Melania Trump has already created surprise and intrigue with her new memoir, Melania, revealing that she is not aligned with her husband on abortion rights and casting aside concerns about her family’s privacy to discuss her son Barron.
She also reveals how then-president Donald Trump invited her to watch the most secret military unit, Delta Force, conduct an ultra-classified mission from the White House situation room, its most guarded facility, despite not having a security clearance.
The book, seen by the Daily Beast before publication on Tuesday, offers little in the way of reflection or regret about her path in life and few comments about the reality of being the third wife of a billionaire businessman-turned-commander-in-chief 24 years her senior.
ADVERTISEMENT
But the 184-page, 178-photo book does have some intriguing claims and anecdotes about her own rise from a schoolgirl in Communist Yugoslavia to a former and possibly future first lady of the United States.
My Family, the Onion Pioneers
Melania writes at (relative) length about her pride in her family, particularly her maternal grandfather, Anton, revealing that the family had been “displaced” to Austria “during the turbulent years of World War II,” and that her mother was born in an Austrian town in July 1945.
She does not explain how a family from a country which had been split between Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany had ended up being refugees in Austria, but says they returned to their native village of Raka afterwards.
“It was here that he would go on to breed a culinary masterpiece—the renowned raška čebula, or Raka onion, a sweet red variety that quickly became a favorite among the Slovenian people,” she writes of her grandfather.
Perhaps surprisingly, there appears to be truth to this: Anton Ulčnik, her grandfather, was reported by the Washington Post to have been the largest breeder and grower of the variety for many decades in Raka.
Royals Just Love Me
Two kings feature in the book: the elderly King Salman of Saudi Arabia, and UK’s King Charles.
In her first meeting with a king, when she and her husband traveled to Saudi Arabia for the very first foreign visit, Melania details her encounter with a man whose titles include “Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques.”
“I had been warned that it wasn’t Muslim tradition to shake hands with women and that the king might not extend me the courtesy,” she writes. “But when we met, he not only shook my hand but kissed it! This was a promising start!”
Intriguingly, video and still photos of the event show no such kiss, but her husband told a similar anecdote at a fundraiser in 2018, according to 2019 book The Hill to Die On: The Battle for Congress and the Future of Trump's America. Its authors, journalists Jake Sherman and Anna Palmer, reported that he said, “So, I get off the plane, I shake his hand, I don't bow, and Melania offers her hand. He grabs her hand, and kisses her, mwah, mwah, mwah. And I go, hey, King, lay off, that's enough—three kisses!”
In her telling, this handshake with King Salman of Saudi Arabia in the first foreign trip undertaken by her husband saw the elderly Muslim monarch kiss her hand.
Bandar Algaloud/Courtesy of Saudi Royal Court/ReutersAnother elderly head of state with whom she “truly connected” was the UK’s Queen Elizabeth, who she describes pouring tea at Windsor Castle with her corgis at her feet. The queen, she relates, gave her a silver box inlaid with the rose, the thistle and the shamrock. Melania says it was “echoing the intricate ceiling motifs of” one of Buckingham Palace’s rooms, although the three are also the symbols of England, Scotland and Ireland.
And she reveals a long connection to King Charles, saying “we exchange letters with King Charles to this day.”
She says of sitting next to him at a state banquet in Buckingham Palace, “it was an absolute pleasure to reconnect with him.” The two had met, photographs show, in 2005 in New York. “This time we engaged in an interesting conversation about his deep-rooted commitment to environmental conservation,” she writes—omitting her husband’s long-term climate change denialism.
A Very Papal Mix-Up
Melania recounts how excited she was to meet Pope Francis at the Vatican “as a Catholic,” and brought a set of rosary beads to be blessed “as a symbol of my faith and marriage.” (She has been seen attending Christmas and Easter services at Mar-a-Lago not at a nearby Catholic church but an Epsicopalian one where she was married. It was her husband’s third marriage; the Catholic Church does not permit remarriage after divorce.)
When she met the Pope, he blessed the rosary, then asked, “What do you give him to eat? Potica?”
Melania writes that her Catholic faith compelled her to take a set of rosary beads to be blessed by Pope Francis.
Alessandra Tarantino/Reuters“‘Yes, pizza,’ I replied, not fully hearing him. Then I realized he was inquiring about potica, the traditional Slovenian pastry.”
No Sushi for Me, Thank You
Food issues on foreign trips did not just extend to light banter with the leader of the world’s Catholics who later described her husband as “the one who kicks out immigrants.”
There was also a diplomatic problem in Japan: sushi was on the menu. “I made it known that I do not eat raw fish,” she writes of preparation for the first couple’s 2019 visit there. “However, I still made an effort to try local cuisine whenever possible. That night in Tokyo, the meal was a delicious blend of flavors and textures, showcasing the best of Japanese cuisines while accommodating my preferences.”
Quite how traditional it was is open to question. At the time it was reported by The Independent to be “baked potatoes, salad, grilled chicken, and wagyu.”
Communism Was Pretty Great for Us
Life behind the Iron Curtain for the Knavs family seems less grim than most people would expect.
Her memoir recounts trips to Formula One races, family trips to Italy, skiing in the Alps, an Elton John concert, a private nanny and a fleet of cars including “Ford Mustangs, German BMWs, and a Ford Cougar XR-7, alongside a collection of prestigious Mercedes Benzes.” There was also a “Citroën Maserati SM,” which was “a taste of freedom.” Her mother had brought her up on stories of “her glamorous travels to Paris and other neighboring European capitals.”
She is keen to push back on descriptions of her youth as “grim,” saying it was happy and full of laughter; she first modeled at six.
Communism does not seem grim in Melania’s recounting of it. She began her modeling career aged six and is seen, second from the right, with her friend Nena Bedek (right) at a review for the textile company where her mother worked.
STR/AFP via Getty ImageBut she also attacks descriptions of her father as a Communist—then admits that he was one, adding, that his party membership was “mandatory” and “not reflective of his political beliefs.” (Her father is now a US citizen.)
“His Communist Party affiliation was a mandatory induction, as the party had implemented an automatic monthly disbursement of a portion of his salary,” she claims.
The only time the evils of communism are suggested is when in 1978, “agents” searched the family home for “evidence of criminal activity,” after a neighbor reported “that there was something suspicious about my father’s lifestyles.”
She also mentions an incident uncovered by the Daily Beast in 2018, when her father’s mention in secret police files led to claims he had been jailed. “My father was never found guilty of a crime and was never imprisoned,” she writes.
Who She Modeled For
Although her nude modeling portfolio is well known, and in the memoir a point of pride as an “art form,” Melania also names some of her modeling clients.
They include Macy’s, Neiman Marcus, the Canadian edition of Elle magazine, Fitness and Glamour magazines and the New York department store Bergdorf Goodman. (In an ironic twist, her husband has been found liable for sexually assaulting the advice columnist E. Jean Carroll in one of its changing rooms before he knew Melania. She does not mention the case.)
There was a Japanese lingerie catalogue, an ad campaign in Venice, and the ultimate seal of approval: “My larger-than-life image on a billboard in Times Square.”
