In 1993, a young model named Melanija Knavs was working in her native Slovenia, dreaming big. Her future soulmate was busy insulting Native American casino operators in breathtakingly racist testimony before a Congressional subcommittee. One day, they would fall in love and she would watch, beaming, as he careened around the American political system like a runaway shopping cart laden with asbestos. All of which is to say: How does this ad where Melania plays the “first woman president of the United States” make you feel?
Univision has discovered footage of an ad that Melanija Knavs—who became Melania Knauss and then Melania Trump—made for a Slovenian clothing brand when she was just 23. She’s playing the president of the United States, wearing a skirt suit and presidential reading glasses as she travels in a motorcade, gladhands the media, and signs papers at a presidentially enormous desk. The lipstick is brown, the shooting is low-budget, that glasses chain is its own special kind of crime against humanity:
(The name of the clothing brand is nowhere to be found, which seems like an odd oversight for an ad.)
The New York Times mentioned the ad in a July feature on Melania, but Univision is the first news organization to actually dig it up. They also located the scriptwriter, who had some amusing ironies to share:
“It is the most extraordinary historical coincidence, she looked refined, elegant, really presidential,” said Jožica Brodaric who identified herself as the script writer.
After being sworn in, Melania Trump is shown behind a desk taking phone calls and putting on glasses with a pearl neck chain to review official documents. The video shows one document being passed to the young model. A blow up of the document reveals it to be the kind of decree that her husband, whom she married in 2005, might be less eager to sign.
“In the document she is approving three people to cross the border between two countries, it’s an immigration document,” said Gorscak.
Melania Trump is set to address a campaign rally Thursday in Pennsylvania, where the campaign says she’ll share the Trump administration’s vision for women, children and families.
“Melania Trump will also speak about her real American story as well as the kind of dedicated, strong and committed First Lady she will be for the country she loves so much,” the press release adds. It’s the first major speech since the one she delivered at the RNC that was plagiarized from Michelle Obama, and, of course, the first time she’ll talk to a campaign crowd since her husband was accused a dozen times of sexual abuse. Someone travel back in time and let 23-year-old Presidential Melanija about all the excitement she has in store!