Melania Trump wearing a jacket emblazoned with the words “I really don’t care, do U?” on her way to visit immigrant children in Texas was such a disaster that CNSNews.com reporter and normally loyal Trump sycophant Susan Jones called her out on it. In a June 22 “news” article, Jones lamented the jacket was a “major distraction” from the trip and, perhaps more importantly, “The media did indeed focus on her jacket and the odd message it sent.” Being a Trump sycophant, she quickly got back on message, declaring in the fifth paragraph of her article that she was “turning from her wardrobe to her actual words.”
Jones’ lament, however, didn’t make it down the hall to the rest of her Media Research Center colleagues, which did their usual thing in attacking anyone who criticized Melania’s fashion choice.
Nicholas Fondacaro complained that “the gossip-prone media spen[t] a considerable about of time trying to divine the secret meaning of the wardrobe choice and there were those who suggested she was saying that to the kids.” He went on to huff: “This kind of wild speculation about the meaning of Melania’s outfits is a common narrative when the media trying to attack this administration. … They must pick whichever explanation they think is more damaging.” Of course, the words across the back of Melania’s jacket are pretty unambiguous, so divining a meaning isn’t terribly difficult.
Fondacaro said nothing about the inappropriateness of the message on the jacket.
Randy Hall similarly whined about the media coverage of Melania’s jacket, this time by Stephen Colbert. Like Fondacaro, he found nothing to complain about regarding the words on the jacket and, like Fondacaro, portrayed it as yet another example of anti-Trump bias instead of something deserving of criticism even if her husband wasn’t a Republican: “This incident reinforces the notion that as long as the Trumps are in the White House, any member of the administration — or the family — is fair game for left-wing commentators, including Colbert and the liberal “analysts” at CNN.
Ryan Foley surprisingly averred that Melania’s jacket choice was “controversial” — then slipped into the usual MRC mode of complaining that people in the media talked about said controversy, blaming the media instead of Melania: “While Mrs. Trump probably could have chosen to wear a different jacket, or no jacket all because of the warm weather, the media once again proved that they could not resist blowing the situation out of proportion; making a mountain out of a molehill. The media will continue to portray the Trump Administration as heartless and cruel as they continue fanning the flames that divide the country regarding immigration all the way to the midterm elections.”
This is the same MRC, by the way, that regularly went off on the media every time someone said something nice about Michelle Obama’s wardrobe — and she never wore anything as “controversial” as Melania’s jacket.