Melania Trump Finally Opens Up About Why She Wore Her ‘I Really Don’t Care’ Jacket to Detention Center

Melania Trump's 2018 visit to a migration detention center across the US-Mexico border sparked controversy because of the questionable jacket she donned for the occasion that read 'I really dont care, do you?' Years later, she finally addressed the incident in her new memoir, Melania. Discussing the 'zero-tolerance' immigration policy introduced by her husband, Donald Trump, Melania shared that she was the one who convinced him to do away with the policy as it separates parents from their children. She added that the jacket was in fact a jab at the media, which caused quite a storm as she departed Washington on a damage control mission following the aforementioned policy.

The message was reportedly a protest against the media's reporting. “I was determined…not to let the media’s false narratives affect my mission to help the children and families at the border,” Melania said in her book, as mentioned by The Guardian. Claiming that the uproar was “just another example of the media’s irresponsible behavior,” she said, “I decided to let them know that their criticism would never stop me from doing what I feel is right. To make the point, I wore a particular jacket as I boarded the plane, a jacket that quickly became famous.” Melania went on to deem her little stunt “discreet yet impactful.” 

Donald, too, had an explanation for it. According to him, the jacket was directed toward 'the fake news media,' not the 55 migrant children separated from their parents who met the former First Lady. In an interview with CNN News the same year, Melania purported the jacket "was a kind of message, yes." "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," she said. "It was for the people and for the Left-wing media who are criticizing me. I want to show them I don't care. You could criticize whatever you want to say. But it will not stop me to do what I feel is right," she explained. The former model also shared that not long after the $39 Zara jacket came into light, her former press secretary, Stephanie Grisham, received a ton of "urgent emails from top-tier media outlets" regarding the apparel. 

Grisham too addressed the incident in her own 2021 memoir, sharing that she was against Melania wearing that jacket and commenting on it, as per the New York Post. "'Why not? It is the truth,'" Melania allegedly told Grisham. She shared, "I disagreed with her insistence that I couldn’t say that...Ignoring my comments, she [instead] told a CNN reporter…that it was simply a jacket, a fashion choice with no underlying message."