Viktor Knavs and Amalija Knavs, the parents of US First Lady Melania Trump step off Air Force One upon arrival at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland, on June 11, 2017. (Getty)
Melania Trump’s parents, Viktor and Amalija Knavs, are close to their daughter and accompanied her on move-in day to the White house.
Melania’s father, Viktor Knavs (whose name is sometimes given as Viktor Knauss), bears an uncanny resemblance to President Donald Trump, right down to the suits and red tie. He is a former Communist Party member from Slovenia, where the First Lady was born.
Melania Trump’s parents. (Getty)
Melania Trump’s parents were positioned right behind the president and First Lady at the inauguration.
Melania’s parents at the inauguration. (Getty)
Melania’s mother, Amalija Trump, once worked in a Slovenian textile factory. Melania got her striking good looks from her mother.
Here’s a photo of Melania’s mother Amalija Knavs and her father Viktor Knavs when they were younger.
Amalija and Viktor have a second daughter named Ines Knauss. She posted a throwback photo of the parents. “Beautiful parents,” she wrote with the picture.
Melania’s parents are so close to their daughter that they moved from Slovenia to New York so they could live near Melania, and have now followed her to Washington D.C. They speak Slovenian to Barron Trump, 11, reported Univision.
Melania Trump’s mother, Amalija Knavs.
During Melania’s childhood, Melania’s mother, Amalija Ulčnik, “worked developing patterns at a factory that manufactured children’s clothing. She had met Viktor Knavs in 1966 while he was the chauffeur for a nearby town’s mayor,” according to GQ.
The Independent Journal Review reports that Viktor “was a car parts salesman and card-carrying Communist Party member under the former Yugoslavian dictator Marshal Tito,” although it was said he joined out of convenience not ideology. According to the GQ profile, Viktor later became a car salesman.
Amalija Knavs, the mother of US First Lady Melania Trump. (Getty)
Even Melania has remarked on the similarities between her father and Donald Trump. “They’re both hardworking. They’re both very smart and very capable. They grew up in totally different environments, but they have the same values, they have the same tradition. I myself am similar to my husband. Do you understand what I mean? So is my dad; he is a family man, he has tradition, he was hardworking. So is my husband,” she said, according to The Daily Caller.
Learn more about Amalija Knavs here:
Learn more about Viktor Knavs here:
