Parents named her Melania Knavs. The world now knows her as the former first lady of the United States, Melania Trump. She was born on April 26, 1970 in Novo Mesto, Slovenia. During her childhood in the city of Sevnica, her father sold cars, while her mother worked in the textile industry. Melania Knavs was nevertheless interested in fashion, recalls her former school friend, Mirjana Jelančič.
“She also liked to create new clothes from old ones,” said Jelančič. She stopped her university studies and, under the new name Melania Knauss, pursued a modeling career in Europe. In the 1990s, success took him to the United States.
“As a model and someone who was often invited to lavish parties in New York, I understand that’s how she met Donald Trump,” said history professor Katherine Jellison from Ohio University. Melania Knauss became Melania Trump on January 22, 2005, and gave birth to her first and only son, Barron, a year later. In the same year, she also became an American citizen. Melania Trump’s life took another turn when her husband ran for president of the United States in 2016 with the Republican Party and she joined him in the electoral campaign.
“It’s wonderful to be here today with you and my husband. I am very proud of him”, she said at the time.
Donald Trump was sworn in as the 45th president of the United States in January 2017. As first lady, Melania Trump traveled around the world and undertook projects such as the “Be the Best” campaign that focuses on children’s well-being, Internet safety and opioid abuse. She kept a lower profile than many first ladies, but still faced intense media attention, according to Jellison.
“She was criticized in some quarters for her fashion choices, for her decision not to move into the White House right away, for her ‘Be the Best’ campaign, which was not one of the service’s most successful projects public from a first lady”, she said.
After leaving the White House, Melania Trump practically left the public eye. She has reappeared time and time again to support her husband’s candidacy for re-election. And to promote her memoir. “Writing these memoirs has been a deeply personal and reflective journey for me,” said Melania Trump. Wisconsin voter Austin Smith voted for Republican candidate Donald Trump in 2016. He expressed his hopes for Melania Trump’s possible return to the White House.
“I’d like her to maybe take on some pet projects. One thing I’m very passionate about is, for example, the issue of food in schools,” said Smith.
Democratic voter Jasleen Kaur would like Melania Trump to be an “influential first lady.”
“Going out and talking to urban communities, going out across the country making myself known, not just as a figure behind the president, but as a woman with some kind of power,” Kaur said. Analyst Jellison, however, thinks that as a second-term first lady, Melania Trump would probably continue to, for the most part, avoid the spotlight.
