Melania Trump Says She Had a ‘Very Beautiful Childhood’ Under Communism — But She Reveals One Big Difference | Today’s news
US First Lady Melania Trump has described her childhood under communist rule in the former Yugoslavia as an “overall positive” experience, saying she had a “very beautiful childhood”, although she acknowledged that life was less free than in the United States.
“I grew up under communism and I didn’t really miss anything,” Melania Trump said during an appearance on Fox & Friends on Wednesday (September 23).
“I feel that I had a very beautiful childhood and my parents gave my family a beautiful life,” she added.
Melania Trump on life under communism
Melania was responding to a question about whether growing up in communist Eastern Europe gave people from the region a different appreciation of freedom and liberty.
She said there were limitations people had to be aware of growing up in the system.
“But yes, there are certain things you have to be aware of and watch what you do — it’s not as free as it is here in the United States,” she said.
“It’s a different time now, but it wasn’t when I was growing up,” Melania added.
Melania was born in Novo Mesto, Slovenia in 1970. She grew up in socialist Yugoslavia, which was run by a communist government after World War II.
Before its breakup in the 1990s, Yugoslavia consisted of six republics—Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, and Macedonia.
Melania Trump discusses Ukrainian children
The comments came during a discussion about Melania’s efforts to help reunite Ukrainian children who were taken to Russia during the war.
“We have a direct channel with Russia and Ukraine,” she said, adding that her representative was working on further unification.
“It’s ongoing and we want to unite as many children as possible – that’s what I’m focusing on,” Melania said.
“What they are going through is heartbreaking. There is nothing better to see than when a child is reunited with a parent,” she added.
Comments come amid Trump attacks on ‘communism’
Melania’s remarks come as President Donald Trump increasingly uses the term “communism” to criticize Democrats and democratic socialists.
At the Republican convention this month, Trump said of Democrats who describe themselves as democratic socialists: “They call themselves democratic socialists, but they’re actually communists.
Melania later moved to the United States in the 1990s to pursue a modeling career and became an American citizen in 2006.
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