Melania Trump wears a custom Ralph Lauren ensemble on Inauguration Day. (Photo: Getty Images)

After Emily Ratajkowski came to Melania Trump’s defense on social media, the first lady has responded to thank her.

Tweeting for just the fifth time since taking over the @FLOTUS account in January, she said, Applause to all women around the world who speak up, stand up and support other women! @ emrata # PowerOfEveryWoman # PowerOfTheFirstLady”

Applause to all women around the world who speak up, stand up and support other women! @emrata #PowerOfEveryWoman #PowerOfTheFirstLady — Melania Trump (@FLOTUS) February 14, 2017

The first lady sending out a rare missive was prompted by Ratajkowski, a model, actress, and outspoken body-confidence and feminist advocate, stepping up to defend the first lady against a slut-shaming attack she claims she recently overheard.

The 25-year-old described the alleged offensive comment in a series of tweets on Monday. “Sat next to a journalist from the NYT last night who told me ‘Melania is a hooker.’ Whatever your politics it’s crucial to call this out for what it is: slut shaming. I don’t care about her nudes or sexual history and no one should,” Ratajkowski wrote. She continued, “Gender specific attacks are disgusting sexist b**lls**t.”

Sat next to a journalist from the NYT last night who told me "Melania is a hooker." Whatever your politics it's crucial to call this out for — Emily Ratajkowski (@emrata) February 13, 2017

what it is: slut shaming. I don't care about her nudes or sexual history and no one should. — Emily Ratajkowski (@emrata) February 13, 2017

Trump has vowed to take on cyberbullying as her platform throughout our her husband’s presidency. “Our culture has gotten too mean and too rough, especially to children and teenagers,” the FLOTUS said during a campaign speech in November. “It is never OK when a 12-year-old girl or boy is mocked, bullied or attacked. It is terrible when that happens on the playground and it is absolutely unacceptable when it’s done by someone with no name hiding on the internet.”

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And while Ratajkowski doesn’t necessarily support the president, it’s clear that the brunette beauty sticks to her ethical convictions despite her political leanings. Just after Donald Trump was elected president in November, Ratajkowski voiced her opinion on the matter by posting a partially nude photo to her Instagram with the caption, “My body, my choice.” She also urged Democrats not to write off Trump supporters as “stupid,” but rather to examine their own roles in allowing Trump to win the presidency. “Can we please stop calling Americans stupid?” she tweeted. “Maybe we need to start providing better OPTIONS.”

The unabashedly political Emily Ratajkowski wore a pink pantsuit to a NYFW 2017 event. (Photo: Getty Images)

Almost a year ago, the star joined forces with Kim Kardashian to combat rampant criticism the reality star endured for posting her infamous “When you’re like I have nothing to wear” nude shot on Instagram. In response, Ratajkowski defended Kardashian’s right to bare skin by posing topless next to her a few weeks later for a follow-up Instagram shot that included the pointed caption “When we’re like … we both have nothing to wear LOL.” For good measure, both women flipped the bird for the camera.

When we're like…we both have nothing to wear LOL @emrata A post shared by Kim Kardashian West (@kimkardashian) on Mar 30, 2016 at 11:57am PDT

In September, Ratajkoski gave an interview to Vogue in which she spoke emphatically about a woman’s right to make her own choices about her body — including the ways she chooses to portray it. “The ideal feminist world shouldn’t be one where women suppress their human instincts for attention and desire,” she told the publication. “We shouldn’t be weighed down with the responsibility of explaining our every move. We shouldn’t have to apologize for wanting attention either. We don’t owe anyone an explanation. It’s not our responsibility to change the way we are seen — it’s society’s responsibility to change the way it sees us.”

Of her right to pose nude on her own terms, she told Women’s Wear Daily, “My response to people saying I post oversexualized images is that it’s my choice and there’s an ownership and empowerment through them. When I take nude photographs, I’m not there for the boys. It’s about owning my sexuality and celebrating it.”

In September, she got some harsh words from Project Runway style guru Tim Gunn, who branded her ultra-revealing dress at a New York Fashion Week event “appallingly vulgar” and “repugnant” while serving as a guest host on E!’s Fashion Police. “Is this all driven by social media?” Gunn asked. “Is this all just about [getting] everybody shocked? And I will tell you, I’m not shocked. I lived through the 1960s. No decade was more shocking than that when it comes to fashion.”

Ratajkowski responded to Gunn’s criticism by sharing a viral illustration by a French artist, who depicted the double standard faced by women the world over for not dressing conservatively enough, and for dressing too conservatively (see: the burkini ban in France). She tweeted, “Western men in 2016: Want to ban women abroad from voluntarily covering themselves at the beach then want women to cover up their ‘vulgar’ bodies at home. Who controls women’s bodies in 2016? It’s 2016. Why keep trying to dictate what women can wear?”

In November, the issue of consent came up in Ratajkowski’s personal life, when photographer Jonathan Leder published a set of limited-edition books using nude photos he’d taken of the then-unknown aspiring model in 2012. Although Ratajkowski consented to the shoot, she did not authorize the publication of the photos. The model stayed mum at first, measuring her words carefully before speaking out about the incident.

She finally tweeted in November, “I’ve been resisting speaking publicly on the recently released photos by Jonathan Leder to avoid giving him publicity. But I’ve had enough. This book and the images within them are a violation.” She explained that she did sign off on five of the hundreds of Polaroids snapped by the photographer during the photo shoot four years ago, but did not authorize publication of any photos beyond that.

I've been resisting speaking publicly on the recently released photos by Jonathan Leder to avoid giving him publicity. But I've had enough — Emily Ratajkowski (@emrata) November 30, 2016

This book and the images within them are a violation. — Emily Ratajkowski (@emrata) November 30, 2016

“Even if being sexualized by society’s gaze is demeaning, there must be a space where women can still be sexual when they choose to be,” she tweeted back in March. “We are more than just our bodies, but that doesn’t mean we have to be shamed for them or our sexuality.”

Related: Lara Trump Says She’s on #TeamIvanka With Tank Top

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