Is this really the best thing to wear to a child migrant camp?
Melania’s bizarre ‘I don’t care’ coat overshadows her visit
IF she was sending a message to her husband yesterday, it appeared to be one of sarcasm and scorn.
Melania Trump wore a jacket with the words ‘I really don’t care, do u?’ emblazoned on the back as she flew to Texas for a surprise visit to a child migrant detention centre.
Mrs Trump – along with the Pope and every living former US First Lady – has condemned her husband’s policy of separating migrant children from their families.
So the £30 khaki green Zara coat with the graffiti-style slogan on the back that she wore to board her plane at Andrews Air Force Base near Washington was last night being seen by some as a rebuke to the President.
Other online commentators, however, accused her of insensitivity, speculating that she had simply not understood that the slogan
‘She wants to see what’s happening for herself’
would trigger such speculation. There was also criticism of White House staff for letting her wear the coat. Mrs Trump’s spokesman Stephanie Grisham insisted: ‘ It’s a jacket. There was no hidden message.’
Certainly Mrs Trump seems to care about the plight of the migrants. She came close to tears during her visit yesterday and her husband has admitted that she has strongly opposed his measures.
Perhaps she thought she had made her point by the time she reached McAllen in Texas as she had changed into an off-white jacket, white trousers and trainers. Miss Grisham said that the visit was ‘100 per cent’ Mrs Trump’s idea. She added: ‘She absolutely wanted to come. She wants to see what’s happening for herself.’
Mrs Trump went to the Upbring New Hope Children’s Shelter which houses 55 children, five of whom had been separated from their parents. The rest crossed the border unaccompanied.
Mrs Trump told staff: ‘I want to recognise each of you and thank you for all that you do every day and what you do for those children. I’d also like to ask you how I can help these children to reunite with their families’.
One of the workers told Mrs Trump that children who are separated from their parents get to speak to them twice a week.
She appeared to be close to tears when another worker spoke about their love of the children.
The jacket is not the first insensitive fashion choice made by Mrs Trump. On a visit to Texas to see victims of Hurricane Harvey last year she wore glamorous stiletto heels. More than 2,300 children have been separated from their parents since April when the Trump administration began prosecuting adults who illegally enter the US.
Mr Trump remained in Washington yesterday. After signing the order rescinding the policy on Wednesday, he said that his wife and his daughter Ivanka ‘felt very strongly’ about it.