Melania Trump Insisted She Wasn’t With President Trump for His Money in Resurfaced 1999 Interview

Melania Trump was plagued with accusations that she was with President Donald Trump for his money even before they got married in 2005. However, in a resurfaced interview that is currently making its rounds, she put her foot down on the subject.

In 1999, Melania was a 26-year-old supermodel from Slovenia who was dating the then real-estate mogul at age 52. At the time, she participated in an interview with ABC News’ Don Dahler, who asked her if she had intentions on his money, arguing that, “You don’t see many 26-year-old supermodels on the arm of a 53-year-old car mechanic.”

“The people, they don’t know me,” she responded. “If they talk like this, they don’t know me.”

“You know what, you can’t… sleep or to hug or to talk with beautiful things, with beautiful apartments, beautiful clothes, beautiful cars, beautiful houses, you can’t do that,” she continued. “You could feel very empty. Then [if] somebody said, ‘You’re with a man because he’s rich and famous.’ They don’t know me.”

Strangely enough, Dahler asked her in 1999 if she could see herself being the First Lady to Trump as president of the United States, and she was ready for that as well. Melania answered with a resounding “yes,” stating that she would “support” and “stand by” Donald, 80, at every turn.

“I would be very traditional, like Jackie Kennedy and Betty Ford,” she explained, later adding, “I would stand by [my] man.”

Melania also said she would give up her modeling career at the time since it would be a conflict of interest for the first lady of the United States to hawk products to the American people from such a position.