First Lady Melania Trump further explained what was going on when she wore a green jacket that read “I really don’t care, do u?” on the back while on her way to visit immigrant children at a shelter in Texas. She told ABC News it was a message to “the people and the left-wing media who are criticizing me.”
Back in June, Trump wore a $39 green Zara jacket with that phrase on the back. She was photographed walking up to the plane wearing it, but once she arrived at the United New Hope Children’s Shelter in McAllen, Texas, she was wearing a cream jacket.
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The jacket drew immediate backlash, but Trump’s spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham said there was “no hidden message.”
“It’s a jacket. There was no hidden message,” Grisham said in a statement. “After today’s important visit to Texas, I hope the media isn’t going to choose to focus on her wardrobe. (Much like her high heels last year).”
However, in her interview with ABC News, the First Lady said there was a message. It was directed towards the “left-wing media” and not the children of undocumented immigrants she was visiting.
“I’m often asking myself if I would not have worn that jacket, if I would have had so much media coverage,” Trump said. “It’s obvious, I didn’t wear the jacket for the children. I wore the jacket to go on the plane and off the plane. And it was for the people and the left wing media who are criticizing me and I want to show them I don’t care.”
Trump continued, “You could criticize… whatever you want to say, but it will not stop me [from doing] what I feel is right.”
ABC News’ Tom Llamas asked why Trump wore the jacket again after she already visited the children. She explained that, by then, she already noticed how the media became obsessed about it.
“It was kind of a message, yes,” Trump said, disputing the statement her office put out at the time. “I would prefer that they focus on what I do and on my initiatives than what I wear.”
The green jacket came up when Llamas asked Trump about her feelings on President Donald Trump‘s immigration policies. Her husband has called for stricter immigration rules, including limits to “chain migration,” in which American citizens help relatives become citizens. Trump’s own parents used “chain migration” to become citizens earlier this summer. Trump also disagreed with her husband’s measures that led to the separation of children from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border.
“It was unacceptable to me to see children and parents separated,” Trump said. “It was heartbreaking and I reacted with my own voice.”
Although President Trump did change the policy, three former and current Homeland Security Department officials told the Washington Post and Politico that the Trump Administration is considering a new policy to slow the number of migrants crossing the border. This policy would give parents a choice to be detained with their children or to send their children to another shelter so they could be released to a sponsor.
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