to think we're reading too much into Melania's jacket?

[PolkerrisBeach]

Wearing a jacket with a message saying "I don't care, do you" on it to a detention camp is a very weird choice.

But all the people saying it's a message about immigrants, or a message about her feelings on her marriage or whatever else is... stretching it a bit.

She's a woman who isn't known for her towering intellect and is stuck in a marriage to the orange one. She never wanted to be first lady. She has been dragged into stuff she has no interest in.

So she's grabbed a coat without pausing to think about it, and been seen wearing it before someone could provide something more appropriate. It;s not a message. It's the actions of someone fairly dim and uneducated, and who doesn't understand the political game.

maybe someone who works for her was making a point about just how dumb she is.

I wouldn’t have thought that was necessary at this point.

I have to say that I don't believe that anyone is reading too much into this.
This woman has a vastly expensive wardrobe in the main, and this was an official visit - why else would she choose to wear such a cheap coat with such a message on it except to advertise to the world that she really couldn't care less about the plight of these families and children?

It's a deliberate slap in the face for them. She'd have done better to stay away under these circumstances.

But if she really didn't care, a better message would have been not to even leave Washington in the first place? Stayed at home painting her nails or whatever it is that she does.

It's just all really weird.

just to clarify - she wore this getting on the plane, not for the visit itself

It’s so weird. Why go against your husbands policies to release a statement effectively saying you thought children being separated was awful if you don’t really care?

If you don’t really care who not just stay away and keep quiet? It makes no sense

She's married to Donald Trump. She chose to marry Donald Trump. She is fully aware who and what he is. I don't imagine she gives two shits about those children being kept in cages away from their parents.
Whether she chose the jacket to send any message or not she is unlikely to be anything better than heartless and self serving. But that probably doesn't fit on a coat....

She spoke out publicly against the separation of kids / parents at a time when the orange one was still saying it was the best policy ever. Its pretty much the only political thing she's said. I can't believe her coat is a statement in solidarity with the separation policy.

*First lady Melania Trump uncharacteristically waded into a fierce debate around immigration on Sunday, pushing for bipartisan cooperation to end the separation of migrant children from their parents at the border.

“Mrs. Trump hates to see children separated from their families and hopes both sides of the aisle can finally come together to achieve successful immigration reform," according to a statement from her spokeswoman. "She believes we need to be a country that follows all laws, but also a country that governs with heart.”*

Why did she bother releasing that statement?

Personally I don’t think it matters if she wore it to put out the bins - it is a crass message for her to display

I agree 100% with ThumbWitchesAbroad. It was deliberate. Why else would she be wearing such a cheap jacket when she always wears expensive designer clothes, if it wasn't for the message on it? That jacket was specifically chosen to wear on this trip. The spokesman was right that there was "no hidden message", it wasn't hidden at all was it? It was loud and clear and designed to appeal to Trump's supporters - which it will have done.

Did she actually speak and was filmed saying the words, or was it a "statement" which could have been cobbled together by someone else?

Maybe her "I don't care" message means she's in talks with the divorce lawyers.

It was a statement released by her spokesperson. Why would she bother releasing a statement publicly disagreeing with her husband if she didn’t care?

I also wonder if he didn’t want her to do the migrant visit and the message was to him. Hope she does
Divorce him

It is super odd because yes it is deliberate, she does not 'grab coats'.

She is maybe fucking with the orange one.

She needn't have gone there at all so yes presumably she does care.

Maybe she cares about the kids but she doesn't care a fig about The Orange Whippy and his 'government' and has gone past the point of pretending about it.

Trump himself apparently said the coat was a message to 'fake news' networks.

I think we're maybe all crediting her with too much intellect to be playing psychological games with her husband. I just don't think she;s that bright.

I think she has gone rogue and is trying to hurt the orange one in whatever way she can. The sooner he is out of office the sooner she can leave him.

So the coat's two years old? (Sorry if that's wrong, gleaning it from a pp). Well must have bought an uncharacteristically cheap coat from a high street shop two years ago for a reason; and that's probably the reason she wore it now too. I reckon her affinity with the slogan is a personal one, and so is the statement she's making when she wears it.

It is a $40 jacket from zara when has she ever worn anything that wasn't designer.

This. Whatever she meant by it, she went out of her way to get hold of this jacket. Her way being private designer showcases. Not high street shops.

I read on the bbc that it was from 2016

Regardless of the message it is an incredibly inappropriate outfit for a FLOTUS to wear in light of the situation and the place she was going to visit.
My first reaction wasn't that she was trying to send a message to her husband (which could be what he thought, which would explain his comment about fake news) but rather that she didn't give a shit about the kids.

Also it is a very teenager coat to wear. She's representing her country, not trying to be a rebel.

perhaps , since English is her second language, she thought it said " I care, why dont you"

or I carb
or I crave

She didn't wear it at the detention center so I don't think her message had anything to do with the children.

She wore it to board the plane so I think the message was for whoever would see her then. Her staff? Her husband? Photographer with long distance lenses?

Whatever was intended it was a gross error of judgment.

Yes but she boarded the plane very biblically knowing she would be filmed. She's not been know for making many 'work' trips so she was clearly going to be judged on that.

What a childish thing to wear.
Quite disrespectful.

Face it- if Michelle Obama had worn something like that she would have been eviscerated.

So it’s a) old and b) cheap so not her style anyway, I’m wondering how she / her stylist came by it? Do you think they got it off eBay? Searching the web for something controversial?

I don’t get it at all because it all seems really weird.

Maybe she thought it was clear that it was about her marriage since her other clothes are always interpreted as such (eg the quite genius link that wearing white after the Stormy Daniels thing came out was making some kind of feminist statement)...?