Protesters confront Melania Trump with giant inflatable Donald Trump wearing a KKK robe
Melania Trump may have dodged another style scandal by leaving her “I really don’t care, do u?” jacket at home, but Thursday’s trip to Arizona to tour migrant detention centers wasn’t without some drama.
As Kate Bennett, CNN’s first-lady correspondent, noted, protesters in Phoenix awaited the first lady’s arrival alongside a large, inflatable replica of President Trump. POTUS appeared to be wearing a suit underneath a white robe marked with the KKK insignia, a hood in his right hand.
Giant inflatable Donald Trump in what appears to be KKK costume w some protesters out front near facility where @FLOTUS is arriving pic.twitter.com/ifOeYImdhf
— Kate Bennett (@KateBennett_DC) June 28, 2018
Matthew Casey, a reporter for the local public radio station KJZZ, added that the 30 or so protesters were playing N.W.A’s controversial 1988 rap, “F*** Tha Police” as they stood across the street from the Southwest Key Campbell immigration facility.
About 30 protesters are waiting for Melania Trump across the street from a Southwest Key facility in west Phoenix. pic.twitter.com/APNHKcYh3Z
— Matthew Casey (@MatthewCasey3) June 28, 2018
The first lady was able to avoid an awkward confrontation by entering the building through the back, Casey wrote for KJZZ’s Fronteras.
“She looks like a coward,” activist Maria Cruz Ramirez told Casey. “She had to go in from the back.”
“Melania Trump came here because she wants a public relations statement,” fellow protester Lupe Conchas added. “She does not care about these children.”
Meanwhile, Bennett reported that the first lady met staff and detained children, including babies, during her visit.
Not going to sugarcoat how difficult that was to see, especially the babies and toddlers, three of whom were with their mothers because those mothers were also minors. @flotus crouched on the ground to play with the babies, and ask questions of the caretakers.
— Kate Bennett (@KateBennett_DC) June 28, 2018
It’s not the first time the president’s image has been used in a controversial manner. Earlier this year, a California Spanish class came under fire for bashing a piñata modeled after Trump, while activists have prepared a Trump “baby blimp” ahead of his visit to the U.K. on July 13.
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