CNN political commentator and frequent Trump critic Ana Navarro quipped on Friday that first lady Melania Trump was trying to “self-deport from the White House.”
Navarro appeared on “The View,” where she discussed Trump’s surprise visit on Thursday to the U.S.–Mexico border to meet with migrant children who were separated from their parents.
The panel was debating whether Trump traveled to the Texas detention center to spite her husband.
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“We all know that this is a very complicated marriage,” Navarro said. “I thought she was trying to self-deport from the White House.”
The first lady was born in Slovenia and became a U.S. citizen in 2006.
Co-host Meghan McCain said Trump’s decision to travel south was a political move to combat the national backlash surrounding the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” immigration policy.
“It’s damage control but it’s effective,” McCain said. “She is by far the most popular Trump.”
The zero tolerance policy, implemented by the Trump administration earlier this year, seeks to aggressively prosecute migrants who cross the southern border into the U.S. illegally, often resulting in a separation of children from their parents.
Caving to intense bipartisan pressure, President Trump reversed his policy separating migrant families at the border by signing an executive order to stop the practice.
The first lady’s trip was riddled with controversy after she was photographed boarding her flight to Texas in a jacket that read “I really don’t care. Do U?” on the back.
While Melania Trump’s spokeswoman, Stephanie Grisham, downplayed the wardrobe selection as “just a jacket” and said there “was no hidden message,” President Trump suggested that the jacket’s message was intentional.
“‘I REALLY DON’T CARE, DO U?’ written on the back of Melania’s jacket, refers to the Fake News Media. Melania has learned how dishonest they are, and she truly no longer cares!” the president tweeted Thursday afternoon.