Melania Trump's Inappropriate Outfit At An African Hospital Will Always Haunt Her

Between blessing the rains down in Africa and using pictures of starving African babies to solicit donations, the second-largest continent has become a place that many use to flex their altruistic muscles and farm goodwill. However, the difference between those who are in it for the publicity and those who actually care is typically painfully clear, which is why Melania Trump's faux pas during an October 2018 visit to a Ghanaian hospital was a revealing misstep that will always haunt her.

Picture this: You're the first lady on a campaign you've named "Be Best," which is supposed to "highlight the major issues facing children today." You've decided to start your campaign by visiting a hospital in Ghana to see sick children. Do you pick out a designer dress and heels to visit ailing children, or something a bit more down-to-earth? For Melania, the answer was obvious. She showed up in a $2000 Celine dress and heels by Manolo Blahnik, whose shoes typically cost upwards of $1000 at the time of writing. Combined, the outfit cost more than the average American earns biweekly and was approximately 60 times the monthly minimum wage in Ghana (as of 2018).

SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images

It shouldn't need to be said, but dressing up in an expensive designer dress to visit a hospital leaves a sour taste in the mouth, no matter how one views the visitor's intentions. Worse still, Melania Trump's favorite shoe brands aren't only a glaring reminder of her expensive tastes, but they are a sign of how disconnected she is from the average American. The question is, how deep does this isolation from reality go? Is Mrs. Trump so far removed from the people that she had no idea how offensive this was? Or worse, did she know and simply not care?

In June, just months before visiting the Ghanaian hospital, Melania Trump made headlines worldwide for another revealing clothing choice. While on a trip to meet children who had been imprisoned at the U.S. border, she wore the infamous "I really don't care. Do U?" jacket. When the expected backlash came pouring in, the first lady's spokesperson claimed it was "just a jacket" (via BBC). But considering the fact that there have been times the Trump women's outfits meant more than most realized, there was heavy skepticism.

However, the mystery was unveiled eleven days after the visit to the African hospital. Melania sat down with Tom Llamas from ABC News, who questioned her interesting history of clothing choices. The first lady seized this moment to frame the criticism of her clothes as an attack by the "left-wing media." She claimed that the jacket was meant to send the message that criticism was not going to stop her from doing what she wanted to do. On the same trip to Africa, she told the press, "I wish people would focus on what I do, not what I wear" (via Washington Post). Needless to say, her statements were contradictory in so many ways. 

For one, it seems pretty dishonest to first claim that there was no hidden message behind the jacket and then turn around and claim that the outfit was a way of communicating to people. Secondly, it's contradictory to send a message through the very medium you're asking people not to focus on. Expectedly, the internet didn't buy her excuse. When considering Melania's history of insensitive clothing, one Redditor put it this way: "When I saw her in this, I was truly shocked. I couldn't believe none of her handlers advised her not to wear this. Now after all this time, I understand that 'I dont care' is the exact message they wanted to send."

Unfortunately, the list of the first lady's tone-deaf fashion moments goes on and on. One of Melania Trump's most expensive outfits ever was a $51,000 Dolce & Gabbana coat embroidered with flowers. And while some internet users claimed that wearing it during a presidential tour was yet another poorly chosen strategy to show off wealth, the reality is that there aren't many events that would justify a $51,000 coat. 

Melania wore the coat in 2017 during Donald Trump's first international tour in Sicily, Italy, and although such visits typically focus on diplomacy, this unnecessary display of wealth hogged the headlines. On one hand, defenders of the coat pointed out that the Trumps were obscenely wealthy before taking the reins of the country, but on the other, critics raised a valid question: How can a person who can afford to spend tens of thousands of dollars on a coat understand and effectively make policies to benefit people who actually have to budget?