Funeral chic, silly belts, and a jacket that shocked the world: Few first ladies courted controversy quite like Melania Trump — and even her outfits have been known to stir up a scandal.
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00:00Funeral chic, silly belts, and a jacket that shocked the world. Few first ladies courted
00:06controversy quite like Melania Trump, and even her outfits have been known to stir up
00:11a scandal.
00:13Melania Trump's attire at Rosalind Carter's memorial service raised more than a few eyebrows.
00:18In 2023, she joined First Lady Jill Biden and the other three living former first ladies
00:24to pay her respects to ex-President Jimmy Carter's late wife. However, some critics
00:29found her choice of outfit disrespectful.
00:32When the four presidential spouses walked into Glenn Memorial United Methodist Church
00:36in Atlanta together, Melania stuck out like a red MAGA hat at the DNC. While the other
00:41women were all dressed in black ensembles, Melania opted against wearing the traditional
00:45color of mourning. Instead, she wore a gray tweed coat.
00:50In footage of the church pews full of mourners, Melania's lighter-colored outfit is pretty
00:54conspicuous. One of the many tweets criticizing her read,
00:59Melania Trump stood out as the only person at Rosalind Carter's memorial service who
01:02didn't have the decency or good taste to wear black as all the others did.
01:07There was also speculation that her attention-demanding outerwear had been a calculated decision.
01:13While Melania took a step back from public life after Americans elected Joe Biden in
01:172020, some people suggested that she saw an opportunity to get back in the spotlight — and
01:22seized it. One Redditor wrote,
01:24See how everybody is talking about her? Yep, that's what she wanted.
01:29When Melania Trump toured a Texas detention center for migrant children, she wore a green
01:33Zara jacket with the words,
01:35"'I really don't care, do you?' emblazoned on the back. As far as reading the room goes,
01:40it was a total disaster. Most people had the plight of the children she was visiting on
01:45their minds when they saw the jacket, so the assumption was that she was demonstrating
01:48her lack of concern for them.
01:50One social media reaction read,
01:52That is callous and unacceptable."
01:55Melania later told ABC News that she was thinking not about the kids, but about herself.
02:00It was for the people and for the left-wing media who are criticizing me and want to show
02:07them that I don't care."
02:09But according to White House correspondent Katie Rogers, Melania just decided to go along
02:13with the whole fake news explanation after Donald Trump tweeted it out. In her book American
02:19Rogers says that the intended recipient of the jacket's message was possibly Ivanka Trump.
02:24White House officials told Rogers that Melania felt like Ivanka was trying to snatch away
02:28some of the media spotlight normally reserved for the first lady.
02:33Melania Trump wore quite the gaudy accessory during her first overseas trip as first lady.
02:38In Saudi Arabia, she chose to wear a massive gold belt from Saint Laurent. The rest of
02:43Melania's outfit consisted of a black Stella McCartney jumpsuit, Christian Louboutin stilettos,
02:48and a chunky gold chain necklace.
02:50Some social media users compared Melania's waist cincher to a WWE championship belt,
02:57while one person quipped that she was helping her husband launch a new Trump-branded product.
03:01Others pointed out that Melania was not adhering to the country's dress code for its female
03:05citizens, which includes wearing a headscarf. That said, this isn't a rule that foreign
03:10visitors are expected to follow. Still, there was still one issue with Melania's omission.
03:14It made her husband look like a hypocrite.
03:17In 2015, Donald had tried to shame then-First Lady Michelle Obama for making the same choice.
03:22He tweeted,
03:23"'Many people are saying it was wonderful that Mrs. Obama refused to wear a scarf in
03:27Saudi Arabia, but they were insulted. We have enough enemies.'"
03:32Melania Trump had something to celebrate in February 2002. She was featured on the cover
03:37of New York Magazine's Valentine's Day-themed issue. Alongside a cover line reading,
03:42"'Love after 9-11,' she was pictured sharing a passionate kiss with a firefighter.
03:46But Melania didn't spend her Valentine's Day engaged in a fiery romance with a first responder.
03:51Instead, she was photographed at a Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week event with her then-boyfriend
03:56Donald Trump.
03:57PETA sponsored The Mark Bauer Show, which had the theme, A Love Affair with Faux. Alas,
04:03Melania Trump's love affair with faux fur was short-lived. The following year, she showed
04:07up at a Dennis Basso furs store opening wearing a fur stole draped over her arms. In 2016,
04:14Basso told the Daily Beast,
04:15"'Melania is a very beautiful woman. She wears Dennis Basso beautifully.'"
04:20Melania's press secretary, Stephanie Grisham, sent an email to CNN in 2017 saying that Melania
04:26was no longer wearing fur. Meanwhile, PETA's senior VP, Dan Matthews, made no mention
04:31of her support for Dennis Basso furs in a statement praising her for going faux. He
04:36said,
04:37"'Melania first attended a PETA fashion show years ago that featured one of her favorite
04:41designers Mark Bauer, a long-time PETA supporter who uses no fur. It's no surprise that she
04:47is now fur-free.'"