Melania’s Dark Past Surfaces as Donald Outed in Photos

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2:50Ben Meiselas:Melania Trump's dark past is surfacing as well as Donald Trump tries to hide his dark past. When Donald Trump met Melania purportedly in 1998, what was Donald Trump doing around that time? He was gallivanting around, that's one way to put it, with Epstein and with a lot of the photos that we saw released from the Democrats in the House Oversight Committee. It was some disgusting stuff. And we know the grotesque and disgusting stuff that Donald Trump and Epstein were getting into and what they were doing with their modeling agencies. It was horrific, horrific stuff. So around this time in 1998, Donald Trump meets Melania.

3:32Ben Meiselas:Where do they meet? They meet, according to Melania's version of events, at a location called the Kit Kat Club. It's kind of a grimy club in Manhattan. Melania likes to refer to as this glamorous place where editors and models were all mingling and there was camaraderie in the air. Now, I mean, the Kit Kat Club in New York was like a gross club. And this guy, Paolo Zampoli, who's now a United States ambassador, it's like a top government official appointed by Donald Trump. At that time, he ran modeling agencies. That's what he called them, modeling agencies that would bring younger Eastern European women or girls or from Eastern Europe to the United States.

4:16Ben Meiselas:And then he would throw these parties where they would be introduced or they would meet wealthy people and wealthy men, powerful men in the United States. And so on this evening in 1998, Donald Trump met Melania. And you could even just take a look at Melania's book where she talks about, I met him in the camaraderie and he was with another girl and I met him and we saw each other. It was a whole thing. Take a look at Melania's background, though. So if you look at what her biography used to say before it was uncovered that she was lying, she's a liar, it said the following. Born on April 26, 1970 in Slovenia, Melania Naus began her modeling career at the age of 16.

5:06Ben Meiselas:At the age of 18, she signed with a modeling agency in Milan. Which one? What's the name of the modeling agency in Milan? Let's hear it. After obtaining a degree in design and architecture at the university in Slovenia, Melania was jetting between photo shoots in Paris and Milan, finally settling in New York in 1996. Well, Melania Trump actually never earned a university degree in architecture. She dropped out of college after her freshman year, according to her biographers. But she still claims to have a degree from a university in Slovenia. But what she was doing around this time, too, was taking nudes.

5:49Ben Meiselas:And I'm giving you my opinion. These weren't like the glamorous nudes. These were like some grimy nudes, like a grime, like, you know, and I'm not trying to disrespect the art of nude modeling. So I don't want to demean it as an art. But, you know, these were pretty explicit photos, which she tries to act as, oh, these were kind of glamorous nudes. I don't really think they, in my opinion, they really weren't. But, you know, we all are entitled to our opinions now, aren't we? So it was around that time she meets Donald in 1998 or so, and then they get married some years later. She gets an Einstein visa, so she cuts ahead of everybody else.

6:35Ben Meiselas:An Einstein visa is like for extraordinary talent. She gets citizenship when she marries him, but she gets his Einstein visa first, then she gets citizenship. And then through a process that's often derided by the right wing as chain migration, where someone who's a citizen then brings in their family, she brought in her family into the United States. You've seen the photos of her and Donald Trump and Epstein and Ghislaine together. They're just photos of them. I mean, you could infer whatever you want to infer or infer nothing at all from the photos, but there are photos of them together at parties together, hanging out together.

7:15Ben Meiselas:OK, you have her while Donald Trump was out of office, her fashion stylist and like makeup people were getting paid hundreds of thousands of dollars from the Trump political action committees. So despite Donald Trump being a billionaire, billionaire, right? He was a billionaire. I was so rich. You know, the farmers, the people who are struggling to make ends meet when Donald Trump sends those emails. Can you make a personal sacrifice for me? You know, those emails that I read it from time to time here. Can you please help me out? Well, those go to political action committees and the political action committee pays for her stylists, her makeup artists to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars before.

8:01Ben Meiselas:OK, so with that as background, with Donald Trump's grotesque past as background and you saw in the Epstein files, right, the Trump condoms. You saw those photos of Trump with the young girls. Also, you saw the photos of Trump's and of other gross things with Trump. You saw the on the Epstein photos, things that we didn't even know. Like I showed you the Trump condoms. The Epstein photos had extreme restraints and pussy pumps, whatever. That's what that's what it's called. I'm just reading you what is the audio listeners like Ben, what are you talking about? Like that's like literally what it says right there.

8:37Ben Meiselas:Gags and just gross and like, but, you know, that was Donald Trump's bud. Epstein, that was the crew. It was Epstein. It was Casablanca. Those are the guys that Donald Trump were hanging out with at the time. Okay. So with that as background, let's fast forward to this week because there were some very strange things happening. And one of the strange things that happened is during this Christmas party, Donald Trump referred to his son, Barron, in a very weird way. Not our son together. He referred to Barron as her child. It's Melania's child. So it was very strange. I know it's going to be a great, I know that it's going to be great for children because Melania loves children.

9:17Ben Meiselas:She has a wonderful boy. She's proud of her boy. Isn't he your boy also? Very question mark, very strange thing to say. Here, play this clip. Well, I just heard about that for the first time. The only thing I can tell you, I know one thing for sure, Mr. Speaker, it's going to be great. It's going to be great for children. Okay. I don't know what it is she's doing, but I know it's going to be great for children because she loves children and she's, uh, she's got a wonderful boy and she's very proud of her boy, but she loves children. And if she, if she puts it out, it'll be maybe unanimous again or whatever that was, but very close unanimous again.

9:59I want to thank you. Hey, Brett here, allow me to interrupt for just one minute because I have major news that isn't getting nearly enough attention, and this may just be the biggest issue of our time. According to the Energy Information Administration, household electricity prices have risen 13 % since Donald Trump took office, and experts say that this is just the beginning if current policies continue. As you all know, we've been doing these segments about the climate in our reports because, frankly, this is an issue that isn't getting talked about nearly enough. Across the country, climate pressures and the explosive growth of energy-hungry data centers are straining the grid, driving up rates, and hitting families hard.

10:33The New York Times reports that rural Republicans in deep red Georgia and Virginia are now voting for Democrats for the first time because their electric bills keep climbing while their elected officials greenlight these massive AI data centers without any local input. These facilities require staggering amounts of power and water, and under Trump, the strategy has been to just accelerate data center expansion while simultaneously taking a sledgehammer to clean energy projects. That combination, growing demand, and shrinking supply pushes the costs directly onto consumers. Utilities are racing to build expensive new infrastructure from nuclear projects to new transmission lines, and they're passing all those costs on through higher monthly bills to the people.

11:15Communities are pushing back, though, in Arizona and Indiana. Citizen pressure forced Amazon and Google to abandon data center plans. Great job speaking out. In Georgia, voters flipped long-held Republican utility seats because they connect the dots between politics, climate policy, and their skyrocketing bills. But here's the main point. This issue is about to define national politics. Electricity is becoming the new price of eggs, if you will. And if leaders, regardless of political party, don't confront the impact of climate change, corporate subsidies, and unchecked AI expansion on household energy costs, this problem will only get worse.

11:51This is a crisis that is hiding in plain sight. We all see it with our own eyes and it demands far more attention right now. So do this for me quickly. Let me know your thoughts on AI data centers, on the climate, on your electricity bills, and so on below. And let's continue to make noise. Okay, Ben, back to you.

12:10Ben Meiselas:Now, you also know that when she was pregnant and Barron was born, Donald Trump was having an affair, it seems, with multiple women as well. Stormy Daniels, I think after right when Barron was born and Susan McDougal, Karen McDougal, McDougal and other people. And there are photos of them all together, Trump, Melania, McDougal, while they were all together. From that, did you see how Melania was looking at him as well there? Like, look at here, Melania is then absolutely stone-faced here, as Aaron Rupert writes, as Trump talks about how sad Steve Scaliff's wife was when he got shot, but not many wives would be crying.

12:56Ben Meiselas:Here, play this clip. I went to the hospital and they actually thought he wasn't going to make it. His wife was devastated. She was crying. I tell the story. I found out that night you have a wife that loves you dearly. I know many wives would not even be crying. Your wife was absolutely a mess. She was crying. she was inconsolable, Steve. So we found that out, but he made it. And then he went. And then he starts talking about a Republican Congress member and he's mocking the Somalian community. I want you to watch her face right here. Play this clip. And Tom is very friendly with the Somalians.

13:34You know, he's doing a great job. He's a big fan. He's a big fan of Somalia. He said, please correct that. Thank you, Tom. Thank you. He's a great guy. He's done a fantastic job. And we really appreciate it.

13:53Ben Meiselas:So that brings me to Melania's Christmas book that she was reading. And here was the headline. Melania Trump mocked after struggling to read Christmas book to six kids. Now, the story is that she was this great model. Although, other than the nudes, if you're a great model, what did you model? And I don't know. question mark, that she speaks five languages. Have you heard her speak five languages ever? I mean, I assume she speaks her native tongue. She doesn't speak English all that well. What are the other languages that she speaks? Seriously, have you ever heard her speak any of the other? I don't know.

14:31Ben Meiselas:I haven't heard her speak these other languages. And I just think that as the Trump regime is attacking all of these migrants, I don't think we should be mocking. It says, Melania Trump mocked after struggling to read Christmas book to six kids. We should never mock people who are trying to learn English. You know, it's a hard language and I get it. We should never mock people, never mock the way people speak. She has been here since 1996. And you know what Trump would do and what Caroline Levitt would do and how they would treat people who would be here from 1996, who she really couldn't read this children's book at all.

15:09Ben Meiselas:Like she struggled to read the words to the kids. Here, this is her trying to read the Christmas book to the kids. Play this clip. Santa see in the dark? Does he wear night vision goggles that make everyone green, everything green? I bet he'd like that because Santa likes green. Or hit vision goggles because he might like red better. Should we leave out carrots, not cookies? on Christmas Eve, since they're good for his eyesight. No, the twinkling lights on the tree will make enough light for Santa to see, tiptoeing past chairs without bumping his knee, to leave a present or two or three, and get a kiss from the dog, if it's a dog that leaks, and take a cookie or two or three and then leave.

16:15Santa goes up the chimney the same way he comes down. And I have no idea how Santa does that. But I'm so glad he can.

16:29Ben Meiselas:You know, and I think you just contrast that to the interview that was given last night by the mother of Caroline Levitt's nephew because Caroline Levitt and the Trump regime tried to paint the mother of the nephew out like she was a foreign immigrant who has no relationship with the child. And she's like from Brazil, but really can't speak English at all. And it was like, she was very articulate and had a far, Ferreira, and she had a far better command of English like that, like, like it wasn't even close to like Melania. And, and the way they try, the way they locked up Ferreira, the mother of Caroline Levitt's nephew.

17:15Ben Meiselas:But, you know, but the way they treat Melania is just so odd here. Play this clip. Give me some answers. What? Have you had a chance to talk to Caroline Levitt? No, no. I mean, what would you say to her? I guess I'm sort of, I'm still stunned by the fact that you chose her to be your son's godmother, right? Over my sister. Over your own sister. Over my sister. And now all of this is happening. I mean, what do you have to say to her? I think what I would have to say to Caroline is just because you went to a Catholic school doesn't make you a good Catholic. You know, you're a mother. You are a mother now, and you should know.

17:47How would you feel if you were in my shoes? You know, how would you feel if somebody did this to you? Because at the end of the day, nobody's above the law. You know, it could happen to anybody. So I can't wrap my mind around it. And hopefully there's a logical explanation for all of this. I mean, this is just a picture of you. Obviously, we blurred your son's face out, but it's you and Caroline. Yes. Little pool party. Yes. In Atkinson, yes. Yeah. It doesn't make sense. I'm trying to understand and have faith that there's some logical explanation behind any of this. But there isn't. I'm not the first.

18:26I'm surely not going to be the last. There's thousands of women and families and children being separated daily. Where does it end? When does it stop?

18:34Ben Meiselas:And finally, I just want to remind you about Melania's plagiarism of Michelle Obama, just so that you can remember that at the Republican National Convention, Melania just like literally ripped off word for word. Melania ripped off word for word. Michelle's speech here at Play This Clip. Barack and I will raise you with so many of the same values. You work hard for what you want in life. That your word is your bond. That you do what you say you're going to do. That you treat people with dignity and respect, even if you don't know them and even if you don't agree with them. And Barack and I set out to build lives guided by these values and pass them on to the next generation because we want our children and all children in this nation to know that the only limit to the height of your achievements is the reach of your dreams and your willingness to work hard for them.

19:37and your willingness to work for them.

19:41Ben Meiselas:There you have it, folks. You could take this however you want to take it. But I think that after we get the Epstein files, I think that there should be some attention paid to some of these questions. Those are questions, opinions, First Amendment opinions and questions, right? We should all have them. We should all have them. I think there are a lot of attention needs to be turned there. You let me know what you think. Hit subscribe. Let's get to 6 million. Hey, Midas Mighty. It's Ben, Brett, and Jordy. and we just want to thank you for being the backbone of this movement. This year tested us more than ever, but together we proved that pro-democracy voices don't just compete, we win.

20:15We took on the entire MAGA machine, won a Webby for podcasts of the year. The Midas Touch podcast.

20:20Ben Meiselas:And you were with us every step of the way. And trust us, what we're working on next is bigger, bolder, and built for 2026. Let's keep this momentum going, spread the word. We are just getting started. Shout out to the Midas My Day. Early birds always rise to the occasion for summer vacation planning because early gets you closer to the action. So don't be late. Book your next vacation early on Vrbo and save over$120. Rise and shine. Average savings$141. Select homes only.