Melania Trump’s mother dies

CNN
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Amalia Knabs, the mother of former first lady Melania Trump, has passed away, President Trump posted on his social media accounts.

“Amalia Knahus was a strong woman who always conducted herself with grace, warmth and dignity. She was completely devoted to her husband, daughter, grandson and son-in-law. I will miss her immeasurably and will always respect and love her legacy,” she said. I wrote to X.

Former President Donald Trump’s campaign adviser confirmed to CNN that Knabs had died.

Knahus was a textile worker from Slovenia, a former communist country in Yugoslavia. She and her husband Victor live in the United States and have been frequently seen in Washington since her son-in-law took office in 2017.

The retired couple remained in regular contact with the Trump family during the administration, often traveling with the first family to Mar-a-Lago, New Jersey, and Bedminster.

As of 2016, the Knavses owned a house in Sevnica. Melania Trump attended elementary school in Sevnica, a sleepy industrial town of 5,000 people located in a leafy valley on the banks of the Sava River in central Slovenia. But since the birth of grandson Barron Trump in 2006, they spent most of their time in New York, neighbors said at the time.

The Navses became U.S. citizens in 2018 through the sponsorship of their adult daughter, a controversial visa category that the Trump administration had sought to eliminate. Donald Trump has been harshly critical of family-based immigration, regularly referring to it as “chain migration.”

Melania Trump herself became a U.S. citizen in 2006, making her the second foreign-born first lady. Since her departure from Washington in January 2021, she has largely avoided the public eye, even as her husband seeks to run for the White House again.

This story has been updated with additional details.

CNN’s Jack Forrest, Betsy Cline, Tar Kopan, MJ Lee Nick Thompson, Phil Black, Majaz Krivich and Gassper Andrinek contributed to this report.