There’s no proof that Sigmund Freud ever acknowledged that “sometimes a cigar is just a cigar,” but whoever coined the phrase was certainly onto something. Not everything is chockfull of hidden meanings.
Including a hat.
With its ratings in freefall, MSNBC returned to its old-school journalistic roots, publishing today an introspective, hard-hitting, no-holds-barred psychoanalysis of the incoming first lady’s headwear: “The Message Behind Melania Trump’s Hat.”
(Well! If that doesn’t jumpstart its ratings, nothing will.)
Hannah Holland, an MSNBC producer and writer, penned this Pulitzer-worthy article. In her opinion:
Much has been made on social media likening Melania’s hat and outfit to mourning attire. I disagree. The apparently intentional obstruction of her face, all but entirely eliminating our ability to build connection with her as our first lady through our television screens, doesn’t read as somber. The dark palette was not chosen so she would be relegated to the background, unseen in a sea of men’s overcoats. No. This hat feels defiant. If you like the metaphor of fashion as armor, then Melania’s hat is a shield — separating us from them.
Okey dokey.
Now, I’m decidedly NOT a fashionista. (I’m a t-shirt, blue jeans, and flip-flops kind of guy.) But in my uneducated view, Melania’s hat doesn’t look like a shield.
It looks… like a hat.
'She's dressed for America's funeral': Melania Trump's hat takes spotlight at inauguration https://t.co/2B1A2OwipJ
— indy100 (@indy100) January 21, 2025
And if it's a shield, it’s not preventing the new president from getting some sweet sugar:
What Melania Trump wore to the inauguration — including the hat https://t.co/XV8PadYuuk
— The Associated Press (@AP) January 21, 2025
Jimmy Fallon — one of the interchangeable Jimmies occupying space on late-night TV — mocked Melania for wearing a “Hamburgler” hat, proving once again that ridiculing a woman’s appearance is only appropriate if she’s a Republican. (Not to be mean, but if you look at Jill Biden, Kamala Harris, Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi, and Melania Trump — and then decide that Melania is the goofy-looking one — there’s something wrong with you.)
Jimmy Fallon Mocks Melania for Wearing "Hamburglar" Hat At Inauguration | Click to read more 👇 https://t.co/XKcqxqBrt1
— TMZ (@TMZ) January 21, 2025
Stay classy, Jimmy!
Hannah Holland is 100% convinced that Melania’s outfit wasn’t just selected because it looked great (which it did). Nah, it was clearly a “code” of some sort — the kind of code that only a liberal journalist could decipher. Here were Holland’s closing remarks:
Melania’s outfit, austere and darkly beautiful, unapproachable and severe, conveys a steely readiness and an intentional distance. We do not get access to her, perceived or otherwise. As if to say, the next four years, it seems, are going to be as dire as they seem.
That final sentence was a doozy, wasn’t it? (Even Kamala was like, “Yo, too much word salad, girlfriend!”) But it demonstrates the mens rea of the modern Democratic Party: Everything is always a conspiracy.
Because when Biden was president, everything really was a conspiracy! Forget about an emperor with no clothes — for four long years, we had a president without a brain. Minus their sycophants in the media (and enablers on Capitol Hill), Biden would’ve been “outed” as an invalid years ago.
Now that’s one helluva conspiracy!
In retrospect, we still have no idea if the many calamities that befell us — the Afghanistan withdrawal, unchecked immigration, sky-high inflation, foreign conflicts, corruption, drone attacks, and Los Angeles burning to the ground — were the byproduct of senility.
Furthermore, we still don’t know the extent of Biden’s decline. All we know is that the media refused to cover it, despite ample evidence to the contrary. (Speaker Mike Johnson’s recent anecdote is chilling.) I guess it just wasn’t enough of a priority for D.C. journalists.
Unlike Melania’s hat, of course.
Such are the priorities of MSNBC’s mad hatters.
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