Former GOP congressman rips Melania Trump's 'unforgivable' jacket stunt

Melania Trump is getting called out for her decision to wear a jacket bearing the message “I Really Don’t Care, Do U?” while visiting immigrant children abducted by her husband.

Former Republican Rep. David Jolly of Florida shredded Melania Trump and her husband for the heartless stunt in an appearance on MSNBC.

“This was an unforgivable moment for the first lady and the first family,” Jolly said, “not because of what happened in the initial moment where, why did she wear this? Frankly, I was one who dismissed it the first time we saw it as she was departing.”

But, Jolly said, Melania Trump made clear she was sending a “political message,” not a “fashion message.”

“This was a political message where she said, ‘I don’t care.’ And I don’t care personally, as David Jolly, how the White House tries to manipulate this. She was going to the border where her husband has ripped families apart wearing a jacket that said, ‘I don’t care.’ It is an unforgivable moment for Melania as the first lady, but also for the president of the United States, and she does not deserve latitude on this because she doubled down on it after questions were asked.”

The jacket and the message it sent was the subject of widespread scrutiny and derision, undermining claims from the First Lady’s press operation that she cares about the treatment of children under her husband’s regime.

Her husband wrote in a tweet that the jacket “refers to the Fake News Media,” adding, “Melania has learned how dishonest they are, and she truly no longer cares!”

The decision to use the ongoing abuse of children as the backdrop for either an anti-media message or to send a signal of her disinterest in child welfare was tone deaf, to say the least.

It ran contrary to many observers who have believed there is distance between the Trumps on how his administration has governed.

The jacket, and the decision to wear it, shows a First Family totally in sync on how to mistreat the most vulnerable. It’s a bad look.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.