Melania
Trump, largely absent from the US presidential campaign, stumped for
her husband Donald for the first time Monday and called him a great
leader who treats everyone equal. Looking to bounce back after a rocky
week, Trump called his better half to the rescue. The 45-year-old former
model of Slovenian origin is chic and stylish, but until now her public
presence alongside her Republican frontrunner husband has been
fleeting, including brief appearances at election watch parties.
Her interviews have been limited. But in
the US state of Wisconsin, where polls show Trump trailing his
arch-conservative rival Ted Cruz in the primary that the state hosts
Tuesday, Melania is accompanying her husband at several campaign events.
Trump, whose apparent degrading of women and controversial remarks
about Mexicans and Muslims have raised alarm bells in the Republican
Party and more broadly across the American electorate, has confided that
his wife has encouraged him to be “more presidential.” At a rally in
Wisconsin, Mrs. Trump gushed praise of her husband, saying: “I’m very
proud of him. He is a hard worker. He’s kind. He has a great heart. He’s
tough. He’s smart.” She added: “He’s a great communicator. He’s a great
negotiator. He’s telling the truth. He’s a great leader. He’s fair.”
“As you may know by now, when you attack
him, he will punch back ten times harder,” she said. “No matter who you
are, a man, or a woman, he treats everyone equal.” Melania unwittingly
found herself in the eye of the storm last month in one of the low
points of the campaign, when an anti-Trump political group unveiled a
questionable ad on Facebook that used a photo of her lying naked and
handcuffed to a briefcase. The photograph, taken aboard Trump’s
custom-fitted private jet, was part of a shoot for the magazine GQ in
2000, before the couple married. The political poster, released just
before votes in Arizona and Utah, featured the photo with the words:
“Meet Melania Trump. Your next first lady. Or, you could support Ted
Cruz on Tuesday.”
Trump accused Cruz, a senator from
Texas, of being behind the provocation and responded by retweeting a
photo montage showing an image of Melania next to an unflattering
picture of Ted Cruz’s wife Heidi, along with the phrase: “The images are
worth a thousand words.” On Monday night, speaking later to Sean
Hannity on Fox News, Melania said, “I have a tough skin. I think it’s
not fair that they’re attacking family, wife, or children”. – ‘100
percent’ behind husband – The few times that Melania has spoken out, she
gushed over her husband, telling MSNBC in February that she was
initially attracted by his “great energy,” charm and “amazing mind.”
The couple have a 10-year-old son,
Barron. “I am a full-time mom, and I love it,” a smiling Melania
proclaimed, adding that her maternal role was the reason she was not out
campaigning more with Donald. “But I support my husband 100 percent,”
she said. Melania has defended Trump’s more controversial statements. “I
don’t feel he insulted the Mexicans,” she said of his explosive remark
last June that Mexico was sending “rapists” and other criminals across
the border as undocumented immigrants. “He said illegal immigrants,” she
added. “He didn’t talk about everybody.” She also stressed that her
husband had proposed only a “temporary” ban on Muslims entering the
country.
“He wants to protect America… That’s
very important to him,” she said, adding that he treats women the same
way as men in the Trump organization. Born in what was then Yugoslavia
to a fashion-industry mother and a car-salesman father, Melania has
recounted studying design and architecture before leaving for Milan and
Paris to launch her modelling career. She arrived in the United States
in 1996 and met Trump two years later.
They married in January 2005 in Florida
and her Dior dress was estimated at $200,000. Among the invited
celebrities was Hillary Clinton, this year’s likely Democratic
presidential nominee. – Lavish lifestyle – Melania Trump speaks at least
five languages, including English, Italian, French and German. Her
Twitter account — inactive since Trump declared his candidacy — reflects
the privileged lifestyle of a jet-setter traveling between their lavish
New York apartment and residences in in Florida. She has tweeted
photographs from high-society gatherings and landmark sporting events,
as well as recollections of her red-carpet saunters and charity
functions. In each image Melania appears impeccably dressed.
Initially, she was not entirely on board
with the idea of Trump launching a White House bid, with the candidate
acknowledging recently that Melania would have been content as the wife
of a billionaire businessman and reality TV star. “She said, ‘We have
such a great life. Why do you want to do this?’” Trump told The
Washington Post in an interview published Saturday. “I really have to do
it,” Trump said he told her, adding that his wife eventually backed his
bid and was confident of his victory
Source – www.vanguardngr.com
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