Are we living, not in the real world, but in a heavy-handed political cartoon? Because it’s looking that way.
Melania Trump went to visit one of the children internment facilities that her husband’s administration has been using to hold immigrant parents separately from their parents.
But some people feel that she really didn’t care. They think that because she wore a jacket stating, in massive letters, that she really didn’t care.
When Melania Trump landed in McAllen, Texas, she was not wearing this olive green bomber jacket.
She then went to visit one of the facilities along the U.S.-Mexico border where multiple immigrant children have been held by the Trump Administration’s child-separation policy.
When the First Lady then boarded her plane at Andrews Air Force Base, she was wearing this jacket.
On the back, in massive bold white lettering that no camera could possibly miss, was a clear message:
“I really don’t care. Do U?”
(Here’s a clearer look at the jacket’s words — it’s not an uncommon sight on Instagram models)
This is … positively surreal.
See, while an Instagram model might show off a sassy jacket for whatever reason, the context of the First Lady’s visit is not.
She was visiting an internment camp that holds children that her husband’s policy has separated from their parents as they are all detained.
While some of the detained unlawfully crossed the border (a federal misdemeanor, not unlike using the American flag in advertising) and others arrived to seek asylum, which is legal, the humanitarian issue was that children were being kept in cages.
Yes, cages. While ICE contacted news outlets to inform them that they objected to the characterization of the fenced-in enclosures that held innocent children as “cages,” even ICE admitted that it was not inaccurate.
While within the facility, Melania asked “How can I help to reunite these children with their families as quickly as possible?”
Only her husband, or Congress, can make that happen right now.
(Yes, she signed a homemade flag while she was there. Sure)
So … it is positively surreal that she would wear this jacket — which she notably donned while leaving, where cameras were sure to catch her, as she is always photographed while bording planes — after this visit.
The First Lady has been using her clothing choices to speak in photos for years, dating back to the pink bow following Trump’s “grab ‘em by the p–sy” controversy.
Is this a signal to the press and the world that she doesn’t care about the plight of thousands of innocent children who are frightened and caged?
Actually … we don’t think so.
Various analysts have spoken up.
Don’t get us wrong, everyone is bewildered. But many suspect that this wildly unsubtle message was not directed at the children or even at the news media.
It is believed that Melania intended this jacket — or perhaps the controversy that it created — as a message for her husband, Donald Trump.
There is nothing about this story that is not bizarre, but there is also nothing about the Trump family that is not strange and unsettling.
Is she trying to make Trump look (somehow) worse while maintaining plausible deniability over it?
We can only guess at her motives.
But Melania is known for being extremely deliberate with all of her fashion choices. It defies belief that this was an exception.
Particularly when that would mean that she just happened to grab this jacket to wear after spending time in Texas … on the Summer Solstice.
(We checked, and today it got into the eighties in McAllen, Texas … that is not jacket weather)
Stephanie Grisham, Melania’s spokesperson, was dismissive of questions.
“It’s a jacket,” she claimed, as if that should be the end of the conversation.
“There was no hidden message,” Grisham insists.
“After today’s important visit to Texas,” Grisham reportedly said. “I hope this isn’t what the media is going to choose to focus on.”
We’re not sure what about Melania’s photo-op to visit a building where her husband’s administration is warehousing children is supposed to be the focus of conversation.
But Melania threw whatever that was out the window when she told the world that she doesn’t really care about any of that.
