CNN
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Amalija Knavs, the mom of former first girl Melania Trump, has died, Trump posted on her social media accounts.
“Amalija Knavs was a robust lady who all the time carried herself with grace, heat, and dignity. She was completely dedicated to her husband, daughters, grandson, and son-in-law. We’ll miss her past measure and proceed to honor and love her legacy,” she wrote on X.
A marketing campaign adviser for former President Donald Trump confirmed Knavs’ demise to CNN.
Knavs was from Slovenia, beforehand communist Yugoslavia, and was a textile employee. She and her husband, Viktor, had resided in america and had been continuously noticed in Washington after their son-in-law grew to become president in 2017.
The retired couple maintained common contact with the Trump household in the course of the administration, usually touring with the primary household on journeys to Mar-a-Lago and Bedminster, New Jersey.
As of 2016, the Knavses had owned a house in Sevnica, a quiet industrial city of 5,000 nestled in a lush tree-lined valley on the banks of the Sava river in central Slovenia, the place Melania Trump attended major college. However since their grandson Barron Trump was born in 2006, they spent most of their time in New York, neighbors stated on the time.
The Knavses became US citizens in 2018, controversially acquiring their citizenship by way of the sponsorship of their grownup daughter – a visa class the Trump administration had sought to finish. Donald Trump had harshly criticized family-based migration, repeatedly referring to it as “chain migration.”
Melania Trump, who herself grew to become a US citizen in 2006, is simply the second foreign-born first girl. She has largely prevented the general public eye since leaving Washington in January 2021, whilst her husband pursues one other White Home bid.
This story has been up to date with further particulars.
CNN’s Jack Forrest, Betsy Klein, Tal Kopan, MJ Lee Nick Thompson, Phil Black, Matjaz Krivic and Gašper Andrinek contributed to this report.