What is really going on in politics? Get our daily email briefing straight to your inbox Sign up Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Invalid Email

Screaming about foreigners “taking our jobs” in his battle for the Republican Presidential nomination, Donald Trump has made it pretty clear he’s no great fan of immigrants.

But if he makes it to the White House, the job of First Lady will, for the very first time, go to a foreigner – in the lovely shape of his Slovenian model wife Melania , 46.

The irony is not lost on critics appalled at the way he has courted the votes of disaffected white, working-class America with his talk of banning Muslims entering the US and building a wall on the Mexican border.

Video Loading Video Unavailable Click to play Tap to play The video will start in 8 Cancel Play now

“The joke around Capitol Hill is that he never once considered building a wall around his trousers,” said US political commentator Stephen Fisher.

And if Trump had been President prior to Melania’s arrival, the two might never have met.

She reportedly arrived in the US on an H-1B visa which, through a quirk in immigration law, admits models as highly skilled workers alongside scientists and computer programmers.

Trump is a fierce critic of the scheme and has vowed to rail against the “rampant, widespread H-1B abuse”.

He said in March: “These are temporary foreign workers, imported from abroad, for the explicit purpose of substituting for American workers at lower pay.”

But Trump – who has children Donald Jnr, 38, Ivanka, 34 and Eric, 32 with Czech-born ex-wife Ivana , 67 – clearly has reason to be grateful for immigration.

“History shows he loves a foreigner who’s tall, blonde and a model,” Mr Fisher said.

Read more:Broadcaster caught 'ogling' Melania Trump on TV before realising his mic is on

However, though she has graced the world’s catwalks and appeared naked on the front of British GQ magazine, there’s a lot more to the current Mrs Trump than being easy on the eye.

(Image: Newsline Scotland Press Agency)

If Trump wins November’s election, the New York-based billionaire would be giving America not only its most beautiful and elegant First Lady since Jackie Kennedy, but one whose intellect and poise would put JFK’s wife in the shade.

“Melania would make an exceptional First Lady,” Mr Fisher told the Mirror. “They say never to judge a book - or perhaps in her case, a magazine - by its cover, and nothing could be more true about her.

“She is refined, highly educated, carries herself with incredible dignity, and her beauty is not just skin deep. Unlike her husband, she is a model New Yorker... quite liberal.”

Melania’s route to America began as she caught the attention of model scouts in, as it was then, her native Yugoslavia.

Born in Novo Mesto, now in Slovenia, in April 1970, she was raised by her Communist party member father Viktor Knavs, who managed car dealerships for a state-owned vehicle manufacturer, and her mother Amalija Ulnik, a pattern maker at a textile factory.

She began modelling at16, changing her name from Knavs to Knauss, and a year later had already posed for Slovenian fashion photographer Stane Jerko.

She said: “My mom was in the fashion business. I was five years old when I did my first catwalk and did commercials at 16. I went professional after my studies. My mum loved fashion. We loved to travel and go to Italy and Paris.”

(Image: Stane Jerko/Reuters)

Her shoot with acclaimed Jerko catapulted her into the spotlight, leading to a contract with Italian model agency ID in Milan.

She continued to educate herself as she worked across Europe, becoming fluent in English, French and Serbo-Croat. She then went to New York in 1996 when ID Models founder Paolo Zampolli got her a contract and a visa.

Melania was 28 when she met Trump in 1998 at a party thrown by Zampolli at the Kit Kat Club in Manhattan.

Trump was there with Norwegian cosmetics heiress Celina Midelfart but made a beeline for Melania and asked for her number. But, because he had a date, she refused to give it to him.

“I am not a girl who will just give away the number to anybody,” she said later.

Read more:Trump speechless as snappers ask to take pic of wife without him in the shot

However, Trump refused to take no for an answer. They eventually began seeing each other only to break up for a few months when Trump toyed with the idea of running for US President in 2000 as a member of the Reform Party.

She obtained her green card in 2001 before becoming a citizen five years later.

(Image: Mirrorpix)

Trump proposed at the glitzy Costume Institute Gala in New York and they married January 2005 at The Episcopal Church of Bethesda-by-the-Sea in Palm Beach, Florida.

The bride wore a £140,000 dress made by British designer John Galliano, partying the night away at her new husband’s palatial Mar-a-Lago estate.

The reception was attended by now likely presidential rival Hillary Clinton and her former President husband Bill.

Other A-list guests included model Heidi Klum, rapper P Diddy and Simon Cowell – all ­serenaded by Billy Joel singing Just the Way You Are.

Two years later Melania gave birth to their only child, Barron William Trump, now 10.

As an infant, Barron reportedly had his own floor of the Trumps’ apartment in Trump Tower in Manhattan, but often slept in a cot in his parents’ bedroom. He is said to like wearing a suit and tie, and Melania’s nickname for him is “Mini-Donald”.

In 2000 when Trump considered a run for office, Melania was asked what kind of role she would play if he ever became commander-in-chief.

“I would be very traditional like Betty Ford or Jackie Kennedy,” she replied.

(Image: Maring Photography/Getty Images)

But the same year she posed naked for British GQ on Trump’s private jet with a headline reading: “Sex at 30,000ft: Melania Knauss earns her air miles.”

The photoshoot would later lead to a huge explosion between her husband and Ted Cruz , Trump’s closest rival in the Republican race, who dropped out after a crushing defeat last week.

A picture of Melania naked on a fur rug appeared on a leaflet from the Texas Senator’s supporters with the words: “Meet Melania Trump. Your next First Lady. Or, you could support Ted Cruz .”

Trump responded by posting an unflattering picture of Cruz’s wife Heidi.

Read more:Trump and Cruz use wives as dirty war hits a new low

Also in 2000 Melania gave a rare joint ­interview with Donald to Howard Stern, telling the shock jock: “We have incredible sex at least once a day.”

Trump then boasted about how hot Melania looked in “a very small thong”.

When not taking care of Barron, Melania runs a jewellery business, selling her products on shopping channel QVC. She has joked that after looking after her son and running her business, her husband is her third job.

(Image: Getty)

She told Larry King during a 2005 interview: “To marry a man like Donald, you need to know who you are. You need to be very strong and smart.”

If Trump was to upset the bookies’ odds and beat Clinton to the White House, Melania has no fear of a Monica Lewinsky-style scandal.

Asked by King if she ever worried about the Apprentice star cheating, she said: “No. I don’t worry about that at all. If a man doesn’t want to be with me or I don’t want to be with a man, goodbye.”

You don’t want to go angering this immigrant, Trump…