Donald Trump Isn’t Very Pleased With Tom Ford’s Comments About Dressing Melania

Intentionally or not, Tom Ford ignited an industry-wide conversation (and speculation) about which designers will dress Melania Trump when she officially becomes First Lady when he told The View: "She’s not necessarily my image." He went on to elaborate his reasoning at the Golden Globes, when told Elle that he believes both POTUS and FLOTUS should wear "clothes at a price point that are accessible to most Americans" — which Ford's very expensive, Italian-made garments are not. More designers have since come forward with their own reasons for why they would or wouldn't want to attire the incoming FLOTUS — and Donald Trump is speaking out about Ford's original comments in a new interview with Fox & Friends. Unsurprisingly, he's not pleased. Fox's Ainsley Earhardt sat down with the president-elect in Trump Tower days before his inauguration. As more politicians and celebrities have declined invitations or even boycotted the event, the topic of who's actually going to be attending the inauguration came up. Earhardt asked him about designers like Tom Ford, who explicitly stated he wouldn't be dressing the incoming FLOTUS for the Inauguration. "[Melania] never asked Tom Ford," Trump said. "Doesn't like Tom Ford, doesn't like his designs," he continued. This, of course, goes against the comments made by the designer: Ford said he had turned down an opportunity to dress Mrs. Trump years ago — and explained that, if asked again, he would decline. "He was never asked [for the inauguration]," Trump said. Trump went on to describe a call he reportedly had with Steve Wynn, CEO of Wynn Resorts, in which he says the hotel entrepreneur voiced disapproval of Ford's comments. "Steve Wynn just called, and he said he thought it was so terrible what Tom Ford said that he threw his clothing out of his Las Vegas hotel," Trump told Earhardt. Wynn's two properties in Las Vegas are his namesake hotel and the Encore at Wynn — and though both feature shopping "Esplanades" filled with designer boutiques, neither hotel houses Tom Ford flagships. (The designer does have a store in Las Vegas at The Shops at Crystal, located on the other end of the Strip, and his clothes are sold at a Neiman Marcus at the Fashion Show mall, which is across the street from Wynn.) In a statement obtained by Refinery29, a representative for Wynn Las Vegas confirmed that it removed Tom Ford cosmetics and sunglasses from the resort this past weekend. Later in the interview, Trump went on to address another wardrobe-related rumour surrounding the upcoming inauguration: "I was told some of the dress shops in Washington, you can't get a dress anymore," he told Fox, repeating a false claim he first espoused to The New York Times earlier this month that was very quickly disproven by local retailers — or, in the words of the president-elect: "Wrong!" You can watch the full interview on Fox. This story has been updated with a statement from Wynn Hotels.