You can tell a lot about a person by what they’re wearing.
According to a report in the Daily Mail, and, you know, photographic evidence, First Lady Melania Trump wore a Zara jacket with the words “I really don’t care, do u?” written on the back as she set off to tour the ICE detention camps currently housing children separated from their parents at the United States border. According to the Mail, the First Lady took the jacket off before walking into the center, but wore it to board the plane to her destination.
Here’s a side by side of the jacket and Melania:
Melania Trump wears "I don't really care" jacket during immigration trip https://t.co/kZMv476WIh pic.twitter.com/uf7M20i4R6
— Variety (@Variety) June 21, 2018
Spokesperson for the first lady Stephanie Grisham said that the jacket was just that: a jacket.
“It’s a jacket. There was no hidden message,” Grisham told the Daily Mail. “After today’s important visit to Texas, I hope this isn’t what the media is going to choose to focus on.”
The jacket, and the unfortunate optics, instantly became an online punchline.
Wait, wait, wait. I just got wifi to work on my flight. This Melania jacket thing cannot be real. Can't. I'm choosing to not believe it.
— Chris Hayes (@chrislhayes) June 21, 2018
bet Melania is really wishing she'd gone with the "IT IS IMPORTANT TO MAINTAIN THE APPEARANCE OF CARING" jacket instead
— Alexandra Petri (@petridishes) June 21, 2018
"There was no hidden message," said Melania's spokesperson. "I hope this isn't what the media is going to choose to focus on."
If you guys admit you'd have run Michelle Obama out of DC for a tone-deaf gaffe like this, sure.https://t.co/DPFo4GFgVH
— shauna (@goldengateblond) June 21, 2018
You'd think some staffer would have mustered the courage to recommend a wardrobe adjustment before allowing something like this to happen. https://t.co/k2SUf3RtT1
— Kenneth P. Vogel (@kenvogel) June 21, 2018
To be fair, Melania’s “Fuck Your Feelings” jacket was probably getting dry cleaned.
— Salome Strangelove (@salstrange) June 21, 2018
Others thought it was funny that Melania Trump would be seen out in public wearing a $39 jacket.
my theory is some enterprising personal shopper told Melania that jacket cost $5k
— Brandy Jensen (@BrandyLJensen) June 21, 2018
And others felt that the news of the jacket distracted from the larger problem: that there are children in cages because of a policy implemented by the Trump administration.
As bonkers as this Melania jacket story is, please don't let it distract you & the bandwidth of the news media from the real story here: there are infants, toddlers and children being ripped away from their parents & held in prisons.
— Bhald Bhaddie (@teejslipko) June 21, 2018
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