Melania Trump, the wife of business mogul and former President of the United States, Donald Trump, first came to America to work as a model. Her beauty opened the doors to the fashion industry for her, and she was very successful at what she did.
It was back in 1987 when young Melania decided to drop out of the University of Ljubljana and focus on modeling instead. It took her only a year to get a contract with a modeling agency in Milan.
When she met famous Italian businessman Paolo Zampolli, he helped her get a work visa to the U.S.
Back then, she planned on living in the States but had to travel back home several times to renew her visa.
“I came here for my career, and I did so well, I moved here,” Melania told Harper’s Bazaar. “It never crossed my mind to stay here without papers. That is just the person you are. You follow the rules. You follow the law. Every few months you need to fly back to Europe and stamp your visa.
“After a few visas, I applied for a green card and got it in 2001. After the green card, I applied for citizenship. And it was a long process.”
At a Kit Kat Club event during the New York Fashion Week in 1998, Zampolli brought a friend, Donald Trump. He was with a date that night, but when he saw Melania, he immediately wanted to know more about her.
One of Melania’s friends, Edit Molnar, spoke of that night and explained that Donald asked Melania for her number, but she didn’t give it to him because he wasn’t alone. “Melania said, ‘He’s here with a woman. I am absolutely not giving him my number,’” Molnar told New York Post. “She wouldn’t even consider it. Donald did all the work.”
Melania also spoke of the night she first met Donald Trump. “He wanted my number,” she told Tatler. “But he was on a date, so of course I didn’t give it to him. I said, ‘I am not giving you my number; give me yours and I will call you.’ If I give him my number, I’m just one of the women he calls.”
After they met again, one thing led to another and the two started a relationship. In 2001, at the time Melania got her green card, she was already living at Trump Tower.
They tied the knot some three years later, and in 2006, they welcomed their son Baron Trump.
Melania Trump did end her career as a model, but she never stopped working, regardless of her husband’s enormous wealth.
She has been involved in the fashion industry, more precisely jewelry. She never stopped creating pieces, not even during the time she lived in the White House as a First Lady.
The former model launched her Melania Timepieces and Jewelry collection, for sale on QVC, in 2010. Each of the pieces she created seems to represent her personal aesthetics and fashion style. Melania also marketed a skin care collection at high-end department stores.
It has been reported that according to the White House financial disclosure filing in May 2016, the former First Lady’s company, Melania Marks Accessories Member Corporation, made between $15,000 and $50,000 in royalties per year.
According to Yahoo, her net worth is around $50 million.
However, besides her business, Melania is also involved in a number of charities, including Be Best program, which she launched in 2018. It aims at promoting physical and emotional wellbeing among children.
“Social media can both positively and negatively affect our children. But too often, it is used in negative ways,” she said at the time of the Be Best launch. “When children learn positive online behaviors early on, social media can be used in productive ways.
“I do believe that children should be both seen and heard, and it is our responsibility as adults to educate and remind them that when they are using their voices – whether verbally or online – they must choose their words wisely and speak with respect and compassion.”
Other causes she supports are the Martha Graham Dance Company, The American Red Cross, Love Our Children USA, and the Police Athletic League.
People close to the Trump family claimed Melania wasn’t happy with her husband’s plan to run for president in 2024. Apparently, she didn’t want to return to the White House and believed that political work for the Republican Party is not her job, but her husband’s.
“Being First Lady again is not what she wants,” source told CNN. “For her, it was a chapter — and it’s over, and that’s that.”
However, as we all know, Trump won the elections and will be serving as the President of the United States for four more years, and Melania is supportive of his venture.
In fact, what Melania is best known for is her dedication to her son Barron.
From the moment he was born, she was the one taking care of him, no nannies and no particular help from her husband who was busy doing business.
Over the years, she has been very protective of her son whom she tried to keep out of the spotlight. Barron, just like his mother, tends to keep his life private as much as possible.
When she appeared on Fox News in October, Melania said that as a mother, you should “lead with love and take a child as individual. She added that you should “be cautious and be very loving,” and that speaks volumes of her efforts as a mom.
Speaking of what Barron was like as a child, Melania spoke to Parenting, as quoted by Metro, and said: “In his space, the décor style of the rest of our home is mixed with what he is into: planes and helicopters.
“We let him be creative; let his imagination fly and do whatever he wants. Whatever he wants to do with his own room later on, he can do it. Whatever he wants to do with his own room he can do it. He draws on the walls, we can paint it over.
“When he was smaller, he started drawing on the walls,” she added. “His imagination is growing and important. He draws on the walls in his playroom, we can paint it over. One day he was playing bakery and he wrote ‘Barron’s Bakery’ on the wall with crayons. He is very creative, if you say to a child ‘no, no, no,’ where does the creativity go?”
Like her or hate her, Melania Trump has done an extraordinary job raising her son in a public environment.
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