Trump attacked Michelle Obama for visiting Saudi Arabia without a headscarf. Melania Trump is now doing exactly that.


President Trump began his first tour abroad since taking office with a visit to Saudi Arabia on Saturday, where he is accompanied by first lady Melania Trump as well as his daughter, Ivanka Trump.
Neither woman is wearing a headscarf in the traditional Saudi style, which is not unusual. Though Saudi women are legally required to wear a head covering and a long, typically dark robe called an abaya when appearing in public, visiting Western women usually wear conservative dresses and leave their heads uncovered. See, for example, these photos of British Prime Minister Theresa May, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and former first lady Michelle Obama in Saudi Arabia in recent years:
So the Trump ladies' choice would be a non-story — except for this old tweet from President Trump, in which he attacked Obama for her choice:
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Trump's Twitter also boasts a lengthy archive of criticism of the country he now says it is a "great honor" to visit, including accusing Riyadh of "paying ISIS."
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Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.
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