Yes, the “you can’t make this shit up” file is bursting and we have to get another cabinet. Or maybe rent another floor, at the rate things are going.

x The most amazing thing... Zara, the brand that made MelaniaÃ¢ÂÂs Ã¢ÂÂI donÃ¢ÂÂt careÃ¢ÂÂ jacket that she wore to visit a child internment camp, has come under fire in the past for designing clothes that look exactly like Holocaust uniforms. You canÃ¢ÂÂt make this shit up. pic.twitter.com/mkvMCtnq4B — Molly (@isteintraum) June 21, 2018

x Hey @ZARA ! What the ell is wrong with you?! pic.twitter.com/5Xm4TfDvIH — Carolina Farraj Ã¢ÂÂ (@Carolinafarraj) August 27, 2014

Zara claimed that their shirt was modeled on the star that a wild west sheriff would wear, but Marshall Dillon never wore stripes, horizontal or vertical. Neither did The Rifleman.

ABC News This isn't the brand’s first misstep in regards to Nazi-inspired clothing. In 2007, the brand removed from stores a line of handbags with a symbol on them that resembled a swastika.

And still they didn’t learn. Here’s another faux pas.

x So Zara is selling 'White Is The New Black" t-shirts http://t.co/cCLc06EUef pic.twitter.com/lb63a7zNwu — Global Grind (@GlobalGrind) August 12, 2014

x Dumb, why would you think creating a shirt that says "White is The New Black" would not be controversial. — erin ashley (@bellametaphor) August 13, 2014

I’m not advocating that we indulge any further in Melania Meta, there’s been quite enough of that already. My bottom line is simple: Donald Trump is a fascist. I don’t think that a saint would be married to a fascist, but you can make of it what you will. I don’t think any of this is coincidence, and I absolutely don’t think that it’s “no big deal,” and the snowflakes are getting all worked up over nothing once again. Two columnists summed up my thoughts better than I can do myself. Michelle Goldberg, New York Times:

In the early days of Donald Trump’s regime, Benjamin Wittes, editor of the Lawfare blog, coined an oft-repeated phrase about the president’s first, slapdash Muslim ban: “malevolence tempered by incompetence.” It’s a useful formulation; Trump’s fascist instincts would be much more dangerous if he had the discipline to pursue them systematically instead of spasmodically. [...] On Thursday, the first lady, Melania Trump, visited a facility housing migrant children near the border. Inexplicably, as she boarded her flight to Texas, she wore a jacket that said on the back, in large white letters, “I Really Don’t Care. Do U?” It’s hard to tell whether incompetence or malevolence was behind her choice, but we should take her sartorial taunt as a challenge. Nationwide demonstrations against the president’s family separation policy are planned for June 30. Trump’s executive order hasn’t made them any less necessary.

In an illuminating piece, The King and Queen Of Cruelty, Charles M. Blow of the New York Times called Melania “tone deaf” and “Marie Antoinette-ish.” At the very least.

It’s not that Trump and his family don’t understand the downside of imposing even the smallest amount of stress on children. It’s just that they value different children in differing degrees. Melania Trump clearly thought that it was too traumatic to move the couple’s young son to Washington during the school year, so she stayed with him in New York, costing taxpayers tens of millions of dollars for security. As Ms. Trump told Us Weekly in January 2016 about talking to the couple’s son about potentially moving to Washington: “At that age, it’s hard to explain to them. … I tell him: Take it day by day, enjoy your life, live your meaningful life as I like to do. … Of course, at that age, every child would worry, especially if they love school, if they love friends; they don’t want to lose that. Everything is a new opportunity and it brings new friends and a new school. You never know, you never know what happens. Enjoy it day by day, live your life and don’t stress yourself.” No, please don’t stress yourself. Stress is for poor people, like immigrants.

I’m sick and tired of people making excuses for this woman. The handwriting has been on the wall for some time and now it’s on the coat. The King and Queen of Cruelty are rich white trash, they have no class and they have no honor. She might be trolling Trump from time to time, but today she trolled us.

Mrs. Trump often seems to be using her clothes as a sort of private diary, yet one that is parsed by millions who don’t have the rest of the text. Between intention and analysis an enormous gulf can exist. It’s a risky approach to her role. And as interesting as the idea might be, this time it may have backfired.

[cross-posted to PolitiZoom]