Melania Trump Wednesday insisted she followed the law when becoming a citizen of the United States, while defending her husband Donald's presidential campaign and statements on immigration, Muslims, and women.
"I never thought to stay here without papers," the former model, who married Trump in 2005, told
MSNBC's "Morning Joe" co-host Mika Brzezinski in an rare one-on-one interview aired Wednesday.
She explained that after she came to the United States in 1996, she "had a visa, I traveled every few months back to the country to Slovenia to stamp the visa. I came back, I applied for the green card, I applied for the citizenship later on after many years of green card."
"So I went by system, I went by the law," Trump told Brzezinski. "And you should do that, you should not just say let me stay here and whatever happens, happens."
Trump said in the interview that she is a full-time mother and she loves it, so she has not been on the campaign trail much, but she supports her outspoken husband "100 percent."
"We have thick skin, and we know that people will judge him and people will call names," she said. "They don't give him enough credit. From June, that he announced, they don't give him enough credit."
Further, Mrs. Trump disagreed that her husband, who won the Nevada caucuses on Tuesday, insulted the Mexican people with his announcement speech, as he was talking about "illegal immigrants."
She also denied claims that Trump treats women harshly, despite his attacks on Fox News' Megyn Kelly, Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, and others.
Women are treated as equals in her husband's company, she said, and in life "he treats women the same as men. He will tell you what is in his heart, what he thinks. He will not hold it back if you're a woman, you're human. If you're a woman or a man, it's no different, you're human."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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