Melania Trump's 'I Really Don't Care' Jacket Was A Message To Ivanka Trump, New Book Claims

Former First Lady Melania Trump had a lot of battles to fight behind the scenes during her husband's run as President of the United States.

According to a new book, Melania and her stepdaughter, Ivanka Trump, fought over her office space due to her decision at the time to remain in New York for the sake of her son, Barron, to complete his schooling.

The author of the book, Katie Rogers, a White House reporter for the New York Times, claims that Melania's absence left her position vacant and Ivanka eager to fill it.

Following her husband, Donald Trump's win in 2016, Melania shocked many when she revealed her plan to remain in New York to allow a then 10-year-old Barron to complete his school year.

According to Roger's new book (via the Daily Mail), this move by Melania reportedly led to Ivanka's hopes of giving the office space on the East Wing a makeover, one that would be "geared to serving the entire First Family, not just the First Lady."

On getting wind of her stepdaughter's plan, Melania stepped in and stopped it, and shortly after, Ivanka revealed she would be taking on the position of an unpaid adviser in her father's West Wing.

However, that was only the beginning of Melania's four-year "internal power struggle" "with her stepdaughter," whom she dubbed "The Princess."

Within the White House compound, the two women's paths rarely intersected. They were also hardly ever pictured or seen together and never hosted joint projects or events.

According to the news outlet, Rogers' book revealed that Melania had reservations about Trump's other children, Eric and Don Jr. The Slovenia-born former model "did not think that it was appropriate for Trump's children to be enmeshed in White House operations."

Unfortunately, this was another battle she lost as Ivanka and her husband, Jared Kushner, ended up serving as advisers in the West Wing. Eric and Don Jr. also served as key surrogates for their father during his 2016 campaign trail and provided advice to the Trump team.

Melania allegedly proceeded to share her feelings through her clothing, particularly her controversial jacket that had the bold question, "I really don't care. Do U?" written on it.

Melania donned the jacket in June 2018 when she boarded an Air Force plane to visit the Upbring New Hope Children's Shelter in McAllen, Texas, which housed immigrant children who had been separated from their parents during border crossings.

Melania, who immigrated to the U.S. and obtained citizenship in 2006, was instrumental in pressuring Trump to sign an executive order ending the administration's practice of severing families at the border.

Rogers notes in her book, "In large part, the bullheaded Donald had been cowed into action because Melania had been adamant that wrenching children away from their parents was wrong."

Rogers, in her book, claims Stephanie Grisham, a top aide to Melania, revealed that after they returned from their trip to the Upbring New Hope Children's Shelter, Trump pulled the both of them into the Oval Office, where he "yelled at them, and then decided that the official explanation for the jacket would be that Melania was speaking directly to the media."

Melania went along with Trump's plan and told ABC News in an interview that the message on the jacket was "for the people and for the left-wing media who are criticizing me."

"I want to show them that I don't care. You could criticize whatever you want to say, but it will not stop me to do what I feel is right," she claimed at the time.

"It's obvious I didn't wear the jacket for the children," Melania said. "I wore the jacket to go on the plane and off the plane. After the visit, I put it back on because I see how [the] media got obsessed about it."

However, other Trump administration officials claimed that this message was directed to "the Trumps - specifically, the president's eldest daughter, Ivanka."

Roger's book states that Melania and Ivanka, during their years in the White House, "were locked in a quiet competition for press coverage."

The mother of one also wished to express her displeasure of Trump's kids getting involved in White House affairs.

Since Trump's exit from the Oval Office, Melania and Ivanka now seem to be on good terms. The former first daughter notably extended her condolences to Melania following the news of her mother, Amalija Knavs' death. She was also present for Knavs' funeral ceremony.

Rogers' book, "American Woman: The Transformation of the Modern First Lady, from Hillary Clinton to Jill Biden," will be released on Tuesday.