Trump, Melania (1970-…), is the wife of Donald J. Trump , who served as president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. She became first lady of the United States upon her husband’s inauguration in January 2017.
Melanija Knavs was born on April 26, 1970, in Novo Mesto, Yugoslavia . The town was then part of the Yugoslav republic of Slovenia . Slovenia became independent from Yugoslavia in 1991. Melanija grew up in the nearby town of Sevnica. She began modeling as a girl, when she modeled clothing for a company that employed her mother. As a teenager, she moved to Ljubljana , now the capital of Slovenia. She then attended the University of Ljubljana for one year before dropping out to focus on her modeling career. Later, she worked as a model in such cities as Milan, Italy, and Paris, France. For professional reasons, Knavs changed her name to the German-sounding Melania Knauss.
Knauss first came to the United States about 1996 and soon obtained a visa allowing her to work in the country. She began dating Trump in 1998, while he was separated from his second wife, the American actress Marla Maples. Trump and Maples divorced in 1999. Knauss became a permanent resident of the United States in 2001 and a U.S. citizen in 2006. Knauss and Trump married on Jan. 22, 2005, in Palm Beach, Florida. In 2006, the couple had a son, Barron.
Mrs. Trump later appeared in television advertisements and on her husband’s reality television program “The Apprentice.” She also helped create and market lines of fashion jewelry and skin care products.
When her husband took office in January 2017, Mrs. Trump became the second first lady to be born in a country outside the United States. Louisa Johnson Adams , the English-born wife of John Quincy Adams , was first lady from 1825 to 1829. As first lady, Mrs. Trump used her position to discourage cyberbullying —that is, the harassment or threatening of people through social media websites and other electronic means.
