Fact check: Photo of Melania Trump wearing Russian hat with Soviet army badge is fake, Facebook didn't remove it
Earlier this month, a meme claimed that a photo of Melania Trump wearing a Russian hat with a Soviet army badge was removed by Facebook. However, there is no truth to this claim. In the snap in question, the first lady was seen donning a traditional Russian fur hat called an ushanka, with a badge featuring a wheat wreath, red star and hammer and sickle emblazoned in the middle. The one who posted the picture, captioned it, "Our First Lady I [sic] posted this yesterday FB took it down make it viral.”
However, according to the debunking website, Snopes, the post was a hoax and seemed to have been rehashed from memes that occurred in January and November 2019 which all showed the mother of one wearing an ushanka. The only difference was that in the July 2020 meme, the creators digitally added a Soviet army badge to the front of Trump’s hat. The badge appears to come from the uniform of a Soviet Red Army soldier in the 1980s. And the specific image seemed to have been digitally photoshopped into Melania's hat after it was lifted from a photograph of an ushanka available for sale on Amazon.
Melania did don an ushanka back on February 7, 2007, for the Michael Kors Fall Collection fashion show in New York City in a photo taken by Getty Images photographer Patrick McMullan. She had attended the fashion show with her husband, President Donald Trump, who was a business mogul back then and was seen accompanying the FLOTUS as they watched the show. It was not unusual for Melania to be invited to fashion shows as she herself was a model and was dating a very prominent figure. However, Melania never personally posted any picture of her wearing the hat. As a result, Facebook never removed any said image.
This was not the first time that something Melania wore became a viral meme on the internet. Earlier this month, the Alexander McQueen dress she wore on July 3 for an event in Mount Rushmore, celebrating Independence Day, was mocked relentlessly by Twitter users. Melania was seen wearing a white sleeveless dress paired with a black belt, featuring a pattern with random lines all over. On noticing the first lady's attire for the evening, internet users quickly took to Twitter to mock her. A majority of them used the opportunity to make fun of Trump, saying he is responsible for the lines on Melania’s dress.
One user joked, "Donald Trump got bored and drew all over Melania's white dress with a sharpie on Air Force One." Another took a dig at the first lady’s dress saying, “Apparently Trump tried to draw a hurricane path on Melania's dress." Another user expressed their disapproval of her dress saying, "What the f**k is up with Melania's dress? Looks like abstract drawings of nudes, or somebody let #Trump have possession of a Sharpie again."
Many Trump supporters, however, stood up in defense of the first lady. "Social media made fun of Melania's dress last night saying president Trump scribbled on it with a marker. It is a dress designed by Alexander McQueen using sketches drawn by victims of child sexual abuse to describe their feelings. Our first lady is incredible," said a tweet. Posts like these started going viral on social media.
However, the claim that the dress featured drawings by children who had been victims of sexual abuse is not true. According to Express, the dress actually included sketches done by students during a life drawing class. It was developed by McQueen in collaboration with art students. The designs, which were inspired by life drawings, are hand-stitched onto the linen dress. The dress was designed for the brand’s Spring 2020 collection. Another article published in Glass magazine in May 2020 reported that the sketches on the dress were designed by students from the London arts and design college, Central Saint Martins, who made “continuous, spontaneous sketches” of dancing girls. The life-drawing class held at the educational space at the Alexander McQueen London flagship store last year.