Meryl Streep calls out that Melania Trump's fashion isn't neutral

Meryl Streep felt disgusted over First Lady, Melania Trump’s fashion sense, questioning the message she portrays through her dressing.

In a recent interview with Vogue magazine, the Oscar-winning actress showed up alongside Anna Wintour to promote the release of The Devil Wears Prada 2.

Streep reprises her role as Oscar-nominated role as fashion magazine boss Miranda Priestly in the upcoming sequel to the fashion movie.

Wintour turned the conversation towards Melania Trump, which pushed Streep to pass her comments on the first lady, in the presence of moderator Greta Gerwig.

“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, referring to Melania’s controversial outfit worn in June 2018.

Streep added that her “dress is about expressing yourself, but we’re also subject to larger historical and political sweeps of expectation.”

At the time, Melania later told ABC the coat “was a kind of message, yes,” clarifying she did not wear it “for the children” but for critics and the “left-wing media,” adding, “I want to show them I don’t care… it will not stop me.”

Taking that comment into view, Streep shared her thoughts on how female fashion is practiced in the bigger picture.

“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,” she said. “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.’”

Streep’s critique signals that fashion isn’t neutral; it signals power, privilege, and politics. Melania’s jacket moment still reads tone-deaf, despite her explanation.