Melania Trump made it from a small town in Yugoslavia to the White House.
But not only her husband Donald Trump is responsible for her success.
Palm Beach - Melania Trump lives the "American Dream".
She did what a lot of people in the US want to do.
From a small town in what was then Yugoslavia, she made it to the First Lady in the White House.
But she wasn't used to luxury in the past.
For the conditions in Yugoslavia at the time, Melania's family was not doing badly.
She and her husband Donald Trump are not the only ones responsible for their success.
Melania's parents also play a vital role in her advancement and continue to help her in the background.
A sculpture was even set up for Melania in her hometown in Slovenia.
Childhood in a dictatorship - Melania Trump's family "lived well"
In 1970 Melania was born in the small town of Sevnica under the name Melanija Knavs.
The city is about an hour's drive from the Slovenian capital Ljubljana.
Unlike many other people in communist times, the Knavs lived well.
Melania's mother, Amalija Ulčnik, worked in a factory that made children's clothing and developed patterns there.
She had met her future husband Viktor Knavs in 1966 when he was the chauffeur of the mayor of a nearby town, reports the US magazine
GQ
.
Even back when Slovenia was part of communist Yugoslavia and times were difficult, Melania's mother always dressed well and had her hair perfectly.
"She was very pretty," says Tomšič, who now runs a local hospital, to which Melania donated $ 25,000 after she married Donald.
"She was always very chic," he told a
GQ reporter.
Amalija spent the evenings after work sewing clothes for herself and her two daughters Ines and Melania.
After Melania learned to draw, she sketched her own designs, which were then sewn by her mother or sister.
Melania also made her own jewelry.
“Melania never carried anything out of the store,” a friend recalls to
GQ
.
Melania Trump's father charged with tax evasion - Melania denies allegations
After giving up his job with the mayor of Hrastnik, Melania's father became a salesman for a state-owned car company.
According to information from
GQ
,
police files from this period
indicate that Viktor was suspected of having engaged in illegal trade and tax evasion in 1976.
He was therefore charged, but his file was later deleted due to the Slovenian statute of limitations.
A process that the courts described as “legal rehabilitation”.
In an interview with
GQ
, Melania Trump said: "He was never investigated, he was never in trouble," she said.
“We have a clean past.
I have nothing to hide. ”Melania's father's career advancement was possible because he was a member of the Sevnica Communist Party.
Trump's former spokeswoman Hope Hicks said in the New York Times that Knavs was never an "active member" of the party.
Melania and her family first lived in an apartment in what was then Yugoslavia and later they moved to a house in a better part of the city.
According to reports, the Knavses "still own their home and visit it two or three times a year," according to
GQ
.
Melania Trump thanked her mother and father at the Republican Convention last year: “My parents worked very hard to make sure that our family not only lived and thrived in America, but also contributed to a nation that enables the people to arrive with a dream and make it a reality. "
Melania Trump: Parents will get American citizenship in 2018
When Melania Trump moved to the United States, she became a successful model.
In 1998 she met businessman Donald Trump and married him a few years later.
When Melania Trump moved to the White House in 2017, her parents came along too.
A year later, they also received American citizenship, reports the
New York Times.
Before that, Melania Trump's parents lived in the US with green cards.
They obtained their citizenship through so-called "chain migration".
You can be sponsored by family members who have already received American citizenship so that they can immigrate too.
Melania Trump received an American passport back in 2006 and was able to help her parents with it.
Former US President Donald Trump, however, is a staunch opponent of this immigration policy and wanted to abolish it, even though his in-laws were granted citizenship.
(dp)