As the US presidential race narrows down to its final nominees, Mrs Trump finally threw her hat in the ring. Where in the beginning, Donald Trump's daughter Ivanka was his 'campaign spouse,' this week, Melania made her first speech at a rally extolling her husband's virtues ("if you attack him, he will punch back 10 times harder"). Delivered in her native Slovenian accent, it marked one of the very few times she has spoken publicly.
From Slovenia to possibly The White House
The Slovenian-born former model's journey from a quiet, communist upbringing to the fashion world in first Europe and then New York, and being courted by Trump, is well documented tabloid-fodder. And as her husband continues to alienate most constituencies from Latinos to women, her taking the mic is being seen as an attempt to woo female voters. Will she finally end up hosting state soirees on the White House lawns? If she does, she's going to be only the second foreign-born first lady (the first was in 1825), and the only one to have posed in the buff.
Nude to rude
Her now-famous-again nude photo spread was shot in 2000 aboard then-boyfriend Trump's private jet, with her sprawled on a fur throw and handcuffed to a briefcase. It came back as a slut-shamey ad ("Meet Melania Trump, your next first lady. Or, you could vote for Ted Cruz"), and though it wasn't Cruz's doing, Trump was having none of it and insulted his rival's wife in return. What followed was perhaps the only time when the nominations race had turned into a slugfest about whose wife was prettier. Trump's machinery has made it clear that Melania's modelling career is not a concern at all, even though a news anchor pointed out that "crowns have been snatched off beauty queens' heads" for less. That her racy pictures are limited to her job might have a hand in the mostly-favourable press she's got so far. She is not said to have been a wild party-girl and has been described by ex-colleagues as a "homebody" and "business-like". She didn't have a string of famous boyfriends like modelling peer and French first lady Carla Bruni, and settled into the role of model wife and mother pretty quick.
More traditional than most?
In 1999, when Trump ran for office as a Reform Party candidate, his year-old girlfriend Melania Knauss was asked hypothetically what kind of first lady she'd make. "I would be very traditional, like Betty Ford or Jackie Kennedy," she replied, never mind a mock Oval Office photoshoot both did later which had a red bikini-clad Melania spread out on a rug bearing the Great Seal of the United States. But despite her modelling run, Mrs Trump is seen as a more traditionally demure spouse than, say, Michelle Obama. Where MO was her husband's law firm mentor, outspoken and often solo campaign trail performer, and a hands-on first lady, Melania has stuck to a more old-school view of what a wife's role should be - standing beside her man but rarely speaking.
Many of the same traditionalists can't wait to see Melania in the White House (even if they can't suffer her husband) just so she 'brings the elegance back.' But that would create its own set of previously un-encountered, err, complications. How do you ask a class to write an essay on the new first lady, for example, without the kids stumbling on to those pics in their first Google search?
Born Melanija Knavs in Slovenia in 1970, she began modelling at 18 in Milan and Paris and moved to New York in 1996. Met Trump at a party in 1998. She was 28, he was 52. He was smitten but she refused to give him her number. After a 5-year courtship, she became Trump's third wife in 2005, marrying him in a $200,000 Dior couture gown. When not taking care of their son Barron, 10, she runs her own jewellery business and beauty line. Her passive role in the public eye is often mocked, with Gawker recently observing that since she got engaged to Trump in 2004, "she has said at least 100 words"
sourcehttp://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/english/hollywood/news/Melania-Trump-A-possible-first-lady-with-many-firsts/articleshow/51743769.cms
WATCH: Melania Trump takes campaign stage for the first time