Why does Melania Trump always seem sad?
The first lady of the United States has skyrocketed in popularity for her and far exceeds that of her criticized husband. This is the story of the expressionless woman who little by little has won the heart of a skeptical country.
"I am an immigrant," Melania Trump declared on November 1 of last year, during a speech she gave in Pennsylvania to support her husband's campaign for the presidency. "No one values America's freedom and opportunity as much as I do," she added. Just over two months later, on January 20 of this year, Mrs. Trump arrived with her husband in Washington for her inauguration as president.
In front of the United States Capitol, Donald Trump vowed to defend his country's constitution and fulfill his duties as head of state. The New York magnate took his oath with his hand on a pair of Bibles: one that his mother had given him in 1955 and another that Abraham Lincoln had sworn on 156 years earlier. His wife, standing next to her son Barron Trump, held them. At that time, he became the 45th President of the United States and she the First Lady.
The country had, for the second time in its history, a First Lady who was not an American by birth. The first had been the British Louisa Adams, wife of John Quincey Adams, who served between 1825 and 1829. Like Adams, Mrs. Trump had come to the United States when she was already an adult, at 25 years of age. She was 1995 and she came from Italy, where she was working as a model. However, her homeland was Slovenia.
Melanija Knavs, that's how her name is written in Slovenian, was born in 1970 in Novo Mesto, a small town that looks like an island because the Krka River borders it almost entirely. At that time, Slovenia belonged to the former Yugoslavia. Melania Knauss - that's how her name translates into English - grew up in the city of Sevnica, under the dictatorship of Marshal Tito. There she lived with her parents, Viktor and Amalija Knavs, and her sister Ines. Her father, Viktor, belonged to the Communist Party.
In the 1980s, after the death of Marshal Tito, ethnic, economic and political conflicts worsened in Yugoslavia, and little by little the republic began to disintegrate. At the time, as a teenager, young Melania dreamed of being a model. However, in order for her aspirations to have any chance, the disintegration of Yugoslavia in 1991 was necessary, which gave Slovenia independence.
In 1992, the Slovenian magazine Jana, special for women, opened the “Look of the Year” contest, in which it called on the country's young women to enter the world of fashion, catwalks and modeling, to be part of a world that until then had been banned from Slovenians. The prize of the contest was to enter European modeling. Young, single Melania Knauss entered the pageant, won, and gradually began working as a model. In addition, she studied architecture and design for a year at the University of Ljubljana.
She at first she worked in her country, in print and television advertising. Later, Paris and Vienna, but above all Milan, appeared on her radar. She gained more prestige and specialized in modeling for jewelry. In the midst of that rising career, in 1995 Knauss met Paolo Zampolli, an Italian modeling entrepreneur. Through him, at the age of twenty-five, the young Slovenian went to live in the United States in 1996.
She settled in New York. To do so, the government gave her an H – 1B visa, which allowed her to work as a model. This kind of visa, of which years later her future husband would affirm that she only served to replace the American workforce with foreign ones, was given to people with special or high-level skills and abilities. The talent of today's First Lady has allowed her to be the cover of magazines such as Vogue, Ocean Drive, Avenue and Harper’s Baazar, as well as being portrayed by photographers of the stature of Helmut Newton.
With a career already established, in 1998 Paolo Zampolli invited model Knauss to a party at the Kit Kat Club in New York. The event was hosted by Donald Trump, then just a real estate mogul. It was then that they met. A few months later, they started dating. In January 1999, the New York Times reported that Trump and Knauss had been seen in a movie theater watching the movie Elizabeth, about Queen Elizabeth I of England.
Months later, in November of the same year, the same newspaper began to speculate that, should Donald Trump run for president, the model could be his First Lady. The 2,000 elections were the first in which the businessman began to approach the idea of being president. As is known, he was not an official candidate and in 2001 George W. Bush took office. But that same year, the now thirty-year-old Melania Knauss obtained residency from her. Now she was Trump's girlfriend.
Three years later, in 2004, the couple became engaged. They were married in 2005, at a wedding attended by, among others, Bill and Hillary Clinton. A year later her only child, Barron, was born and Mrs. Trump became an American citizen. Since the wedding, in addition, she increased her philanthropic activity and was linked to works related to children's problems. In 2005, the American Red Cross named her a goodwill ambassador, to which she has contributed for several years. And in 2010, Melania Trump became an entrepreneur and launched her own jewelry line.
This continued until mid-2015, when her husband announced himself as a Republican Party candidate for the presidential election. She began to participate in the campaign, albeit quietly and with few public appearances. The statements of her husband attracted the most attention, since, among other things, they proposed ideas such as building a wall between Mexico and the United States to prevent illegal immigration. In addition, they directed degrading messages against groups such as Latinos, Muslims, refugees or women.
Among those few appearances is memorable, especially the one she made during the Republican convention that made the candidacy of her husband official. On this occasion, Mrs. Trump gave a speech that was later accused of being a plagiarism of another that Michelle Obama had given. It was also a rarity of her that she appeared the week before the election, when she asserted herself as an immigrant and thanked the United States for the opportunities she provided.
In both of her speeches, her voice felt foreign, with a non-native accent, but, at the same time, with a great understanding of the language she used to speak. Her voice is permeated with many other voices, as Melania Trump is perhaps the First Lady who has spoken the most languages: Slovenian, French, Serbian, German and English.
Thus, after being sworn in as President, Melania Trump's husband dared to say with her: “Starting today, a new vision will govern our land. From this day on, it will only be the United States first, the United States first ”. Melania Trump listened silently, along with her son, from the chair she had been able to reach before that new vision ruled.
A few days ago, Google revealed that one of the main searches of North Americans has been the question, Why is Melania Trump always sad? Her almost immovable face and the lack of euphoria that she has had in momentous moments such as the possession of her husband or the first dance of the presidential couple generate an almost worldwide curiosity.
The first months of her life as first lady, Melania did not appear at official events. And in fact, the first few months she didn't even live in the White House. The first lady has starred in controversial moments, many due to the eccentricities of the Trump family. She attended the Texas floods in heels, displayed a lavish Christmas decoration and kept the attention of the tabloid press with all the rumors about her past. However, her silence and her prudence in the face of the great issues of the United States have not allowed these issues to go beyond gossip. In December, a Gallup poll revealed that Melania is liked by Americans as she has a popularity of almost 60 percent, a figure similar to the unfavorable image of her husband.
Despite changing circumstances, Melania's face always registers just as expressionless. A complete photo report on the Huffington Post portal shows that Melania's face has remained that way for the past 18 years. Many wonder why she does not smile what in other times she would be considered one of the luckiest women in the world.
