Does Melania Trump Use Fashion To Protest Her Husband?

In the time since Omarosa Manigault Newman left the White House in December, she’s left a trail of scorched Earth behind her. On Tuesday, the former assistant to President Donald Trump and director of communications for the Office of Public Liaison released a deep-dive into what it was like to work under the current administration. In Unhinged: An Insider’s Account of the Trump White House, Omarosa claims, among other things, that Trump is currently in a state of mental decline, and that he’s a racist who has used the N-Word during a taping for his show The Apprentice. (Trump says those claims are untrue and lashed out this morning, calling her “a dog.”) Omarosa also says that First Lady Melania Trump is using her clothing as a way to get under her husband’s skin.

The Daily Mail published an excerpt of Omarosa’s book, where the former reality star writes: “Taken as a whole, all of [Melania Trump's] style rebellions have served the same purpose, and not only misdirection and distraction — strategies her husband knows all too well. I believe Melania uses style to punish her husband.” And she isn’t alone in her speculations. The Internet also likes to impose narratives on FLOTUS based on her sartorial choices. (Example: After wearing a white suit to the State of the Union address in January, it was suggested she was aligning herself with the suffragette movement). But that doesn't change the fact that all of her outfits have all been worn as she stands beside her husband (when she does decide to appear in public at all) as he continues to make inflammatory remarks about (and carry out terrible measures against) women, immigrants, Blacks, the news media, and more.

Sorry, Omarosa, but we think you're reading way too much into it. In her book, she calls out four specific looks as examples of Trump trying to embarrass her husband, to which we call bullshit. Here's why.