Melania Trump can’t win as first lady. Every time she steps out in the public scene, liberal critics pounce and shame her, which goes against all those feminism lectures they constantly give. This FLOTUS doesn’t get the same courtesy as the last one.
This time, Mrs. Trump simply released her official portrait as first lady and that was enough to set the internet ablaze. There were those who mocked the photo, questioning whether it was done by Glamour Shots. Others honed in on the $3 million anniversary diamond ring given to her by her husband on their 10th wedding anniversary. She just can’t be a lady of the people if she wears huge diamonds.
There was also an accusation of ripping off Nancy Reagan’s portrait:
But even the designers of her clothes were catching heat. Trump wore a Dolce & Gabbana blazer in the photo. Vanity Fair whined that she didn’t wear American clothes:
While this isn’t the first time Trump has worn clothes by a foreign designer, it is perhaps the most noteworthy so far. Though she chose Michael Kors when she cast her ballot in November and Ralph Lauren on Inauguration Day, Trump, in her short tenure so far as First Lady, has not used the office as shrewdly as some of her recent forerunners to promote American designers. Michelle Obama wore two different U.S. labels for her portraits: Kors in 2009 and Reed Krakoff in 2013.
Wearing creations by foreign designers isn’t necessarily a faux pas for a First Lady. Obama frequently used designers from outside the U.S. as a sign of fashion diplomacy, promoting globalization or honoring countries she visited. Of course Trump, as the biography that accompanied the official portrait notes, is only the second ever foreign-born First Lady. She also once worked as a model and is familiar with the global design world. And even Jackie Kennedy shopped with Parisian couturiers. But the choice of an Italian-made garment for such an official occasion is particularly curious, given her husband’s constant promises to revive American industry, saber rattling on international trade deals, calls to “buy American” and overall U.S. exceptionalism.
“Her husband’s inflammatory rhetoric on global trade and emphasis on American manufacturing creates a stark dissonance with those [international designer] choices,” the magazine adds.
Stefano Gabbana was criticized on social media because she wore a blazer he designed, but unlike other designers who refuse to dress the first lady, he told critics to “Go to hell.”




