Known For
Acting
Born
Apr 26, 1970
Place of Birth
Novo Mesto, SR Slovenia, Yugoslawia [now Slovenia]
Credits
51 titles
Melania Trump
Biography
Melania Knauss Trump (born Melanija Knavs; April 26, 1970) is a Slovenian and American former model and the third wife of President Donald Trump. She has served as First Lady of the United States since 2025, a role she previously held from 2017 to 2021. She is the first naturalized citizen and the first non-native English speaker to become first lady; the second foreign-born first lady, after Louisa Adams; the second Roman Catholic first lady, after Jacqueline Kennedy; and the second first lady to hold the position nonconsecutively, after Frances Cleveland. Melanija Knavs was born in Yugoslavia, where she began working as a fashion model at the age of 16 while pursuing her education. She changed the spelling of her name to Melania Knauss and traveled to Paris and Milan to seek modeling work before meeting Paolo Zampolli; Zampolli hired her and sponsored her immigration to the United States in 1996. She worked as a model in Manhattan, where Zampolli introduced her to Donald Trump in 1998. She began dating Donald Trump shortly thereafter. Trump worked to get Melania more modeling jobs, and she supported him during his 2000 presidential campaign. Melania and Donald Trump married in 2005, and they had a son, Barron Trump, the following year. Melania started her own jewelry brand, Melania, in 2009. After encouraging Donald to run for president in the 2016 presidential election, Melania only made rare campaign appearances, instead opting to help Donald with strategy. She received major press coverage during the campaign when erotic photos from her modeling years were uncovered and published, and again when a speech she gave at the 2016 Republican National Convention was found to be plagiarized from a similar speech by Michelle Obama. In the month leading up to the election, she defended her husband following the release of the Access Hollywood tape that mired his campaign in scandal. Melania stayed in Manhattan for the first months of her tenure as first lady, to allow Barron to finish school there and to renegotiate her prenuptial agreement. She kept to minimal activity after moving into the White House and held fewer events than previous first ladies. Melania faced several challenges in 2018, including allegations of extramarital affairs committed by her husband, surgery for kidney disease, and a tour of Africa that was overshadowed by scrutiny of her wardrobe and personal conduct. During her tenure as first lady, Melania prioritized children's issues, launching the Be Best campaign to promote children's welfare and visiting many children's hospitals. She was also a close advisor to her husband, influencing his decisions to end the Trump administration's family separation policy and to ban fruit-flavored electronic cigarette cartridges. In the final months of her initial tenure as first lady, Melania endorsed her husband's false claims of election fraud in the 2020 presidential election. After leaving the White House in 2021, she largely stayed out of the public view before assuming the role of first lady again in 2025. Description above from the Wikipedia article Melania Trump, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Known For
Filmography
America Who Are You? A History of the American Mindset
Self (archive footage)
Melania
Self
The Donald Trump Show
Self (archive footage)
Die Elon-Musk-Story
Self (archive footage) (uncredited)
America at War
Self (archive footage)
The TikTok-Army of the AfD
Self (archive footage)
It Musk Be Love: Trump & Elon
Self (archive footage)
Melania
Self
A Pete Hegseth and Melania Trump Interview
Self
We Feed People
Self (archive footage) (uncredited)
The Arc de Triomphe: A Nation's Passion
Self (archive footage)
When Ruby Wax Met...
Self (archive footage)
Donald Trump Is President and You're Not: A Portrait of Donald J. Trump
Self (archive footage)
The Accidental President
Self (archive footage)
The Plot Against the President
Self (archive footage)
Looking for Melania Trump
Self
First Ladies
Self (archive footage)
The Choice 2020: Trump vs. Biden
Self (archive footage)
Nicotine - A Drug with a Future
Self (archive footage)
The Way I See It
Self (archive footage)
Feels Good Man
Self (archive footage)
American Deep State
Self
Frenemies: Putin and Trump
Self - D. Trump's Wife (archive footage)
Margaret Atwood: A Word After a Word After a Word Is Power
Self (archive footage)
Fahrenheit 11/9
Self (archive footage)
King Bibi
Self (archive footage)
Pope Francis: A Man of His Word
Self - First Lady (uncredited)
95th Annual National Christmas Tree Lighting
Self
Trump: An American Dream
Self (archive footage) (uncredited)
Ivanka Trump- America's Real First Lady?
Self (archive footage) (uncredited)
Get Me Roger Stone
Self (archive footage)
One Nation Under Trump
Self
President Trump: Can He Really Win?
Self (archive footage)
Who Is Donald Trump?
Self (archive footage)
The Making of Trump
Self (archive footage)
Spotlight
Self (archive footage)
7.30
Self (archive footage)
Donald Trump: All-American Billionaire
Self
The Rachel Maddow Show
Self (archive footage)
Annie Leibovitz: Life Through a Lens
Self
The Celebrity Apprentice
Self
Zoolander
Melania Knauss (uncredited)
White House Christmas
Self
Dispatches
Self (archive footage)
Frontline
Self (archive footage)
Entertainment Tonight
Self
20/20
Self
60 Minutes
Self
Miss USA
Self - Judge
Panorama
Self (archive footage)