AMD CEO Lisa Su and Fox Business anchor Liz Claman. They all briefly sat together onstage for a Q&A, but Trump got up to leave almost immediately, with Claman noting she had a very busy schedule. (Later that day, she was in Washington to greet Chinese President Xi Jinping and Madame Peng Liyuan.)

Su continued her interview, adding that she appreciated the first lady’s initiative to give children access to AI tools. Su has been a frequent guest when the White House has convened tech CEOs, often one of the few women in the room alongside Mark Zuckerberg, Sundar Pichai, and other tech leaders. During this conversation, Claman noted that AMD had just become the first company led by a female CEO to pass a $1 trillion market cap. Su brushed off the gender angle: “I’m an engineer,” she explained. That’s what motivates her.

Su’s interview was followed by conversations with the president of Anthem BCBS Medicaid, Christy Valentine Theard, and Caryn Seidman Becker, the CEO of Clear. By then, the first lady was long gone. Did she take a memento of Imperia’s launch back to the White House? Martin had presented her with a crystal bowl to represent the glass ceiling.

Emma Hinchliffe
emma.hinchliffe@fortune.com

The Most Powerful Women Daily newsletter is Fortune’s daily briefing for and about the women leading the business world.

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PARTING WORDS

"I take it as respect. You see who my wife is. Says a lot about me as well. Like, my confidence, and who I am as a person that she chose to be with me."

—NFL player Jonathan Owens on being known as Mr. Simone Biles