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Don’t be distracted from the immigration crisis by Melania Trump’s fake fashion choice | Jenice Armstrong

This is a silver object meant to get us talking about something else, anything other than how America has been cruelly separating poor, desperate immigrants seeking to cross over the U.S. border.

First lady Melania Trump boards a plane at Andrews Air Force Base, Md., Thursday, June 21, 2018, to travel to Texas.
First lady Melania Trump boards a plane at Andrews Air Force Base, Md., Thursday, June 21, 2018, to travel to Texas.Read moreAP Photo / Andrew Harnik

President Trump likes to talk about fake news. Well, this is a fake fashion choice.  

I'm referring, of course, to first lady Melania Trump's wearing that awful jacket whose back reads, "I really don't care, do u?" as she boarded a flight on Thursday to visit immigrant children separated from their families in Texas.

I think we're being played, and by our very own first lady. Nobody's that tone deaf. Nobody's that out of touch.

This is a ruse, meant to change the conversation. America is finally uniting around our outrage over the plight of immigrant babies, and then out steps Melania Trump wearing one of the most inappropriate garments ever seen on a first lady.

Please don't fall for it. Don't you dare get worked up over seeing Melania board a plane at Joint Base Andrews while dressed in that olive green jacket with those words. This is a distraction. A complete and utter one, a shiny object that's meant to steer us away from the shameless way America has been treating the most vulnerable among us.

The Trump administration's "zero tolerance" immigration policy, and its actions regarding "tender age" children and their parents, is disgraceful. Officials know full well that what they've been doing is an assault on human decency and goes against the lofty ideals that this country was built on.

They've heard our outcry about crying children being kept in cage-like detention facilities.

They've read about the world's outrage and condemnation of what's been going on.

They've sensed our growing anger.

This issue has animated us in a way that has even the least political among us looking up and taking note. The Trump administration is aware of the protests popping up around the country and knows the political fallout for staying the course would be considerable. That's why President Trump on Wednesday finally gave in and signed an executive order to end family separations at the U.S.-Mexico border. The administration behaved as any coward would, by tucking tail and running from this dastardly practice.

Then we saw photos of  Melania boarding a plane to Texas, where children are being held, wearing a $39 olive-green jacket from Zara with a cheeky message about not caring. Really, Melania?

As my colleague Elizabeth Wellington has written, since we don't hear the first lady speak all that often, we have to deduce what we can from the clothing choices she makes.

In this case, she seems to be signaling to her husband's base that she's not as caring as the trip to McAllen, Texas, would have her appear.

This choice makes her look as cold as her husband's supporters who believe that separating immigrant children from their families is somehow biblical and morally defensible.

I'd be surprised if that was even her jacket. Melania doesn't do cheap. That $51,000 Dolce & Gabbana coat that she wore in Sicily is way more her style.

When have you ever seen Melania in a graphic print like that?  This tacky jacket is something a millennial would wear — not our clothes-loving first lady. Besides, it's old. Zara featured it in its spring-summer line for 2016.

America, I ask you to not be distracted by this public relations stunt.

This is meant to get us talking about something else — anything other than the miserable way our country has been mistreating desperate immigrants seeking a new home.

Hold your outrage. We're being played big time. Don't fall for it.

It's fake!