FLAK JACKET
Has the first lady gone rogue? Melania visits border kids — in this coat
Is it a message to her husband, to the press or an inadvertent wardrobe choice? Melania Trump decided to visit a detention facility filled with illegal immigrant children, and wore a coat on the plane emblazoned with the words “I Really Don’t Care. Do U?”
Are you OK, Melania? Just blink once if you need help!
First Lady Melania Trump left the country baffled and concerned Thursday when she wore a trendy jacket with a bizarre message on the back that read, “I really don’t care, do u?” as she traveled to meet detained migrant kids in Texas.
The 48-year-old ex-model was seen walking up the steps of a government jet in the $39 hooded olive-green Zara jacket to start her journey to the US border — and she wore it again while deplaning upon her return.
As photos of the strange statement jacket spread online — with some making meme images that replaced the jacket’s slogan with “Let them eat cake” and others just wondering if she was sending a cry for help — the first lady’s office insisted Melania’s sartorial choice was meaningless.
“It’s a jacket. There was no hidden message,” her spokeswoman, Stephanie Grisham, told reporters. “After today’s important visit to Texas, I hope this isn’t what the media is going to choose to focus on.”
Despite the denial, the former fashion plate has a track record of deftly using clothes to send a message. At last year’s State of the Union Address, she wore a “suffragette white” pants suit in a move some observers felt was a nod to the #MeToo movement and a jab at her husband after news of a payment to porn star Stormy Daniels broke.
She also caught flak last year when she was seen wearing sky-high Manolo Blahnik pumps to visit Hurricane Harvey victims in Houston.
After Melania’s staff denied she was making a statement, President Trump added to the confusion by saying the jacket actually was a com- mentary — on the media.
“I REALLY DON’T CARE, DO U?” written on the back of Melania’s jacket, refers to the Fake News Media. Melania has learned how dishonest they are, and she truly no longer cares!” he wrote.
The only thing sure about the jacket was that it was a distraction during her trip to a facility for migrant children in McAllen, Texas.
She spent about 75 minutes at the Upbring New Hope Children’s Shelter, interacting with dozens of kids, after a week of controversy over President Trump’s policy of separating migrant children from their parents — a policy he reversed Wednesday in the face of public uproar.
“I’m glad I’m here and I’m looking forward to seeing and meeting children,” the first lady — who did not wear the jacket during the visit — told the facility’s workers as she sat down for a brief Q&A.
She asked about the kids’ mental and physical state.
“Usually when they get here, they’re very distraught in the sense that they don’t know where they’re at,” said the program’s director, Rogelio De La Cerda Jr.
Grisham confirmed that the first lady had seen images and recordings of the separated children. “The images struck her, as a mother, as a human being,” she said.