Did Melania Trump Copy Erika Kirk? FLOTUS Redeems Leather Style Years After Infamous 'No Pants' Gaffe

For anyone who didn't spend the week doom-scrolling fashion hot takes: FLOTUS handed over her 2025 inaugural ball gown, made with her longtime stylist-designer Hervé Pierre, to the National Museum of American History which added it to its First Ladies display near the 2017 inaugural dress she previously donated; and she did it all in black leather pants and a black blazer that read less 'museum patron' and more 'don't try me.'

Melania Trump's Leather Pants at the Smithsonian

The Smithsonian donation itself followed a well-worn American ritual: first ladies surrender a night's worth of pageantry to the archive, and the country pretends fabric is apolitical while using it to tell stories about power. The Associated Press described the gown as a strapless sheath with white-and-black trim, presented on a mannequin during the handoff.

Alongside it, she also donated a reproduction of the diamond brooch she wore on 20 January 2025—a 1955 Harry Winston design she had borrowed and pinned to a black ribbon choker for the inaugural festivities. When a reporter asked what it felt like to see the dress on display, Trump answered with the kind of clean, locked-down line she favours: 'It's incredible. It's a historic moment.'

If you're reading in the UK and your mental image of the Smithsonian is 'a big museum somewhere in D.C.,' that's close—but it undersells the point. The First Ladies Collection is one of the Smithsonian's long-running public magnets; it began with Helen Taft's donation in 1912, and the exhibition of first ladies' gowns dates back to 1914. Today the collection holds nearly 1,000 objects, and it's curated as part of the museum's political and military history division—because in America, even a hemline can be treated as statecraft.​

Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie G. Bunch III put it plainly in his remarks: 'In many ways, the First Lady's collection is as much a timeline of American history as it is a look in fashion.'

Melania Trump Leather Pants, Then and Now

The leather pants wouldn't be half as interesting if they didn't come with a ghost attached. In December 2018, after trips to Iraq and Germany, Trump stepped out in a green Prada coat and tight, tan leather pants—so close to her skin tone that social media convinced itself she'd forgotten to get dressed.​

USA Today captured the mockery in real time, quoting one user: 'Can someone tell me why @FLOTUS got off of Marine One without pants and shoes and wearing sunglasses at night? I'm legit curious,' while another asked, '@FLOTUS where are your pants? And sunglasses at night? Something isn't right!' The punchline back then wasn't just about trousers; it was about permission—who gets to be 'glamorous,' who gets to be 'ridiculous,' and how quickly the internet flips the sign.

This time, the same silhouette landed differently. Nicki Swift—hardly the Library of Congress, but a reliable barometer of online mood—rounded up admiring posts on X, including: 'Oh God! The dress is beautiful, but I am all for the jacket, leather pants and boots! I would look so beautiful,' and the more chaotic compliment, 'her stylist be TAKIN IT henni.'

And then, inevitably, came the comparison game. Nicki Swift argued Trump's look echoed Erika Kirk—known for turning MAGA appearances into high-glam spectacle, including a Turning Point USA event alongside Vice President JD Vance where Kirk wore skintight black leather pants and a white top with 'Freedom' across the front.

Did Melania Trump 'copy' her? If anything, what she borrowed was the posture: leather as armour, the blunt little thrill of looking out of place on purpose—then letting an institution built to preserve 'history' quietly swallow the gown while the tougher outfit keeps walking.