Melania Trump's former friend says the first lady wore the controversial 'I really don't care, do u?' jacket to the US border to get media attention

• A former friend of Melania Trump's says the first lady wanted the media's attention when she wore a jacket with the words "I really don't care, do u?" to visit detained children at the US-Mexico border in June 2018.
• Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, who recently published a book on her relationship with the first lady, told CNN she was shocked by the fashion choice.
• But Wolkoff interpreted the statement piece to mean Trump didn't care what either liberals or conservatives had to say about her visiting children separated from their families.

A former friend and adviser to Melania Trump is shedding light on the first lady's decision to wear a jacket that said "I really don't care, do u?" when she visited migrant children separated from their families at the US-Mexico border in June 2018.

Stephanie Winston Wolkoff was asked about the controversial jacket during an appearance on CNN's "New Day" on Wednesday to promote her new book, titled "Melania and Me," about her relationship with the first lady.

The former Vogue staffer and the first lady were friends for 15 years before Wolkoff's work on the 2017 presidential inauguration was criticized, and she was let go from her position at the White House in February 2018.

Wolkoff said when she first saw pictures of the jacket she couldn't believe it and initially thought they had been digitally altered.

"When she and I spoke about it afterwards, I told her I would have jumped on her," Wolkoff said, adding: "And Melania told me 'Nobody would be able to jump on me.' Because Melania makes her own decisions."

Wolkoff said she believed Trump wore the jacket to get the media's attention.

"She wanted everyone to know that she went to the border," Wolkoff said. "She did not feel the press would cover a good deed — she felt the press only wanted to cover something that was damaging to the administration."

The family separations at the border had been a result of President Donald Trump's crackdown on illegal immigration at the time.

"So in other words, just so I understand this, that was an attention-grabbing stunt that she intentionally did because she knew that it could get press attention?" CNN's Alisyn Camerota asked.

"Right, and I don't think she realized that it would get the negative attention," Wolkoff responded.

To which Camerota asked: "How could she not know that a jacket that says she doesn't care as she goes to see children wouldn't get negative attention?"

Wolkoff went on to say she thought the first lady was trying to say that she didn't care what politicians thought about her trip and that her office should have focused on that in its response to the blowback instead of saying there was no meaning behind the jacket. (Melania Trump had later told ABC that there was "a kind of message" to the jacket.)

"The interpretation that I took from it, from someone knowing her, was: 'Oh my God, Melania, why didn't your office come out and say, 'I don't care what liberals say, I don't care what conservatives say, I don't care what anybody says, I'm doing the right thing and I'm going to the border.'"

She added: "That's the messaging, because I do think deep in her heart, that was there, but it got so convoluted."

Business Insider has contacted the White House for comment on Wolkoff's remarks.

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