Melania Trump is a buttoned-up first lady nowadays, yet she can’t seem to escape her past as a model who dared to strip down for a major photo shoot spread in British GQ.
The images from 2000, when she was then known as Melania Knauss, resurfaced again following her husband, Donald Trump, being declared the 2024 president-elect on Nov. 5. Russian state TV aired the NSFW shots during a post-election segment, where the hosts, husband and wife duo Evgeny Popov and Olga Skabeeva, appeared to get a kick out of exposing Melania’s breasts to viewers.
“She is getting ready to come back to the White House for a second time. Here is how Melania Trump looked in the year 2000,” said Popov as his wife seemed to hold back a smile.
In some of the other images, she was photographed naked as she lay on a fur blanket with only jewels and heels on. In others, she had on knee-high boots and a matching red thong and bra set while wielding a pistol outside of Trump’s private jet.
“The future first lady lies on top of furs in a negligee. … In one of the shoots, the model is wearing only her underwear, lying on a blue carpet with the U.S. seal as though the editors of a men’s magazine knew something in advance about the future model,” he said.
Putin trolls Trump with nude pics of Melania on state TV. pic.twitter.com/QdFb9ck0Re
— Molly Ploofkins™ (@Mollyploofkins) November 12, 2024
By that point, it was obvious that Skabeeva found the bit funny. According to Business Insider, she is known by some as the “iron doll of Putin TV.” Together, the couple is known for hitting back at anti-Putin propaganda.
Her reaction, in particular, led some Twitter users to assume that the broadcast was less of a congratulatory one and more of a dig at Trump on behalf of Russia’s President Vladimir Putin. “Putin hates the guy who won,” read one comment.
The two political leaders met several times during the twice-impeached president’s first term from 2017 to 2021. However, in late November, the Republican candidate was praised by Putin for being a “quite clever and experienced” leader ahead of him assuming office again.
Elsewhere in the reactions of the recirculated segment, someone wrote, “The woman broadcaster’s smirk is priceless.” A third person asked, “Why would Trump or Melania care about these 20+ year old photos though? They’re in the public record since the 90s/Aughts and already been widely disseminated including during the previous election cycles.”
Pic of your wife not from us. Donald, if you try to attack Heidi, you're more of a coward than I thought. #classless https://t.co/0QpKSnjgnE
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) March 23, 2016
Another user wrote, “Are we sure Trump won’t be oh-so-proud of this instead of humiliated? I would think a malignant narcissist would think this is great.” Someone else joked, “Melania must’ve disobeyed an order.” An individual, seemingly less concerned with politics, commented, “Melania is beautiful, with or without clothes……All of the women who make jest are always ugly, inside and out.”
In the past, “The Apprentice” boss called out Texas Sen. Ted Cruz after Melania’s photo was used by anti-Trump Super Pac Make America Awesome. The disgraced politician believed Cruz had a hand in the ad. Cruz denied any involvement. However, Trump did not publicly attack Russian TV for airing the nude photos.
Trump and his wife first met in 1998, just two years after she immigrated from Slovenia to the U.S. They began dating soon afterward and were engaged by 2004. When the pair married in a ceremony held at his Mar-a-Lago property in 2005, it marked his third trip down the aisle.
Melania is the mother of his youngest child, a son named Barron Trump, 18. The businessman is also father to Donald Jr., 46, Ivanka, 43, Eric, 39, and Tiffany, 31.
