Meryl Streep Calls Out Melania Trump's Controversial Fashion Choice

In the April Vogue cover story, iconic actress Meryl Streep criticized Melania Trump's 2018 fashion choice of wearing a jacket with the phrase "I Really Don't Care, Do U?" during a visit to migrant children.

Streep discussed the incident with the magazine's equally iconic global editorial director Anna Wintour and moderator and filmmaker Greta Gerwig as part of a promotional tour for the upcoming sequel, The Devil Wears Prada 2, set for release in May, highlighting the political weight of clothing.

The record-setting 21-time nominated, 3-time Oscar-winning Streep called the jacket the "most powerful message" sent by the former first lady, noting that while a dress is self-expression, it is subject to "historical and political sweeps of expectation.”

“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 said of Trump’s much-maligned 2018 jacket. “All dress is about expressing yourself, but we’re also subject to larger historical and political sweeps of expectation.”

Trump blasted the criticism at the time, telling ABC, “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. It was for the people and for the left-wing media who are criticizing me. I want to show them I don’t care. You could criticize whatever you want to say. But it will not stop me to do what I feel is right.”

Streep, who is reportedly still dating actor Martin Short, expanded her critique to broader double standards, stating she is "stunned" that women in power are often expected to have "bare arms on television" while men are fully covered in suits.

The Sophie's Choice actress suggested that certain fashion expectations for women act as a "compensatory" apology for their advancements, forcing them to present themselves as "little" or "non-threatening".

"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,'" she said.

The 76-year-old actress, who revisits her Oscar-nominated, Wintour-inspired role as Miranda Priestley in the new sequel, has been a vocal critic of President Donald Trump, famously blasting him in her 2017 Golden Globes Cecil B. DeMille Award acceptance speech in which she condemned the then-president-elect for his mockery of a disabled reporter, Serge Kovaleski, during the campaign.

She described the moment as "heartbreaking" and "real life," arguing that when powerful public figures use their positions to bully or humiliate, they set a dangerous example for society.

Following Donald's retaliatory tweets calling her "one of the most over-rated actresses in Hollywood," Meryl quipped at a Human Rights Campaign gala that she was indeed the "most over-rated, over-decorated, and over-berated actress" of her generation.

As of early 2026, Melania, 55, is ranked among the least popular modern U.S. first ladies, often cited as the second least popular among 11 recent first ladies, with a roughly -16 net rating.

Her 2018 Zara jacket remains her most controversial and poorly rated fashion choice.