USA: Melania Trump Is First Lady Of The United States

Melania Trump is the First Lady of the United States and the third and current wife of President of the United States Donald Trump.

She was born in the city of Novo Mesto, in what was then the Socialist Republic of Slovenia within the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, today a part of the Republic of Slovenia.

She became a permanent resident of the United States in 2001, and obtained U.S. citizenship in 2006.

Prior to marrying Donald Trump, she worked as a fashion model.

Trump is the first and only naturalized U.S. citizen to become First Lady, and the second foreign-born First Lady after natural-born U.S. citizen Louisa Adams who was born in London to an American father.

Melanija Knavs was born in Novo Mesto in the southeast of Slovenia, which was then part of Yugoslavia, on April 26, 1970. She is a daughter of Amalija and Viktor Knavs, who managed car and motorcycle dealerships for a state-owned vehicle manufacturer.

Her father was from the nearby town of Radece.Her mother came from the village of Raka,and was a patternmaker at the children's clothing manufacturer "Jutranjka" in Sevnica.When later working as a model, she changed the Slovene form of her last name Knavs to the German Knauss.

She grew up in a modest apartment in a housing block in Sevnica, in Slovenia's Lower Sava Valley.She has a sister and an elder half-brother, whom she reportedly has never met, from her father's previous relationship.

As the Communist Party in Slovenia upheld atheism, Melania's father did not sponsor her Christian sacraments of baptism or first communion.

When she was a teenager, the family moved to a two-story house in Sevnica,and as a high school student, she lived in a high-rise apartment in Ljubljana. Melanija attended the Secondary School of Design and Photography in Ljubljana,and studied at the University of Ljubljana for one year before dropping out.

She declares speaking English, French, Italian, and German, in addition to Serbo-Croatian and her native Slovene.

Knauss began modeling at age 5 and started doing commercials when she posed for the Slovenian fashion photographer Stane Jerko. At 18, she signed with a modeling agency in Milan, Italy.She was named runner-up in the 1992 Jana Magazine "Look of the Year" contest, held in Ljubljana, which promised its top three contestants an international modeling contract.

After attending the University of Ljubljana for one year, she modeled for fashion houses in Milan and Paris, and relocated to New York City in 1996.Her work began prior to receiving a legal work visa. In the United States she appeared on the covers of In Style Weddings, New York Magazine, Avenue,Philadelphia Style,Vanity Fair and Vogue.

She modeled for the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue in 2000.Her modeling career was associated with Irene Marie Management Group and Donald Trump's Trump Model Management.

Applying as a model of "extraordinary ability", Melania obtained a green card and became a lawful permanent resident in 2001; she gained United States citizenship in 2006.

After moving to New York City in 1996,Melania met her future husband, Donald Trump at a Fashion Week party in New York City in September 1998. He and Marla Maples had separated in May 1997 and divorced in June 1999.

Their relationship gained attention after a 1999 interview on The Howard Stern Show. In 2000 she appeared with Donald while he campaigned for that year's Reform Party presidential nomination.Their relationship gained additional publicity after the 2004 launch of Donald's business-oriented reality television show, The Apprentice.

Donald described their long courtship in 2005: "We literally have never had an argument, forget about the word 'fight' ... We just are very compatible. We get along."

After becoming engaged in 2004, Donald and Melania were married in an Anglican service on January 22, 2005, at The Episcopal Church of Bethesda-by-the-Sea in Palm Beach, Florida, followed by a reception in the ballroom at Donald's Mar-a-Lago estate.

The event was attended by celebrities such as Katie Couric, Matt Lauer, Rudy Giuliani, Heidi Klum, Star Jones, P. Diddy, Shaquille O'Neal, Barbara Walters, Conrad Black, Regis Philbin, Simon Cowell, Kelly Ripa, then-Senator Hillary Clinton, and former president Bill Clinton.

At the reception, Billy Joel serenaded the crowd with "Just the Way You Are" and supplied new lyrics about Donald to the tune of "The Lady Is a Tramp".The Trumps' wedding ceremony and reception were widely covered by the media.Melania wore a $200,000 dress made by John Galliano of the house of Christian Dior.

On March 20, 2006,Trump gave birth to her only son Barron William Trump. Melania suggested his middle name, and her husband suggested his first name.

In November 2015, when asked about her husband's presidential campaign, Trump said: "I encouraged him because I know what he will do and what he can do for America. He loves the American people and he wants to help them." Trump played a relatively small role in her husband's campaign—atypical of spouses of presidential running mates.

In July 2016, Trump's official website was redirected to Trump.com. On Twitter, she stated that her site was outdated and did not "accurately reflect [her] current business and professional interests".

On July 18, 2016, Trump gave a speech at the 2016 Republican National Convention. The speech contained a paragraph that was nearly identical to a paragraph of Michelle Obama's speech at the 2008 Democratic National Convention. When asked about the speech, Trump said she wrote the speech herself "with as little help as possible". Two days later, Trump staff writer Meredith McIver took responsibility and apologized for the "confusion".

Melania assumed the role of First Lady of the United States on January 20, 2017. She is the second foreign-born woman to hold this title (after Louisa Adams, wife of John Quincy Adams, who was born in 1775 in London to an American father and British mother).

She is the first First Lady to be a naturalized rather than birthright citizen of the United States,the first to speak English as a second language, and the first to be fluent in more than two languages. At 5 feet 11 inches (1.80 m), she is also one of the tallest First Ladies to hold the office, tied with Michelle Obama and Eleanor Roosevelt.

She is expected to continue living in Trump Tower with her son Barron at least until the end of the 2016–17 school year.

Her Secret Service code name is "Muse",beginning with the same letter as Trump's code name, "Mogul", per Secret Service tradition.

When asked by The New York Times in 1999 what her role would be if Donald Trump were to become president, Melania replied: "I would be very traditional. Like Betty Ford or Jackie Kennedy."

In 2016, she said her focus as First Lady would be to help women and children. She also said she would combat cyberbullying, especially among children, having quit social media herself due to the "negativity".

Five days before the election, she told a crowd of supporters in Pennsylvania: Our culture has gotten too mean and too rough, especially to children and teenagers. It is never OK when a 12-year-old girl or boy is mocked, bullied, or attacked. It is terrible when that happens on the playground.

And it is absolutely unacceptable when it is done by someone with no name hiding on the internet. Regarding the contrast of her platform with her husband's use of Twitter during his campaign, Melania said shortly after the election that she had rebuked him all the time but that he will do what he wants to do in the end.

In February 2017, Trump sued Mail Media, the owner of The Daily Mail, seeking $150 million in damages over an August 2016 article which alleged that she had worked for an escort service during her modeling days. The Mail had already retracted the article and apologized.

The lawsuit claimed the article had ruined her "unique, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity" to establish a multimillion dollar business relationships for a multi-year term during which Plaintiff is one of the most photographed women in the world.

Commentators said her claim raised ethical questions about potentially wishing to profit from her position as First Lady.On February 18, the lawsuit was amended, omitting the language about her earning potential and focusing instead on emotional distress. In April 2017, the parties settled the lawsuit for $2.9 million.

The first White House event led by Trump was a luncheon for International Women's Day on March 8, 2017. Trump spoke to an audience of women about her life as a female immigrant, and about working towards gender equality both domestically and abroad, noting the role of education as a tool against gender inequality.

In March 2017, Slovenia honored her by introducing "First Lady" wine, a red wine produced in the region near her hometown of Sevnica.

During her and her husband's visit to Vatican City in May 2017, Trump revealed that she is a Catholic, the first to live in the White House since President John F. Kennedy and his wife Jackie over half a century earlier.

Goodluck Melanie.