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FOR THE LAST TIME: Melania Trump Does NOT Speak ‘Five or Six’ Foreign Languages and We Have PROOF

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Melania Trump has been trending on Twitter recently and usually it’s because of something she’s NOT doing. Meaning, she’s not in public, not supporting her husband, not attending campaign events, etc. Fine, I don’t really care about seeing her sourpuss face anyway. But sprinkled in are always these tweets from conservatives talking about how Melania was simply the greatest first lady to ever exist. And their go-to is always that she’s this multi-lingual marvel, speaking either five or six languages.

People, this simply isn’t true. First, it isn’t something people just made up. Melania herself in 2016 sat down with Mika Brzezinski and claimed she spoke all these languages:

It’s claimed that she speaks Slovenian (her native language) Serbo-Croatian, Italian, German, and English (also French according to some sources).

It has to be noted that there is no actual proof that she speaks any language other than Slovenian and English with any actual degree of fluency. There are no recordings of Melania Trump speaking any of the languages she claims to be fluent in except English.

It is very possible that she studied some of these languages in school, but no proof that she is able to speak these languages with any degree of fluency. And what does she consider “fluent”. I know that I did four years of high school French and received A grades each year but I don’t speak French and I am barely able to comprehend spoken French at this point. Until such time as proof – one way or the other – appears about Melania Trump’s linguistic capabilities, we essentially have to take her word on it.

But let’s look at her claims more deeply.

Melania says she speaks Italian…here she is with the Pope who is speaking Italian…but Melania looks over to the translator to understand what he said:

While in Rome she visited a children’s hospital, and some reports said she spoke Italian with the children, but it turns out she merely said “Ciao” which is about all the Italian I know as well.

Then when Melania was visiting a children’s hospital in France, the media reported she spoke french.

But take a look, all she said was “Bonjour, je m’appelle Melania” which is “Hello, my name is Melania”.

Back in August during the G-7, Melania was also spotted wearing translation headphones during the speech of French President Emanuel Macron. If she is indeed fluent, why the need for translation?

Now, take a look at former First Lady Jackie Kennedy speaking French, see the difference?

Since Slovenian and Serbo-Croatian are the national languages of her homeland, Melania’s probably telling the truth about them, but her claim to be fluent in the other languages is at best unproven. Considering she has proven to be a liar on many occasions, I suspect she is lying about this, too.

A language expert has also debunked her claim in the video below:

And now Snopes, the fact-checking website, has done their investigation as well.

Snopes determined that Melania’s claim she speaks 5 languages is “unproven.”

So until the day comes where I see Melania Trump speaking French, or Italian, or German, I simply do not believe she speaks those languages. Just because she was a “model” who spent a few years living in Europe, it doesn’t mean she became fluent in those lanugages. And she’s had plenty of opportunities to show off her skills…if she had them. The Trumps had the Macrons from France for a State Dinner. That would’ve been a perfect opportunity for Melania to show off her French…and believe me, if she was indeed fluent in French, she would’ve taken the opportunity to show it off and to “own the libs”. She doesn’t speak French. Or Italian. Or German. Period.

Nicole Hickman
meet the author

Nicole Hickman James is a lifelong Democrat and political activist who first cut her teeth as a teenager volunteering for Mike Dukakis’ presidential campaign. She has worked and volunteered for John Kerry, Hillary Clinton, HFA (Hillary For America), and Organizing For Action. She’s passionate about liberal and progressive causes and considers President Obama her favorite president ever. She holds her Bachelor’s from Boston College in Economics and her Master's from Columbia, also in Economics. When not working as a writer, she enjoys traveling and spending time with her three college-aged children.

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