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Melania Struck A Very Different Tone With Her Outfit For Her Second Border Trip

by Morgan Brinlee
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images News/Getty Images

A week after her visit to a children's immigration detention center in Texas was overshadowed by the clothes she wore, first lady Melania Trump has stepped out for a do-over. The first lady landed Thursday in Tucson, Arizona, where she visited a Customs and Border Patrol facility. But what was Melania wearing for her second border visit with immigrant families?

Melania stepped off a plane in Tucson wearing wide-leg white linen pants, a fitted black top with three-quarter length sleeves, dark sunglasses, and what appeared to be white Christian Louboutin sneakers. As part of her visit, she participated in a roundtable discussion with Border Patrol officers, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, and U.S. Marshals at a U.S. Customs and Border Patrol facility, according to The Hill. The first lady is also expected to tour the Tucson Coordinating Center and an intelligence center.

The first lady had made an unannounced trip to the U.S.-Mexico border last week in an effort to get a first hand glimpse at the crisis effecting immigrant families. As part of that visit, Melania joined Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar in touring Upbring New Hope Children's Shelter in McAllen, Texas, where separated and unaccompanied children are being detained. However, it was Melania's choice of outerwear that dominated news of that visit.

Although she didn't wear the jacket while at the U.S.-Mexico border, Melania wasn't shy about showing off her green, army-style Zara jacket — which was emblazoned with the words, "I REALLY DON'T CARE, DO U?" —while boarding and de-boarding her plane at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland before and after her border visit.

While the first lady's office had claimed there was no meaning behind Melania's jacket — "It's a jacket, there was no hidden message," Stephanie Grisham, Melania's director of communications, said in a statement to Bustle — President Donald Trump claimed otherwise.

"'I REALLY DON'T CARE, DO U?' written on the back of Melania's jacket, refers to the Fake News Media," President Trump tweeted last week shortly after his wife's border visit. "Melania has learned how dishonest they are, and she truly no longer cares!"

In a tweet posted last week, the first lady said she'd found "visiting with children" at Upbring New Hope Children's Shelter in Texas to be "very touching" and noted that the children were "in good spirits & very kind."

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images News/Getty Images

According to Grisham, plans for the first lady's second border visit were put together a few days after her Texas trip last week. "This is a complex issue. She recognizes that," Grisham told People magazine. "She's learning that these people at HHS facilities are providing some outstanding care under difficult circumstances."

Grisham also said the first lady was "anxious to learn" how ICE and Border Patrol officials were implementing new procedures and policies for detaining migrant children and families at the border following President Trump's executive order. "She cares about children deeply," People reported Grisham said. "She's advocating for quality care for these children under difficult circumstances."

When signing an executive order to end his administration's policy of separating immigrant families last week, President Trump said it was his wife and daughter, Ivanka Trump, who'd influenced him to keep families together. Although the executive order did not end the Trump administration's "zero-tolerance" immigration policy, it did allow for families apprehended illegally entering the country to be detained at detention centers together. Families with children will also now be given precedence in immigration proceedings.

According to Grisham, President Trump remains supportive of Melania's border visits and continues to discuss the migrant children crisis with her.