Melania Trump’s mother will be buried today in the same picturesque Palm Beach church where her daughter married Donald Trump nearly two decades earlier.
Trump, 77, is expected to attend after flying to Palm Beach last night. It was unclear whether he would make it after a heated exchange with a New York federal judge overseeing E. Jean Carroll’s defamation case against him. The judge has rejected a request to postpone the trial.
Mourners will join the former First Lady and her father Viktor at Bethesda-by-the-Sea Episcopal Church to pay tribute to Amalija Knavs, who died on January 9 at the age of 78.
The Trumps have been regulars at the 125-year-old chapel since Melania married then-real estate mogul Donald there in 2005 in the presence of VIP guests including Hillary and Bill Clinton.
A year later, their son Barron was baptized at the Gothic Revival-style venue, less than three miles from Trump’s swanky Florida residence, Mar-a-Lago.
Melania Trump’s mother will be buried today in the same picturesque Palm Beach church where her daughter married Donald Trump nearly two decades earlier
Former First Lady Melania Trump’s mother, Amalija Knavs, 78, died over the holidays after being hospitalized in Miami, Florida
Donald Trump paid tribute to his late mother-in-law Amalija Knavs and called a New York judge an “animal” for refusing to postpone the defamation trial of E. Jean Carroll so he could attend her funeral
The Trumps also attended several Christmas services there during his presidency.
Judge Lewis Kaplan noted that the former president was not legally required to appear in court in person anyway — but was still on the receiving end of a furious tirade on Truth Social, with Trump branding him a “terrible, biased, irrational angry Clinton-appointed judge.” .’
Trump paid a moving tribute to his mother-in-law during his victory speech at the Iowa caucuses on Tuesday, calling her an “incredible, beautiful mother.”
“She’s up there, way up there. She looks down and she is so proud of us. And I just want to say to Amalija: you are special, one of the most special people I have ever known,” he added.
Melania, 53, had missed most of the Christmas and New Year’s celebrations at Mar-a-Lago to care for her ailing mother, who had grown up in an impoverished Slovenian village but was spending her final days as a wealthy retiree in Florida.
Episcopal Church of Bethesda on the Sea in Palm Beach, where the funeral service of Amalia Knavs, the mother of Melania Trump, is believed to take place
It is unclear whether 77-year-old Donald Trump will attend the funeral after a heated exchange with the New York federal judge overseeing E. Jean Carroll’s defamation case
The Trumps have been regulars at the 125-year-old Palm Beach chapel since Melania married then-real estate mogul Donald there in 2005.
In her own statement announcing the death, she said: “Amalija Knavs was a strong woman who always carried herself with grace, warmth and dignity.
“She was completely devoted to her husband, daughters, grandson and son-in-law. We will miss her dearly and continue to honor and love her legacy.”
Knavs was born in 1945 in Judendorf-Strassengel, Austria, before moving to Slovenia when it was still under communist rule.
She spent her humble childhood harvesting onions on the family farm before working in a textile factory, where she met 79-year-old Viktor.
They welcomed their first daughter, Ines, who now lives in Manhattan, in 1968. Two years later, the couple had Melania, who always said she was inspired by her hard-working mother.
The sisters both moved to Milan to launch their modeling careers and Melania came to the United States in 1996, received a green card in 2001 and became naturalized as a citizen in 2006.
The Knavs were also often seen traveling with the first couple and accompanied them to many major events
Amalija and Viktor continued to live ‘modestly’, according to a neighbor, and still own the house they built in Slovenia in the 1980s. They can be seen in 2018
Knavs was a textile mill trader in her native Slovenia when she met husband Viktor. The couple then moved to the US and were by Melania’s side throughout her career from modeling to the East Wing. She is pictured with her daughter in 2004
After Melania and Donald welcomed their son Barron in 2006, Amalja and Viktor began splitting their time between Slovenia and the US. They captured Barron in 2007
Amalija and Viktor first met Trump in 2002 when he visited them in Slovenia.
It was said that he arrived on his private jet around 8 p.m., had dinner with the couple at the Grand Hotel Toplice in Ljubljana and then left for the US around midnight.
That was the only time the future president ever visited his wife’s home country, and he later joked to Larry King, “I was there for about 13 minutes.”
Amalija and Viktor continued to live in the house they built for themselves in Slovenia in the 1980s, even when Trump ran for president in 2015. Their neighbors told DailyMail.com that they were ‘humble and not the kind of people to brag’.
However, the Knavs eventually moved to the US and became naturalized citizens in August 2018, living as wealthy retirees and residents of Mar-a-Lago.
“My elegant and hardworking mother Amalija introduced me to fashion and beauty,” Melania said in her 2016 speech to the Republican National Convention.
When she was just five years old, Melania was recruited as a model in the catalogs of the clothing manufacturer her mother worked for. She saw the clothes modeled as a child (middle)
While Amalija’s father Anton Ulčnik was one of the most successful onion farmers in all of Slovenia, the family grew up in poverty. She is pictured in 1965
‘My father, Viktor, instilled in me a passion for business and travel. Their integrity, compassion and intelligence reflect on me and my love for family and America to this day.”
At the annual New Year’s Eve party at Mar-a-Lago, the former president confirmed that Melania’s mother was “very ill” but was initially positive about her recovery.
“She knows about 95 percent of the people in this room,” he said, drawing cheers from partygoers.
A few minutes’ drive away, Bethesda-by-the-Sea Episcopal Church was the setting for Melania’s January 22, 2005, wedding to Trump, a larger-than-life business mogul and star of The Apprentice.
The former model wowed in an elaborate Dior gown made from 90 yards of white satin and Ivanka Trump read the scriptures.
Afterwards, guests including the Clintons, Matt Lauer, Rudy Giuliana, Simon Cowell and Tony Bennett, attended a lavish Mar-a-Largo reception where they were serenaded by Billy Joel.
When asked what he thought of the entertainment, American Idol judge Cowell told People: I give it a nine.’