Meryl Streep has weighed in on Donald Trump‘s wife Melania Trump‘s controversial fashion moment in 2018. In a recent discussion with Anna Wintour, the Oscar-winning star spoke about the incident and women’s fashion in general.
Meryl Streep calls out Melania Trump’s 2018 fashion choice
Meryl Streep recently sat down with Anna Wintour for a chat as they shared the frame for Vogue‘s May 2026 cover. At one point during the conversation, Wintour mentioned Melania Trump, prompting Streep to share her thoughts on the First Lady’s 2018 controversial outfit.
“I think the most… powerful message that our current first lady sent was in the coat that said ‘I Really Don’t Care, Do U?’ when she was going to see migrant children who were incarcerated,” Streep stated. “All dress is about expressing yourself, but we’re also subject to larger historical and political sweeps of expectation,” she added.
Melania Trump raised eyebrows during her trip to a migrant child detention centre in 2018, when she wore a green jacket embossed with the message, “I Really Don’t Care, Do U?” At the time, she responded to the backlash, explaining, “It’s obvious I didn’t wear the jacket for the children, I wore the jacket to go on the plane and off the plane.” The First Lady stated that she directed the message at “the left-wing media who are criticizing me (via ABC).”
Streep went on to discuss women’s fashion more broadly. She noted, “I’m stunned at how women in power have to have bare arms on television while men are covered in shirts and ties or a suit. There’s an apology built into women. They have to show their smallness. It’s compensatory: The advancements of women in the second half of the 20th century and the beginning of this one have been destabilizing. It’s as if women have to say, ‘I’m little. I can’t walk in these shoes. I can’t run. I’m bare, not threatening.'”
Meanwhile, fans are excited to see Streep reprise her role as Miranda Priestly in The Devil Wears Prada 2. The highly anticipated sequel returns with the original cast, including Anne Hathaway, Emily Blunt, and Stanley Tucci. The movie also stars Justin Theroux, Kenneth Branagh, Lucy Liu, Simone Ashley, and more. It arrives in theaters on May 1, 2026.
Originally reported by Namrata Ghosh on Mandatory.
