On Thursday, first lady Melania Trump paid a visit to McAllen, Texas.
If you recall, the last time she jetted down to the Lone Star State was in the wake of Hurricane Harvey, where she chose to wear a green bomber jacket and Manolo Blahnik stiletto heels—a questionable choice of footwear for a disaster area.
On Thursday, she once again wore a green jacket, only this time one with the message “I REALLY DON’T CARE, DO U?” on the back. Again, many were put off by the sartorial decision, given that one of the purposes of her trip was to visit a detention center housing immigrant kids separated from their parents—a cruel result of her husband’s “zero tolerance” immigration policy.
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The other purpose, it seems, much like Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen and presidential adviser Stephen Miller’s recent trips to Mexican restaurants during the border humanitarian crisis they’ve presided over, is to troll the media—a cynical ploy allowing them both to distract from the actual bad news (the lack of a plan to reunite already separated immigrant kids with their parents, the refusal to provide press access—including visits, images, or video—to their “tender-age” shelters for separated babies and toddlers, the refusal to provide any media of separated girls) and play the victim when their deliberately tone-deaf actions provoke public criticism.
Jimmy Kimmel, like many of his fellow late-night comics, addressed The Jacket on Thursday night’s Jimmy Kimmel Live!
“Did you see what she was wearing?” asked Kimmel. “Keep in mind: She was on her way to meet children who’ve been separated from their parents. This is what she wore on the plane ride there. A jacket that says, ‘I REALLY DON’T CARE, DO U?’ Is the president now tweeting onto his wife’s clothes?”
“Remember when Michelle Obama showed her bare arms and went to an oil spill, and Fox News went nuts? I’m sure they’ll have the same reaction to this,” he added.
Indeed, that happened. The right also lost its mind when President Obama wore a tan suit, with one Republican lawmaker even claiming that the choice of clothing put our national security at risk.
“The first lady is getting a lot of flak for the jacket. Her spokeswoman said, ‘It’s a jacket. There was no hidden message.’ Well, no one thought the message was hidden. It was written in big letters on the back,” said Kimmel. “But the president—you’re gonna find this hard to believe—the president contradicted that statement.”
In a tweet, President Trump refuted the first lady’s spokeswoman while all but confirming the “media-trolling” theory:
“So there was a hidden message,” offered a confused Kimmel. “There either was or wasn’t a hidden message. It’s one of those two things. Now all we just need is for someone to explain his explanation and we’ll be fine.”
Wonder what Melania’s most vocal defender, Sean Hannity, will think of this one.
