The media erupted when First Lady Melania Trump wore a $39 jacket emblazoned with “I really don’t care. Do U?” during her visit to a detention center in Texas. While this seems like an odd jacket for an actual adult to wear in any serious setting, it certainly seems extremely inappropriate for the context.
As would be expected, people divided on the explanations of the jacket. The initial claim that that the jacket was just a jacket—no message intended. If the first lady was someone who dressed without thinking about what she was putting on or had a very limited wardrobe, this explanation would have more plausibility. Others speculated that the jacket was worn to express her lack of caring for the children being held apart from their parents—which would make her a terrible person. This claim is offset by the fact that she did say the right things during her visit. One rather odd but not absurd claim is that the jacket was a statement to her husband; perhaps the public revelations of his past affairs have troubled her to the point of making statements via jackets. President Trump advanced the claim that Melania wore the jacket as a statement that she cares not about the “fake news media.”
On the face of it, a sensible reply to all this speculation is to adopt the attitude expressed by the jacket: to not care. After all, it is just a jacket being worn by a former model who is the latest wife of Donald Trump. It is not a policy statement, a treaty, a law or anything of real significance. While this approach has merit and the jacket itself is just a jacket, what it revealed about the administration is quite significant.
As noted above, the official tale of the jacket shifted from the “it is just a jacket” narrative of the first lady’s communication director to the president’s claim that she was making a statement to the news media. This sort of revisionist explanation and chaotic inconsistency is par for the course in the Trump administration. The expression of what seems to be something awful (apparently not caring about the children) followed up by awkward attempts to shift blame and explain it away is also a common occurrence in this administration. Even if the jacket was initially just a jacket, it has now become much more. First, it has become yet another a point of inconsistency and example of poor management in the Trump administration. Not being able to handle something as minor as a jacket effectively illustrates the general skill and competence of this administration. Second, the jacket is now a metaphor for these problems. Sometimes a jacket is just a jacket, but not when ineptitude makes it into a symbol.
I have the same jacket.
I was speaking with my wife this evening about the preponderance of these sort of media stories. I am really beginning to feel like I live in a society where the critical msdd hss the intellectual and emotional maturity of 14 year old girls. She said I was being too generous.
WTP, tell your wife she is right. (Always a good idea anyway!)
Yes. Well actually, mostly, she has come around to my way of thinking. But let’s just keep that between us. 😉
The thing is that I have been telling her for years that she is actually more “conservative” than I am on many issues. But family history and tradition kept her voting and supporting D’s. We even had a $100 bet back even before 2008 that HRC would never be president. By the time of the 2008 primary, I could see cracks developing in her HRC dedication. Then this election cycle she watched all the debates for both parties (God bless her…even I don’t have that much patience) and when Trump popped up on the news she turned to me and said she thought he just might win this thing. Totally caught me by surprise. I wasnt voting for him in the primary but at that point I started pulling for him as a second choice. As obnoxious as he was, he was forcing the other candidates to address the issuses and number one issue in my mind was the GOP’s repeated failure to actually do any of the things that they claimed they wanted to do. And in this media and political environment I believe the only way left to cut through ther weasling and half-truths and PC BS is to get very aggressive with the media, and the left in general, and not back down. Only one man in that race was even remotely capable of doing such a thing. There were no other viable options.
“Critical mass has…”
I have some minor nerve damage in my right arm such that I really shouldn’t post from this stupid ipad. But that would mean waking the dog on my lap and well… I spoil the SOB…plus I could do better proofreading…sigh…
It’s kind of interesting that Melania owns a $39 jacket.
not when ineptitude makes it into a symbol
“If, of all words of tongue and pen,
The saddest are, ‘It might have been,’
More sad are these we daily see:
‘It is, but hadn’t ought to be.'”
Mike, what you and so many Trump critics just cannot seem to handle is that this is not ineptitude; it’s part of the process. I honestly don’t know whether you all really can’t grasp it, or are just so pleasured by the hit of outrage it gives you that you don’t want to grasp it.
And the process IS effective, even if you think it hadn’t ought to be.
I say nothing about Trump’s manipulative tactics being good. Personally, I don’t like them. But they are clearly effective. “Stories” like these provide critics with lots of tail-chasing activity but no solid points to hit back at Trump with, and make the hysterical reactors look foolish to everyone else.
Covfefe FTW!
“Tail-chasing activity.” Good imagery, CT.
Looks like the NYT has noticed part of the same thing
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/23/us/politics/republican-voters-trump.html
It describes the response of average republican voters of the “cries wolf” effect. “He’s not a perfect guy; he does some stupid stuff. But when they’re hounding him all the time it just gets old.”
And when the media and pundits present his wife’s coat as a reason to join the resistance, how can anyone take them seriously? The more of these nonsense storms in a teacup there are, the more his opponents’ efforts are diffused, and the more the leftists lose credibility among moderates. And he’s never going to get the leftists anyway. So, while he probably doesn’t set such incidents up, he doesn’t have to; there are enough of them that he can just take advantage of every one.
It may energise the activist left, but it also energises his supporters to get annoyed at absurd attacks, and fair-minded independents who might otherwise dislike Trump have to look askance at the egregious antics of his critics as well.
Manipulating and whipsawing people this way is Trump’s core competence. It may not be enough for him to keep power, but in this part of the game, the Democrats are losing badly, just because they can’t stop themselves from getting hysterical about every piece of bait.