MELANIA TRUMP REMEMBERS HER CHILDHOOD IN YUGOSLAVIA: “I grew up under communism and I didn’t lack anything!” (VIDEO)

First Lady of the United States Melania Trump said that she had a “very nice childhood” growing up in communist Yugoslavia and that, as she puts it, she lacked almost nothing. Her view of that period noticeably differs from the rhetoric of her husband, President Donald Trump, who often portrays communism as one of the threats facing the United States.

“I grew up under communism and actually I didn’t lack anything,” Melania Trump said in an interview with Fox Business.

“I think I had a very nice childhood, and my parents provided our family with a wonderful life,” she added.

Her remarks come at a time when Donald Trump has increasingly used the term “communism” in political attacks against Democrats and democratic socialists.

“They call themselves democratic socialists, but actually they’re communists,” Trump said at a party convention held this month.

In a speech marking Independence Day, the U.S. president also said that “communism is a losing system and it always will be.”

He added that American soldiers had not fought communism around the world for decades only for, as he put it, that threat to now emerge in America itself.

BRIAN KILMEADE: “Why is it that Eastern Europeans like yourself fully understand the gift of freedom and liberty better than Western Europeans, and sometimes better than Americans? What is it about how you grew up?”

FIRST LADY @MELANIATRUMP: “I grew up under the communism… I… pic.twitter.com/81UnRI1KmO

— FOX & Friends (@foxandfriends) September 23, 2026

Trump has also claimed that the Democratic Party is “turning into the communist party,” while calling some Democrats “hardcore godless communists.” He also warned that a Democratic victory could lead to the creation of a sort of “communist club” in Congress.

His messages are partly aimed at progressive candidates who achieved success in the 2026 primaries. However, democratic socialism and communism are not synonymous, but represent different political traditions and ideologies.

Growing Up

Melania Trump was born Melania Knavs in 1970 in Novo Mesto and grew up in what was then the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

She moved to the United States during the 1990s to pursue a modeling career, while she became a U.S. citizen in 2006.

Asked whether growing up under communism influenced the way she views freedom today, Melania again said that she remembers her childhood as a very pleasant one.

“Still, there were certain things you had to be careful about,” she said.

“You had to be careful about what you did.”

She added that there was not the same kind of freedom that exists today in the United States and that, simply, “times were different.”