People are calling actor Chris Meloni sexist for tweeting a naked picture of Melania Trump

Law and Order actor Chris Meloni appears to be courting controversy after he tweeted a naked picture of Melania Trump from her modelling days.

He captioned the tweet with a quote from the first lady:

‘Focus on what I do, not what I wear’

Our First Lady.

Meloni’s tweet is a tongue-in-cheek response after the first lady’s wardrobe choices in Egypt - during a wider visit to Africa - were criticised for being "colonial".

People on social media had compared her outfit to that of Colonel Sanders or Meryl Streep from her role in Out of Africa.

She had lamented:

I wish people would focus on what I do, not what I wear.

Meloni’s tweet went down like a lead balloon, with Democrats and Republicans temporarily casting aside differences in what appeared to be a united front.

One person wrote: "This is really sexist. She was a model, she was working at her job as a model, and this was her job to be photographed this way. It’s really really uncool to show the photos of her working as though it were an expression of her true self."

Others criticised Meloni of shaming the first lady based on a job she used to have.

The tweet is decidedly tone deaf.

Others are calling for Meloni to delete the tweet and apologise for engaging in slut shaming.

Despite criticism, Meloni didn’t back down. In a set of follow up tweets, he responded to one person asking him to take it down: ‘Why take it down? Help me to understand.’

In another, in which he responded to someone who says his tweet disrespects models, he said:

“What I wear”: she’s not wearing anything! I thought that was meh funny

The other pic- “focus what I do” part, with her on the wing of a jet wearing a bikini and wacky shoes pointing a gun- THAT, to me was also ironic/funny

It seems to be the nudity that ppl got a hang up with

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