Melania’s Miscellany
On Melania’s “I Really Don’t Care” Jacket and Her NFT Christmas Ornaments for Charity
Before my Facebook business page for my book was removed for going against community standards, I posted about Melania more than anyone else except the former president.
Melania is an easy subject for me because she, like her husband, has been viciously attacked and unfairly maligned by the usual suspects in the fake news media, the entertainment world and Democrats. I felt the need to tell her story because the media had not.
We had in Melania Knauss Trump a woman who was a multi-lingual foreign-born first lady who had worked in her early career as a fashion model, and upon entering the White House had her own eponymous luxury goods brand. She dismantled it between the election and inauguration day.
Why didn’t we know any of this? Why didn’t we know that she majored in architecture and design in Slovenia? that her sister is a well-known artist? that her father owned a car dealership and built the family home with his own hands?
We should have known this and other basic biographical details too. She was only the second foreign-born First Lady in our history. The first was Louisa Catherine Johnson, wife of Sixth President of the United States, John Quincy Adams. She was from London.
Melania speaks Slovenian, Serbian, German, French, and English. What a slouch!
You might have anticipated seeing feature stories about the First Lady in fashion and mass market pubs like People or Us as I did although not with the bated breath of a teenager. The media yawned. Nothing to see here. I guess an interview with a First Lady about her European background – with Melania interjecting in several languages – is of no interest to a mass audience. Worse than being ignored, the media intimated she exaggerated this claim. The ‘ladies’ of The View would have a good chuckle over it.
It bordered on a criminal offense when we realized after waiting four years that Anna Wintour, the doyenne of the fashion world and editor-in-chief of Vogue magazine, was never going to put Melania on the cover of Vogue.
I vividly remember shortly after Trump was elected what he reported she said to him after their meeting at her offices at Conde Nast in New York, ‘of course Melania will be on the cover of Vogue.’ Of course it never happened. He went to her mind you.
Michelle Obama appeared on Vogue’s cover four times. Jill Biden graced the Vogue cover in August 2021. The media graciously and appropriately covered all first ladies including Laura Bush except Melania Trump. The snub is made more egregious since we all know Melania is a former model and at 48 is stunningly beautiful and incredibly photogenic.
The media was more obsessed with what she was wearing and finding fault with her Christmas decorations than curious about what she did.
She, like Trump, could be smeared for the most innocent things. For instance: Her signature strongly resembles that of her husband, Donald J. Trump. Interesting, no?
Melania grew up in Slovenia (the former Yugoslavia), a Communist country. She married a capitalist billionaire 24 years her senior who grew up in New York City, 4,000 miles away.
Yet their signatures are almost identical.
Media wags noticed and went on the attack saying she was a Stepford wife; Trump is her Svengali or she worked on her signature to make it look like his. It was a branding exercise!
What to make of it:
I simply concluded Mr. and Mrs. Trump are sympatico.
The brouhaha over Ye and Candace Owens unveiling their White Lives Matter t-shirt during Paris fashion week made me think of the media storm Melania caused when she wore a green jacket with the words, “I really don’t care, do you?” painted on the back.
The media wigs out every single time someone goes against the narrative. It doesn’t matter who it is. If you color outside the lines, the fake news will take you down.
Anything to humiliate Donald Trump and his family.
The media is craven; or, as Ye says ‘they’re godless.’
Melania, like Ye and Candace, showed us a rebellious side wearing this $39.00 Zara 80s style punk rock jacket with a provocative message.
Designers like Vivienne Westwood, Moschino, and Elizabeth Hammett all designed expensive trash culture clothing and accessories with printed text. Some called it Dada – was it trashy avant-garde or avant-garde trash?
Melania was playing at being a glamourous outcast. T-shirts with messages like Ye’s White Lives Matter is a standard youth culture post-modern look.
Our First Lady tapped into that hi-lo fashion vein. No kudos. Her statement was ignored. Her voice wasn’t heard. She wore that jacket with that message on that day to send a message. The media pretended at first to scratch their heads in confusion. They immediately found an excuse to criticize rather than absorb it. Ditto the White Lives Matter shirt.
In the midst of the flap Trump said Melania wore the jacket to send a message to the fake news media who were criticizing her every move. Melania although mum at first, finally explained,
“It was for the people and for the left-wing media who are criticising me. I want to show them I don’t care. You could criticise whatever you want to say. But it will not stop me to do what I feel is right.”
Oh, we’re the problem!
She wore the jacket because of criticism then was criticized for wearing the jacket.
She was — gasp! — on her way to the border to meet with ‘undocumented’ children in shelters. She was vilified. The Daily Beast said she was tone-deaf and ‘yawning in the face of the nation’s shame.’ (See if you can count the lies about her and DJT in the article. Below.) Melania was quick to point out that she took off the jacket before meeting with the children.
This episode combined with the ‘tremor’ as Candace Owens put over wearing her t-shirt illustrates how selective the media is about everything. Pop artists of all kinds habitually use any surface to send their message. It’s real estate. It’s the ad section of the newspaper. It has been a mainstay in the fashion world for decades.
Our media closed ranks and were simply not going to let Mrs. Trump pull off a pop culture win.
Click for my Pinterest board Melania’s Style. You’re welcome.
More links:
As tabloid as it gets – article from The Daily Beast – rips Melania to shreds.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/why-melania-trumps-i-really-dont-care-do-u-jacket-fit-her-perfectly
A gallery of her style published by The Express – many of these shots are unflattering. https://www.express.co.uk/life-style/style/977708/melania-trump-donald-news-pictures-latest
Melania’s Nifty Xmas Ornament NFTs for Charity
I am putting in an obvious plug for Melania Trump’s line of Christmas ornaments. And you guessed it, the media is triggered!
The Trump’s famously made saying Merry Christmas again part of their message to America. At every Christmas season rally Trump would promise us, “And we will say Merry Christmas again!” Here’s Trump in Valdosta, GA in 2020.
We know, as with so many other instances, the media treated her badly each time she unveiled her White House Christmas decorations. For the record, I preferred Melania’s clean lines and over-the-top sparkle to any other White House Christmas displays. Her designs were traditional yet not cloyingly so. The Obama’s and the Biden’s broke with any semblance of tradition giving us outsized — call it pop art or punk rock — comical representations depicting winter (snowmen below) themes or the gigantic stacks of boxes (below) clustered around a White House entrance.
A few photos illustrate for me:
Jill Biden’s first Christmas at the White House (left); Michelle Obama’s decorations in 2016 (right); and a shot of Melania Trump’s White House décor (below).
I would be here all day detailing the amount of negative ink spilled about Melania’s Christmas décor.
Suffice to say with the launch of Melania’s new line of Christmas ornaments – which are purchased through NFTs – non-fungible tokens (bear with me) – nothing has changed.
Proceeds go to Melania’s Be Best and Fostering the Future children’s funds with the monies to the latter specifically earmarked for foster children college scholarships.
Shrug.
She designed the ornaments herself.
Who cares. The Trump’s are vulgar.
But you buy the ornament and it comes with an NFT.
What?
That’s right, a non-fungible token.
There are two products in the purchase. The NFT part of the purchase is a digital ‘token’ that can live as a digital asset forever. The intention is to redeem the tokens – use them with other people – creating a chain of donations. The blockchain platform verifies the authenticity and unique value of the token. Donations go directly to Mrs. Trump’s Be Best, and Fostering the Future foster children’s funds.
And the other part is the physical Christmas ornament. The gold Christmas Star ornament is a hand-crafted limited edition minted piece signed by Mrs. Trump.
Her partner in this venture is Parler – a social media platform with blockchain capability. USAMemorabilia is the Parler-developed platform that worked with Melania on this project that, according to its website, “features U.S.-related memorabilia that gives fans the ability to purchase patriotic-themed collectibles with immutable provenance, permanently recorded on the blockchain.”
The first scholarship from Fostering the Future was awarded to Michael Weiss. Listen to his story in this clip from Fox News.
Melania tells us in a post: “My creative inspiration for the upcoming holiday season is hope, and naturally, the Star embodies this spirit. My hope is for families across the world to use The Christmas Star ornament to inspire their loved ones with positive purpose, aspirations, and values as we enter the new year. This holiday season, remember to aim high to reach your full potential.”
Ye is set to acquire Parler; the CEO is George Farmer, who is married to Candace Owens.
More Links:
To purchase Melania’s Christmas ornaments, go to her website:
https://melaniatrump.com/christmas-ornament
Or visit USAMemorabilia:
A Fox News piece:
Shaking my head at the nastiness spewed toward the former First Lady here:
https://www.inputmag.com/culture/melania-trump-nft-ornaments-cancel-christmas-cryptocurrency
Parler press release on the Ye acquisition.
