Melania Trump, from model to first lady
The wife Donald Trump, the new president of the United States, was born in the former Yugoslavia. During the electoral campaign she tried to give a less aggressive image of her husband, 24 years her senior.
Many believe that Donald Trump doesn't like immigrants, but his marriages contradict that idea: Two of his three wives were born in Europe.
His current wife did it in Slovenia, under the name Melania Knavs. The first, the most famous Ivana, in the former Czechoslovakia.
Both worked as models before marrying Trump, who on Wednesday proclaimed himself the new president of the United States.
With this, Melania, 46, became the second first lady of the United States to be born outside the country. The previous one was the British Louisa, wife of John Quincy Adams, president from 1825 to 1829.
Melania stayed in the background during the campaign of her husband, 24 years her senior, until in July, at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio, she spoke to thousands of attendees.
"If you want someone to fight for you and not disappoint you, he is the one," he said, referring to Trump in a speech that raised suspicions for resembling one of the still first lady Michelle Obama.
And a few days later he gave her a rare interview on MSNBC.
In a large room with lavish lamps and lots of gold glitters, she spoke a little more about politics and even immigration, a subject that she, born in Europe, knows firsthand.
"I followed the law"
Trump's harsh words during the campaign against illegal immigrants have been a source of controversy, especially when he spoke of those who arrived from Mexico.
"When Mexico sends its people, it is not sending the best, it is sending people who have many problems and bring their problems with them," the magnate launched in June of last year, when he announced his candidacy.
"They are bringing drugs, crime, rapists. I assume there are some who are good," added the millionaire.
But Melania didn't think her husband was offensive. "I don't think she insulted Mexicans. She said illegal immigrants. She didn't talk about everyone," she said on MSNBC.
She also recalled that she, who moved to the United States in 1996, followed all the steps to become a resident and then a citizen of the country. "I followed the law," he said.
Despite the fact that Melania did not elaborate much more on her husband's ideas, in another interview last January in Us magazine she said she is a "political" person, although with nuances.
"I am not a politician in public. I am a politician at home."
Trump himself admitted that she is his advisor. In fact, it was she who encouraged him to try to be president, said the president-elect.
"Do I always agree with him? No. I give him my opinions, I tell him what I think. Sometimes he listens, sometimes he doesn't," revealed Melania in Us, who titled the interview like this: "The Donald that only I know" .
Photos compromised
The New York Post newspaper - owned by tycoon Rupert Murdoch, who has declared himself an open supporter of Trump - published the images at the height of the race for the US presidency.
During the campaign, not only were Trump and his opponent, Democrat Hillary Clinton, scrutinized. So was the one who is now the wife of the president-elect.
As her prominence grew, it didn't take long for some photos from her former modeling days to come to light.
In them she was lightly dressed, so experts predicted that they could be used by her husband's rivals, who has already been attacked by his three marriages, as an argument to highlight that perhaps he is not conservative enough.
But the Trump campaign rejected it immediately, insisting that the photos did not disqualify Melania from becoming first lady, something that will eventually happen.
"She's pretty, smart, even fun and enterprising," Katrina Pierson, a spokeswoman for the campaign, defended her on CNN in February.
"She was a model, it was her profession. We don't feel bad about it. She is a strong woman," he added.
In the newspaper library there are also sensual photos of Ivanka Trump, the most famous of Trump's five children.
Ivanka, who was also a model, was also a major figure in her father's presidential campaign. Despite having had her third child in March, she kept looking for votes and that is how Trump always highlighted it.
He even explained to Republican voters the complex process of Iowa caucuses in a video.
In 1995 Melania Knauss took some suggestive photos for the lens of the French photographer Jarl Alé de Basseville.
The daughter is famous the world of fashion and design. She accumulates more than 1.9 million followers on Twitter and Trump took advantage of that during her race for the White House, of which she was proclaimed the winner on Wednesday.
A united clan
Ivanka, 34, is the sister of Donald Jr. and Eric Frederick, who run the business of the family empire.
Both, like their sister, campaigned for their father.
All three were born from the marriage of Trump and Ivana, who was also a model, like Melania.
Donald and Ivana got married in 1977 and in the 80s they were one of the most famous, wealthy and powerful couples in the business world in New York.
In 1992 they staged a controversial divorce. Donald had fallen in love with actress Marla Maples, whom he married in 1993. They had a daughter, Tiffany, the least known of the family. They separated in 1999.
In 2005 Donald married again, with Melania. From the union was born little Barron, the last to be part of the Trump clan.
All of them stood together with a common goal. A goal that Trump reached this Wednesday: to be the new president of the United States.
This note was originally published on BBC Mundo in February 2016 and was last updated on the occasion of Donald Trump's victory in the US elections.
