Far be it for me to criticise the sartorial choices of a First Lady of the United States – given I am a lower-than-dirt internet writer boy – but I simply must register my displeasure with this particular one. Melania Trump was snapped boarding a plane on her way to a surprise visit to migrant children in a Texas detention centre wearing a khaki jacket featuring the words “I REALLY DON’T CARE DO U?” on the back.
Now, let’s dispense with the fact that it seems like a slogan which might come emblazoned on a pencilcase in 2005 alongside a picture of Emily the Strange, and consider the fact that she’s wearing it en route to a place where children are being incarcerated. Obviously, the optics are strong.
We can probably argue for days as to whether she did this on purpose, though it does raise eyebrows that if it weren’t intentional, there would be someone in the presidential cadre who might have pointed out that a $40 Zara jacket with a potentially inflammatory message might not be the best outfit for a child prison.
A spokesperson for the First Lady denied that that message had any valence to what is currently going on at the border. “It’s a jacket. There was no hidden message. After today’s important visit to Texas, I hope the media isn’t going to choose to focus on her wardrobe.”
Trump himself weighed in, suggesting that the jacket was intentional, but was only referring to ‘fake news’ or something of that nature. It probably sounded good in his head before he tweeted it.
“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!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 21, 2018
Just yesterday, Trump signed an executive order ending the child separations at the border which have dominated the headlines over the past week. It’s important to remember that this absolutely does not stop little kids being sent to detention centres for crossing the border – it just means they won’t be sent to separate baby jails away from their parents. The status of kids who have already been separated from their parents before Trump signed his order is still up in there air.
Either way, the jacket was gone by the time Melania touched down in Texas. In the interim, the online reaction was – perhaps unsurprisingly – quite fierce:
strange to see some folks rationalize away melania’s jacket rather than just accept the simplest explanation, which is she shares her husband’s views
— b-boy bouiebaisse (@jbouie) June 21, 2018
https://twitter.com/stonecold2050/status/1009921044784693248
did melania really where a jacket that said “i don’t really care” when she went to the baby jail? that’s gotta be a photoshop right?
— 💰TRILLIONAIRE💰 (@maltyhops) June 21, 2018
Whether not not this was idiotic or calculated, we can all agree on one thing: wearing an item of clothing with literally any kind of slogan on it is lame and sucks. That’s a real political uniter.
