Melania Trump defends nude modeling work as she promotes book

WASHINGTON — In what is certainly a first for a former first lady, Melania Trump is defending her past work as a nude model, calling it a form of art in “celebration of the human form” and blaming “the media” for scrutinizing it.

In a 45-second video clip posted to her social media accounts Wednesday, Trump, 54, provided some of the most extensive remarks she has given about the topic — or any topic, really — since her departure from the White House in January 2021.

“Are we no longer able to appreciate the beauty of the human body?” she asks in the video, as images of classical paintings and sculptures, including John Collier’s “Lady Godiva” and Michelangelo’s “David,” cycle across the screen. “We should honor our bodies and embrace the timeless tradition of using art as a powerful means of self-expression.”

Her defense of nude modeling, with its broader call for artistic expression, was part of a series of videos promoting a memoir set for release in October. But the latest message struck a somewhat jarring chord: Her career as a model has not been the subject of broad news coverage since the 2016 presidential race.

So Trump’s much delayed response was delivered in the middle of a toxic election season marred by two assassination attempts against her husband, former President Donald Trump.

In July, after Donald Trump was grazed by a bullet in the first attempt, Melania Trump wrote an open letter condemning a “heinous” act of violence that had threatened to change her life forever. She has offered no such comments since her husband was apparently targeted Sunday, and her office did not respond to a request for comment about whether she planned to provide any.

And so it goes for one of the most inscrutable first ladies in modern history. Trump has seldom felt the need to explain herself, preferring instead to let her comments, as cryptic as they are, serve as her first and final thoughts on any given matter.

In recent days, she has published a string of videos that appear to reflect some of her most deeply held beliefs: a commitment to her family, a reverence for privacy, an embrace of conspiratorial thinking and a growing mistrust of institutions.

In a video posted in early September, she mused darkly about the July assassination attempt. “There is definitely more to this story,” she declared, “and we need to uncover the truth.”

In the glimpses that Trump has allowed into her world, ominous thoughts are interlaced with the joy she has derived in being a mother to Barron Trump, her 18-year-old son with Donald Trump. The experience, she said in a video last week, has brought her “immense fulfillment that only a mother understands.”

Melania Trump has long been described as an intensely private person, with little interest in circulating among the social sets of New York City and Palm Beach, Florida, where she has lived for decades. On Saturday, she published a video castigating the FBI for a raid on Mar-a-Lago, where she lives with her husband in Palm Beach, in which agents searched her personal belongings.

“This is not just my story — it serves as a warning to all Americans,” she said in the video, which featured images of the Constitution and illustrations of the country’s Founding Fathers, “a reminder that our freedom and rights must be respected.”

But Trump’s defense of her modeling career is different from the other videos because it revisits an old wound about her critics’ use of her past against her. In the video, she blamed the news media for criticizing her modeling; in reality, the most visible criticism came from operatives opposed to her husband’s 2016 presidential campaign.

In January 2000, when she was still only dating Donald Trump, she appeared nude on the cover of a “Naked supermodel special” issue of British GQ. In other photos taken aboard Donald Trump’s Boeing 727 for the issue, she appeared in various states of undress.

During the Republican presidential primary race in 2016, one of the images was resurfaced and circulated by an anti-Trump super political action committee called “Make America Awesome.”

“Meet Melania Trump. Your next first lady,” the ad read. “Or, you could support Ted Cruz on Tuesday.” (Cruz denied being involved, but this did not prevent Donald Trump from posting an unflattering photo of Cruz’s wife.)

Since then, one of the causes closest to Melania Trump’s heart, her former advisers have said, is the protection of her image and reputation.

As first lady, she was hawkish about which photos of her could be used by the White House, signing off on each image before it was published, according to Stephanie Grisham, a former senior adviser.

Trump has also sued writers and news organizations that insinuated without evidence that she worked as an escort during her modeling career.

In 2017, the British tabloid The Daily Mail was ordered by a London court to apologize for an article that “questioned the nature of her work as a professional model.” Trump and her lawyers argued that the publication had damaged her ability to make money as an “extremely famous and well-known person.”

Though the case was settled, Trump remained aware that her online critics used her past as a nude model to suggest that her work was unbecoming of a first lady.

Her latest video suggests that she has not settled that score just yet.