Donald and Melania Trump Their wedding was a party of superlatives: The Trumps got married 20 years ago






Two days after the inauguration, Melania and Donald Trump celebrate their 20th wedding anniversary. A look back at their marriage in 2005.

On their 20th wedding anniversary, Donald and Melania Trump, currently the most powerful couple in the world, will probably have little time to celebrate. The 47th President of the United States will be too busy putting his stamp on his new term in office from the start with a flood of decrees and ushering in the promised “new golden age of the USA”. There is little room for private romance.

Donald Trump: The real estate tycoon’s third marriage

The wedding with the Slovenian model Melania Knavs on January 22, 2005 heralded the third marriage of the scandal-prone American entrepreneur and politician. He was previously married to ex-model Ivana Trump (1949-2022) from 1977 to 1992, followed by a marriage to actress Marla Maples, which lasted from 1993 to 1999.

When Donald Trump tied the knot for the third time 20 years ago, his public reputation was significantly different from what it is today. He was already politically active in 2005, but at that time there was no indication that the prominent real estate tycoon could one day become US President.

Becoming a reality star with “The Apprentice.”

Before he took off politically with the US Republicans and finally fought his way to the highest office, Trump was primarily seen as a dazzling and fabulously rich media figure. In 2004, he got his own reality TV show, “The Apprentice,” in which candidates had to demonstrate their entrepreneurial skills under his aegis. If the moderator Trump wasn’t convinced, they were greeted with the words “You’re fired!” placed in front of the door.

Politicians with changing party books

When Trump walked down the aisle for the third time on January 22, 2005, he was a member of the Democratic Party and had an extremely friendly relationship with his current opponents, Bill and Hillary Clinton. As the fact-checking portal “Politifact” documents, the busy “dealmaker” has changed his party affiliation a total of five times since the late 1980s. He only became a member of the Republicans again in 2012 and then needed only a few years to win his first presidency between 2017 and 2021.

First encounter at a Fashion Week party

As Donald and Melania Trump revealed to CNN talk show host Larry King (1933-2021) shortly after their wedding in 2005, they met at a Fashion Week party in New York in 1998. According to Trump’s description, he was actually supposed to be introduced to a “supermodel” there, but he suddenly lost interest in her when he saw Melania sitting next to her: “I said: ‘You can forget about her – but who is the one to the left?’ “.

At the time, Donald Trump was still married to actress Marla Maples, whom he divorced in 1999. Melania Knavs, as his new partner was called at the time, had only come to New York three years earlier through a Milanese model agent and celebrated her first major successes, among other things, as the face of a campaign for the Camel cigarette brand. Through her liaison with the prominent real estate king, in whose TV show she appeared in several episodes, she also became known nationwide and appeared on the covers of all major fashion magazines in subsequent years.

Mega wedding of superlatives

Their wedding in January 2005 was accompanied by intensive media coverage and was expected to be a spectacular event of superlatives. The approximately 450 invited guests from politics and showbiz included big names such as Muhammad Ali (1942-2016), Arnold Schwarzenegger, Luciano Pavarotti (1935-2007), Liza Minelli and Henry Kissinger (1923-2023), and of course Trump’s party colleagues were also there Bill and Hillary Clinton look there. British superstar Elton John, among others, contributed to the musical entertainment.

The lavish wedding party after the previous church wedding took place at Trump’s pompous Mar-a-Lago estate, which he acquired in 1985. Like the magazine “Hello!” According to reports, the groom spent around $2.5 million on the glamorous event. According to the report, 10,000 flowers were used to decorate the gigantic ballroom, and the wedding cake alone is said to have cost $50,000.

Wedding ring for $1.5 million

However, Donald Trump spent much larger amounts on top-class outfits for his young bride. Her wedding dress was made by Christian Dior from the finest white silk after weeks of work, had a four-meter-long train and was set with 1,500 gemstones. With an estimated price of around $100,000, it is still considered one of the most expensive wedding dresses in history. Trump is said to have shelled out a whopping $1.5 million for Melania’s all-diamond wedding ring.

However, the newly married couple’s subsequent honeymoon was less pompous. In an interview with talk show host Larry King, Donald Trump, who is known to be a strict vacation hater, revealed that they simply spent them at home. On the show, he justified this decision in the most unromantic terms possible: “Why should we leave our beautiful house called Mar-a-Lago and go to a tropical island where it’s not clean or whatever?”

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