EmilyD wrote:
Again - What is your source for Melania's "struggling". Mine shows she was very successful
before she met Trump. You show nothing...
And you are repeating a rumor. There is no evidence anywhere that she had plastic surgery. If you can't provide factual evidence of your claim, then you are just a part of the low-class gossip mill. I thought you were better than that.
And if this is how she ages, then all I can say is that most women dream of looking 1/3 as good as she does at 50!
Nothing you can say will negate the fact that Melania is a beautiful woman. And it's not just me that thinks that
Again - What is your source for Melania's "st... (
show quote)
Wikipedia
Knavs began modeling at five years old and started doing commercial work at sixteen when she posed for the Slovenian fashion photographer Stane Jerko.[25][26] When she began working as a model, she adapted the Slovene version of her last name "Knavs" to the German version "Knauss".[27] At eighteen, Knauss signed with a modeling agency in Milan, Italy.[28] In 1992, she was named runner-up in the Jana Magazine "Look of the Year" contest, held in Ljubljana, which promised its top three contestants an international modeling contract.[3][29] After attending the University of Ljubljana for one year,[30] Knauss modeled for fashion houses in Paris and Milan, where in 1995 she met Metropolitan Models co-owner Paolo Zampolli, a friend of her future husband Donald Trump, who was on a scouting trip in Europe. Zampolli urged her to travel to the U.S., where he said he would like to represent her.[9] In 1996, Knauss moved to Manhattan.[9][29][28][31] He arranged for her to share an apartment with photographer Matthew Atanian in Zeckendorf Towers in Union Square.[9]
Knauss was featured in a sexually explicit photo shoot for the January 1996 issue of Max, a now-defunct French men's magazine, with another female model.[32] She also posed nude for the January 2000 UK edition of GQ magazine, appearing on the cover naked except for diamond jewelry, reclining on fur, aboard Trump's custom-fitted Boeing 727.[33] Asked about the photos in 2016, Donald Trump said: "Melania was one of the most successful models, and she did many photo shoots, including for covers and major magazines. [The Max photo] was a picture taken for a European magazine prior to my knowing Melania. In Europe, pictures like this are very fashionable and common".[34][35]
In 2010, Melania launched her own line of jewelry, Melania Timepieces, and Jewelry, for sale on QVC.[36] She also marketed a Melania Marks Skin Care Collection at high-end department stores.[37][38] According to a financial filing in 2016, her businesses brought in between US$15,000 and US$50,000 in royalties that year.[39] In 2017, the two manufacturers of her jewelry and skincare products under license said they had terminated their relationship with her.[38] On inauguration day her companies and products were listed in her official White House biography but were quickly removed.[36] A White House spokesperson said her companies are no longer active and "the First Lady has no intention of using her position for profit and will not do so".[38]
Acquisition of United States citizenship
Knauss came to the United States from Slovenia in 1996, residing briefly on a visitor's visa and then obtained H-1B work visas. In 2000,[when?] she petitioned for a right to permanent residency under the EB-1 program, a program designed for people with "extraordinary abilities" and was approved by March 2001.[40][41] According to information from the Migration Policy Institute, only 2 percent of people in their field would be expected to qualify.[42] The Washington Post in 2018 reported that at that time Knauss's credentials included "runway shows in Europe, a Camel cigarette billboard ad in Times Square andāin her biggest job at the timeāa spot in the swimsuit edition of Sports Illustrated, which featured her on the beach in a string bikini, hugging a six-foot inflatable whale".[41][42][43] In the analysis by Joel Gunter of the BBC, "[Melania Trump] does not appear at the time to have excelled in a niche area of modelling, nor won awards or had her work written about in significant publications"; Gunter reports a conjecture that
"[S]he may have been boosted by high-profile testimonial letters, said Nita Upadhye, a U.S. immigration specialist at NNU I*********n L*w. Testimonials form part of the application, and the more high-profile the reference the more weight it carries. If Mrs. Trump, already dating Mr. Trump at the time she applied, secured letters from luminaries in fashion, that would be significant, Ms. Upadhye said".[41]
During the months that she campaigned with her husband prior to his successful bid for the presidency, Melania Trump defended his hard-line on immigration practices and laws by stating that her own path and achievement of citizenship had been legal, unlike those of the individuals her husband was campaigning against. However, investigative reporting done by the Associated Press revealed that she had been paid for 10 modeling jobs she had done before she had obtained her H1-B work visa and was still living in the U.S. using her visitor visa. The Associated Press wrote that
"Foreigners are not allowed to use a visitor visa to work for pay in the United States for American companies. Doing so would violate the terms of that visa and could prohibit a foreigner from later changing his or her immigration status in the United States or bar the foreigner from the United States again without special permission to come back".[40]
After her July[1] 2006 acquisition of citizenship, Mrs. Trump sponsored her parents, Viktor and Amalija Knavs, who went through the immigration process using "chain migration", a route that her husband later repeatedly criticized.[44][45] The Knavs became citizens in August 2018,[46] meaning they were permanent residents prior to September 2013.[citation needed]
Relationship with Donald Trump