Donald Trump’s old tweets keep coming back to haunt him. This time, they followed him to Saudi Arabia, during his first trip overseas as President of the United States.
In 2015, half a year before he announced he was running for president, Trump criticized then-First Lady of the United States Michelle Obama for not wearing a headscarf over her hair during a trip to Saudi Arabia.
But when Trump and his family visited the Islamic nation this weekend, people noticed that his wife Melania Trump and daughter Ivanka Trump did the exact same thing.
Melania Trump wore loose-fitting conservative outfits to the Islamic nation, much like Obama did during her 2015 trip to Saudi Arabia. Trump was seen wearing a black Stella McCartney jumpsuit covered most of her arms and legs, and was accentuated with a gold belt and chain-link necklace. Ivanka Trump wore a long-sleeved floral dress that reached above the ankles.
Once photos of the Trumps in Saudi surfaced online, people were quick to dig up the president’s old tweet and point out his hypocrisy.
Saudia Arabia has a strict dress code that requires Saudi women to wear long black robes, known as abayas, and to cover their hair in public. However, foreign diplomats or politicians aren’t required to cover their hair during visits to the country.
Middle East politics expert Christopher Davidson told NBC News that it’s “perfectly tasteful and appropriate” for prominent women, including the Trumps and Mrs. Obama, to forego headscarves during their visits to the kingdom.
“We’ve now had a number of prominent Western women who have visited Saudi in recent months, Angela Merkel and Theresa May,” Davidson said. “Neither of them covered their hair and they both wore trouser suits.”
Journalist Joyce Karam also pointed out that several other First Ladies and female American politicians have visited the country sans headscarf in the past, including Hillary Clinton, Barbara Bush and Laura Bush.
(Laura Bush briefly wore a head scarf, which was gifted to her, during a trip to Saudi Arabia, though she did not wear it for the entire visit, according to The Guardian.)
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