Vacuous maybe, but not stupid. She is cunning enough, IMO, to figure just how to blow up something that she dislikes, look at what she did to Rudy after his insane "fine woman" statements in Israel. It seems that she saw Trump circling the bowl on this inhuman policy action and knew just how she could cause maximum trouble for him.

I can't believe that Melania made the decision to wear that coat.
Even a dysfunctional White House like the one we have now, scrutinizes
the "optics" of everything that she does. This was a conscientious decision
by her handlers. It was a diversion, a poke in the eye, and an opportunity
for Trump to bloviate about fake news.

I know the Trump explanation was a bald faced lie.

And what does she do all day???
She's been handed a very fortunate position and obligation that seems
to wasted... on what, who knows. Govt funded trips to the beach and 'kidney surgery" ??
Not leaving much of a legacy Melania.

And that's about it.

She definitely doesn't care about her husband at this point. We've all seen that.

I don’t think it’s the infidelity, I don’t think that was a surprise.

It was the embarrassment of his affair with a porn star that has been all over the media for weeks.

have her nails done, shop some more, have her hair done, and eat lobster and champagne for dinner. Donald being president screwed that gig up.
Now she has to pretend to care about something, and she's a mighty poor actress.

buy that line of thinking - just something else to piss off IQ45.

Let's see if she "disappears" for another few weeks for some medical procedure, say, maybe, healing from bruises...................

"You can't trust Melanie, but you can always trust Melanie to be Melanie."

An underrated Tarantino classic.

If that's what she intended it seems to have backfired on her, but maybe she doesn't care about that, either. Maybe, not giving a single fuck, she decided to take the hit in order to embarrass Spanky even if it made her look bad, too. Hard to know with these people. Bad vs. evil is one way to look at it, I guess.

you've hit the nail on the head. Probably grabbed a coat belonging to Barron to make her Marie Antoinette statement. Sad.

go back to eastern Europe, where she can care.

Imo, this was a lame set-up in order to take away the focus from the more important border issues. Usually, the FLOTUS is a more well liked and sympathetic individual than the president... Trump et. al wanted to make it appear that the press was beating up on Melania (as well as send a dog whistle to the alt. right white supremacists).

I think she goes along with it because money (who knows what the prenup says) and Barron. And awfulness.

Melania did not own or acquire that jacket. She wouldn't buy or wear clothes like that on her own.

So somebody else must have gotten it for her and told her to wear it. This pushes the question of "why?" (or "WTF were you thinking?" ) back to that person.

My most charitable (to Melania) explanation is that she doesn't read English and didn't know what it said. But more likely, she was just following orders.

"I don't care" anymore - ie I'm tired of the whole thing - "whatever".
She's tone deaf and selfish enough to not think it applies to the kids - just to her state of mind on the whole trump shit show.

She gave him the middle finger...Twice! Coming and going, she wore the coat and sent dear hubby a message!

On national TV too! Every network and the Twitter world is going nuts about it and discussing it on the hour!

Television is his favorite medium. (well, next to porn, of course). He's added TVs to every room in the White House!

He's a hooked junkie obsessed with seeing his fat face centered on the screen, knowing it's being beamed into living rooms worldwide.

She told him, "fuck you".

He must be beyond white-hot rage. I hope he gets chest pains. I hope it does him in.

I had thought to myself, this was POSSIBLY a subtle message to Trump followers, one that showed that they weren't really sympathetic to these children at all, and that Trump's EO wasn't all that big a deal.

Now this:

Other items made by Zara- designer of Melania's jacket- mock the Holocaust, feature swastikas
https://www.democraticunderground.com/100210773059

I think I was on the right track.

ETA: I've posted this innumerable times, but I think it's appropriate to mention it again. THis isn't the first time Melania trolled for her disgusting husband. Within a couple of days after the release of the Access Hollywood tapes she attended some function or other in a "Pussy Bow" blouse by Gucci. This was reiterated by - - aargh, can't remember his name, the guy who stands in for Joy Reid on occasion.

ETA - Again: Melania Trump Wore a “Pussy Bow” Blouse at Sunday’s Debate
https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2016/10/melania-trump-pussy-bow-blouse-debate

on the day AFTER there was a call for women to do so in support of women’s rights. I think she’s sending equivocal and subtle signals of rebellion against tRump.

She may well have chosen the jacket herself out of spite and all the other reasons you note. Her distaste for her unearned office is apparent. No argument from me.

But. She has an actual army of handlers and attendants whose job is presumably is to keep her from stepping in it. They can do nothing about her husband, the runaway train wreck in progress. But one would expect Melania's handlers to give that jacket a big no-no. They're hired to be savvy to optics. So she either overruled them, or they weren't bright enough to get out of their own way. They must know they're dealing with a very canny, ruthless woman (who is likely smarter than her husband, but equally bereft of principles).

My best guess is she told her own optics team to go fuck themselves. "i WILL wear this cheap and nasty jacket and there is fuck-all you can do about it. Spin it. Do your jobs."

What a demoralizing place that WH must be.

to challenge him that way.

The man is violent, he is a rapist. I'm sure if Melania dared to do something like this behind his back, there would be hell to pay.

No, she doesn't have the power to take such initiative.

Thinking this was a rebellious move by her gives him to much credit and pains him like a man who wouldn't really harm her if she angers him.

I don't believe that for a minute.

everyone wants to give this women every benefit of the doubt. That we all want to believe that somewhere deep down she's a good person. I have seen nothing to persuade me that she has an ounce of empathy for anyone but herself. It would be nice actually to be wrong about this, but as for now, I'm not buying.

Probably the most likely scenario.

...lack thereof, it was an appallingly insensitive choice, considering where she was going.

But I do think the situation between her and Donald is....complicated.

thought out post sounds plausible to me.

Why is everyone bending over backwards trying to ascribe benevolent motives to a person who has never had any track record of them before??

The day after Peter Fonda tweeted his awful awful barrage and she sicced the Secret Service on him, one would think that even a person of less than average intelligence and insight would realize that she shouldn't wish the same on thousands of other families, even those with varying complexions.

Unless she is the same mindset. Perhaps she has lived on Park Avenue for so long that she really does view herself as being better than those who had to flee their homes in terror. No matter how I look at this, it is definitely a "let them eat cake" thing.

She really is the kind of person who would marry Donald Trump.

I agree.

It really has more to do with the Stormy Daniels and the two other playboy models that he had affairs with, including the one that got pregnant.

This is her payback. I think that she does care to some degree about these kids but she is trying to get leverage on him on a one on one basis.

What is her end game?

I think she just wants to be left alone, literally have as little contact with him so she can spend her time being both parents to Barron. She is miserable, to the point that "she just doesn't care" any more about public pretences.

I see this along the same lines as when she batted his hand away.

She is saying, "I will only do the bare minimum, if you force me to do more I will make you pay for it and make you look silly."