Melania Once Flaunted A Cheap Leather Look Not Even Karoline Leavitt Would Wear

First lady Melania Trump was one of the worst dressed at President Donald Trump's June 2025 military parade, and she reigns as one of the MAGA crew's more fashionably-challenged members with her endless list of big fashion fails, both in her second White House era and the years prior. Melania additionally wore an outfit that not only felt like a crime of its own, but also a travesty not even other MAGA ladies like White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt would dare put on, even if she, too, donned it while working towards a good cause.

On Valentine's Day 2021, Melania, rather than draft a romantic message for her husband, President Donald Trump, admirably used her platform to raise awareness for the terminally ill kids staying at The Children's Inn at NIH on Instagram. She shared photos from her various visits with the children in question. The first showcased Melania not only talking with some of the home's kids, but also wearing a red leather outfit that transformed her from a first lady into a talking Fruit Roll-Up. The number's overly smooth, lustrous material suggested she was possibly wearing faux leather, rather than the real deal. Knowing that Leavitt has also opted for skins to adjust her image, we don't think that even she would ever consider touching what Melania wore.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt has also tried out the style, albeit with polar opposite results. Leavitt put her good girl persona to shame with inappropriate outfits including a black leather pants look that channeled Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders, though it actually worked for her. The press secretary's Instagram also displayed her embracing animal skins with pieces like a brown, sleeveless outfit she sported in an October 6, 2023 post, and a February 18, 2023 photo that showed her, again, rocking leather before her time in office with articles like a black vest.

Meanwhile, Melania hasn't had the same success pulling off any sort of rebel look or stylish vibe with her leather wardrobe. Though leather was a relatively scarce material among the numbers she showed off in both her personal and FLOTUS Instagram accounts, the now-archived flotus45 page yields moments she had it on during her first White House stay. Along with the full post documenting her Children's Inn visit featuring the red leather outfit, Melania aimed for green leather vibes to welcome the Czech Republic's prime minister to The White House in a March 7, 2019 post. Though the latter suit was more extravagant than the former option, we can't deny it still made her look like a walking piece of taffy, rather than a stunning first lady.