Title: Unknown Facts About Melania Trump (Updated 2019)
Things you need to know about Melania Trump!
10 - US Citizenship Born on April 26, 1970 in Novo Mesto in Slovenia,
Melania Trump is just the second First Lady to have been born outside of the U.S.
The first?
Well, that would be Louisa Adams, wife of the sixth US President, John Quincy Adams.
She was born in London.
However, she was born as a U.S citizen since her father was an American.
Melania Trump has the unique distinction of being the ONLY First Lady not to have been
born a citizen of the United States.
At the time of her birth, her father managed a car dealership while her mother worked for
a children’s clothing company.
She became a model at age 16.
She first did modeling work in Milan and Paris before landing in New York City in 1996.
10 years later she legally became a citizen after marrying businessman and future President,
Donald Trump.
She’s fluent in an impressive five different languages, including Slovenian, French, German,
Serbian and of course English.
Take that Mary Todd Lincoln!
Just kidding, it’s not a contest.
9 - Wedding Bells Ringing This shouldn’t come as a surprise, seeing
as she married a billionaire.
Well to be fair, she’s actually quite wealthy independently of The Donald due to her own
success in business, but we’ll get to that later.
As we discussed, her beginnings were rather humble, but she has apparently developed a
taste for high society since then.
Take the cost of her wedding for example.
She and President Trump were married at the Mar-a-Lago Ballroom at one of Trump’s resorts
in Palm Beach.
Her dress cost $100,000 while her ring reportedly cost around $1.5 million!
It’s estimated that the ceremony cost an extra $1 million, give or take, which when
you compare that to the average American wedding that costs about $30,000, it seems a bit excessive.
But hey, to each their own.
We just hope it doesn’t end in divorce like President Trump’s two previous marriages.
Having lived the high life in Trump Tower, the move to the White House might actually
be a downgrade for Melania!
8 - “Model” First Lady So we mentioned how she used to be a model
already, keeping in line with Trump’s most consistent policy position, only marrying
models or tv personalities.
What we didn’t tell you was that no other First Lady was a former model.
That’s probably not a huge surprise to you, but it’s still an interesting fact.
And one that her husband’s political enemies tried to exploit.
An Anti-Trump Super PAC cleverly named “Make America Awesome Again” spread a racy photo
around during the Republican Primaries.
Trump was absolutely furious, taking to Twitter as he often does to let off some steam.
Actually, probably a lot of steam the way his twitter history looks.
He accused the Ted Cruz campaign of circulating the photo and promised to “spill the beans”
on Heidi.
This past election kind of felt like the old 19th century politics when candidates used
to smear each other’s wives.
Anyway, she really has had an illustrious career as a model.
She’s appeared in various magazines such as the swimsuit edition of Sports Illustrated,
Vanity Fair, Vogue, GQ, and New York Magazine, just to name a few.
She was even part of Trump Model Management company.
7 - Entrepreneurial Spirit
Even if she never married Donald Trump she would still be a very wealthy woman.
She has an estimated net worth of about $11 million, mostly due to her modeling ability.
But she has also launched some successful businesses, such as her own line of watches,
her own skin care products, and something called Melania Caviar Complexe C6, which we
later found out is a type of anti-aging skin care product.
Much like President Trump, she has a knack for using the courts to her advantage.
In 2013 she sued a small Indianapolis distributor for failing to honor a marketing agreement.
As a result she won the lawsuit and collected a whopping $50 million from the lawsuit.
6.
Age Dynamic
President Trump is the third woman to marry the real estate mogul turned President.
His first two marriages of course ended in divorce after he had affairs.
As such, President Trump is significantly younger than her husband….24 years younger
in fact.
Keep in mind, President Trump’s eldest son Donald Jr. is just eight years younger than
Melania.
Donald Jr. has five kids, the oldest of which is just one year younger than Melania and
President Trump’s son, Barron.
That means that in theory, an uncle and his nephew could go to high school together.
You ever heard that old folk song “I’m my own Grandpa”?
That’s not exactly what’s going on here, but it’s still an odd dynamic...and it’s
a really clever song if you ever get the chance to listen to it.
But hey, age is just a number… though seriously, read up on the history of that song.
A man really can become his own grandfather.
It’s totally possible!
5 - Charity Uncle Ben once told Peter Parker “With great
power comes great responsibility.”
Those words of wisdom come courtesy of Spider Man, and is definitely a truth that Melania
seems to take to heart.
Trump has definitely been afforded a lot in her life, but she seems to also give back
quite a bit.
She has been involved with a number of great charities over the years such as The American
Red Cross, The Boy’s Club of new York, The Breast Cancer Research Foundation, The Police
Athletic League, and the Martha Graham Dance.
During an interview with Barbara Walters, she told Barbara that as the First Lady she
would likely pick a cause very dear to her heart to focus on one hundred percent during
her tenure.
4 - Independent Woman Like the majority of Americans, she doesn’t
agree with some of her husband's hardlined stances or brash demeanor.
With that in mind, she has maintained that she doesn’t try to change her husband’s
mind, even though she often make her opinions known.
Specifically, she told CNN that she wished her husband hadn’t repeated a woman at a
rally who shouted out that Ted Cruz was a beep.
“We are both very independent -- I let him be who he is and he let me be who I am”
She told CNN’s Anderson Cooper.
She went on to say she didn’t like how he always insulted people on social media and
some of the language he used on the campaign trail.
She also claimed that she was surprised by the 2005 leaked audio, but pointed out that
she thought he was being egged on by Billy Bush.
While it may seem a bit odd for the spouse of a politician to disagree with them, it’s
not uncommon for husbands and wives to disagree with each other.
In fact, after a while it probably becomes the rule rather than the exception.
3 - Already Famous
Usually, when someone becomes the first lady, we get to know them in that singular context.
Granted, in the past 70 years, there have been many First Ladies who established their
own legacies, such as Eleanor Roosevelt, Jackie Kennedy, Betty Ford, Nancy Reagan, Hillary
Clinton, and Michelle Obama.
But Melania Trump was already fairly well established.
We’ve already discussed her clout in the modeling industry and her business prowess
when it comes to beauty products and accessories.
All of that is pretty impressive in and of itself.
But she has also been rubbing elbows with societal elites for years.
For instance, check out some of the folks who attended her wedding.
Shaquille O’Neal, Tony Bennett, Regis Philbin, Barbara Walters, Simon Cowell, Kelly Ripa,
Heidi Klum and P. Diddy.
Even Billy Joel performed for them.
Oh yeah, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was there with her husband, former
President, Bill Clinton, if you can believe that.
While Presidents obviously shouldn’t be elected based on their celebrity status, Melania’s
far reaching connections in the business, philanthropy and entertainment industry allow
her to build civic coalitions.
At least we sure hope so!
2 - Speech Problems?
Okay, you may have seen this one coming and yeah, the point has been belabored to some
degree, because it is a legitimate critique.
At the 2016 Republican National Convention, she gave a speech to the convention on its
first night.
Unfortunately, significant portions of the speech appear to have been plagiarized from
Michelle Obama’s at the Democratic National Convention in 2008.
As it turned out, a speechwriter named Meredith McIver who worked for the Trump campaign,
claimed responsibility for the mishap.
She stated that she worked with Melania Trump on her speech, and that the future First Lady
made it clear how much she admired Michelle Obama and how she was inspired by her 2008
Convention speech.
Even President Trump himself, who seems to have a deep dislike for President Obama, tweeted
how good he thought her 2012 speech was.
As the New Yorker pointed out soon after the incident, McIver has worked for the Trump
Organization since 2007.
Obviously she was also doing work for the Trump campaign, which of course is a conflict
of interest that has some blurred lines, something the FEC has rules against.
While this isn’t the scandal of the century or anything, it did raise legitimate concerns
over the character of Trump’s campaign and more abstractly, the potential conflicts of
interest over the course of his presidency, given all of his private business interests
all over the world.
1 - First Lady Heritage
In addition to Michelle Obama, Melania Trump has indicated in the past that she admires
other former first ladies such Betty Ford and Jackie Kennedy.
Mrs. Ford was popular in her own right, but she became the first lady during turbulent
times after Richard Nixon was forced to resign from office.
But Jackie Kennedy seems to exist in a league of her own.
She remains one of the most admired people in the entire world from the 20th century,
as gallup polls have often reflected this sentiment.
As Mrs. Kennedy became an icon for style and beauty, there should be a fairly obvious parallel
here with Melania Trump.
She’s already been hailed as “the most glamorous first lady since Jackie Kennedy”
by Roger Stone.
Additionally, like Jackie O, Melania also appears to be a dedicated mother.
By all accounts, Melania is intensely focused on raising her young son, Barron, in a similar
way that Jackie was with her four children.
Melania Trump had also hinted that her role as First Lady would be more traditional, similar
to that of Mrs. Kennedy.
She at least seems to be drawing from some good examples.
Here’s What’s Next!