The meaning behind Melania Trump's infamous "I really don't care" jacket was a personal shot at her stepdaughter, according to a new book.
The former first lady wore the olive, thigh-length, hooded jacket with the dismissive phrase "I really don't care – Do U?" hand-painted on the back as she visited migrant children who had been separated from their parents. The new book "American Woman: The Transformation of the Modern First Lady, from Hillary Clinton to Jill Biden,” by Katie Rogers, reveals the message was intended for Ivanka Trump, according to excerpts published by the New York Post.
The pair “were locked in a quiet competition for press coverage” at the time, wrote Rogers, a New York Times White House correspondent.
Sources told Rogers the former first lady was obsessed with public perception of her and "often trawled Twitter to see what the press, her critics, and her supporters were saying about her.”
Though directed to Ivanka, it's unclear what exactly the message scrawled on Melania's back was referring to.
Melania Trump had found it inappropriate for Ivanka Trump and her brothers, in addition to their spouses, to be so involved with White House operations, according to the book.
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“If she ever waged a battle over the issue, it is one she clearly lost: For four years, it was hard to see where the operations of the family business stopped and the Trump administration started,” Rogers wrote.
She also held meetings during her time in the White House with lawyers to examine her assets and attend to matters associated with pre- and postnuptial agreements with the then-president, according to her former top aide Stephanie Grisham, but Rogers disputed previous reporting that the negotiations revolved around their minor son Barron.
“I know that she had very separate finances that she watched very carefully, and she had her own lawyers that she met with a good amount,” Grisham said. “It often had to do with prenups and money in the bank that she had personally.”