미 공화당 대선주자 도날드 트럼프의 아내 멜라니아가 누드사진 공개로 구설수(口舌數)에 오르면서 모델 활동 당시 불법을 저질렀다는 의혹이 제기됐다.
온라인 청원사이트 체인지닷오알지에서 7일 현재 멜라니아에게 과거 활동에 대한 고백을 요구하는 청원운동이 벌어져 관심을 끈다.
트럼프의 3번째 부인인 멜라니아는 슬로베니아 출신으로 1998년 트럼프를 만났다. 2001년 영주권을 얻고 2005년 결혼했으며 2006년 미국 시민권을 획득했다.
멜라니아는 최근 뉴욕의 대중지 뉴욕포스트에 20여년 전 촬영된 전신 누드사진 4장이 게재됐다. 이 사진은 1995년 프랑스 사진작가 알레 드 바스빌이 뉴욕에서 촬영한 것으로 프랑스 월간지 맥스 매거진에 실렸던 것이다.
문제는 과거 멜라니아가 1996년 H-1B 취업비자로 미국(뉴욕)에 건너 왔다고 언급한 적이 있다는 것. 이 때문에 1995년엔 멜라니아가 B-1 관광비자로 입국해서 사실상의 취업 활동으로 명백히 법규 위반을 했다는 논란이 일고 있다.
미국의 퍼스트레이디가 될 수도 있는 멜라니아가 과거 이민법을 위반했다면 그것만으로도 큰 흠결(欠缺)이 된다. 더구나 남편 트럼프는 불법 체류자들을 전원 추방하고 멕시코 접경에 거대한 장벽을 쌓아 불법이민을 막겠다고 공언한 반이민주의자여서 난처한 처지가 됐다.
체인지닷오알지의 청원운동은 “멜라니아가 시민권을 획득하기전 체류비자 위반을 한 사실이 제기된만큼 과거에 대한 솔직한 고백을 해야 한다. 트럼프와 그의 가족들은 많은 이민자들이 잘못된 이민시스템 때문에 매일 직면하는 어려움을 경험했을 것”이라고 압박했다.
한편 문제의 사진을 촬영할 당시 멜라니아는 25세로 멜라니아 K라는 이름의 모델로 활동했다. 레스비언 풍의 이 사진에서 멜라니아는 스칸디나비아 출신의 엠마 에릭손과 함께 누드로 고혹스런 자태를 드러내고 있다. 두사람은 침대에 누은 채 에릭손이 멜라니아를 뒤에서 껴안고 있다.
또다른 사진은 에릭손이 하이힐을 신고 스타킹 차림으로 멜라니아를 채찍으로 때리는 포즈를 취하고 있다. 멜라니아도 하이힐을 신고 몸에 달라붙는 가운을 착용했지만 이전 사진보다는 다소 점잖은 편이다.
이 사진에 대해 트럼프의 홍보자문은 CNN과의 인터뷰에서 “사람의 몸이 예술로 비쳐지는건 좋은 일이다. 멜라니아는 아름다운 여성이고 전혀 당혹스럽지 않다”며 문제가 될 게 없다는 반응을 보였다.
트럼프도 뉴욕포스트와의 인터뷰에서 “멜라니아는 가장 성공한 모델중 한사람이다. 많은 사진을 촬영했고 유럽에서는 이런 종류의 사진들이 아주 패셔너블하고 흔한 일이다”라고 강변(强辯)했다.
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Melania Trump’s girl-on-girl photos from racy shoot revealed
Melania Trump (right) models for a January 1996 issue of France's Max Magazine. Photo: Ale de Basseville Here’s the nation’s would-be first lady — and right beside her, a second lady.
Three years before she met husband Donald Trump, Melania Trump was snapped in a nude frolic with another female model, bombshell photos obtained exclusively by The Post show.
The Post -- which endorsed Trump for the Republican nomination in April -- also profiled the photographer behind the images, Jarl Alé Alexandre de Basseville, who now denounces the fashion industry.
"I am completely against this world, and I don't understand why the girls f- -k with old guys to afford a Chanel, Louis Vuitton and Hermès bags," he told the Post. "The fashion industry has become the biggest pimp ever."
But De Basseville defended the nude photographs of Melania Trump, calling them "a celebration of the female body."
Donald Trump has been the target of extensive criticism regarding numerous sexist comments he's made, both prior to and during his campaign.
New York Post printed a nude photo of Melania Trump on the front page. Why?
So this is, um, different: The New York Post, which endorsed Donald Trump in the New York primary, published naked photos of Melania Trump on Sunday.
Trump had not yet responded by the time the paper hit the newsstands. He told the Post:
Melania was one of the most successful models and she did many photo shoots, including for covers and major magazines. This was a picture taken for a European magazine prior to my knowing Melania. In Europe, pictures like this are very fashionable and common.
Trump’s communications director, Jason Miller, appeared on CNN’s Reliable Sources on Sunday and called the photos “a celebration of the human body.”
“We have nothing to be embarrassed about in these photos,” Miller said. “She’s a beautiful woman.”
But why did the Post publish them at all? While the paper certainly has a history of printing photos targeted at hurting candidates (see: their cover in 2008 with the photo from President Obama’s trip to Kenya) or nude photos (see: the shots of Ashley Dupre that ran in 2008), it seems odd that the solidly anti-Clinton paper would be running anti-Trump photos.
Or in the middle of a campaign season rife with sexism, is this to remind us that Trump has a beautiful former model as a wife? Is to promote the (BS) MRA belief that a woman should stay attractive for her husband? Or that a wife’s attractiveness somehow reflects on her husband’s manliness (also BS)?
Or are they supposed to distract us, the voters and the media? As Trump battles questions about his tax returns and his response to Khizr Khan‘s moving DNC speech, let’s face it: Can any of us say, honestly, that we will ignore nude photos of a famous person?
The Post headline proclaims: “Melania Trump, like you’ve never seen her before.” Maybe the Post had the photos and wanted to run them to sell newspapers, which is tough enough in this day and age.
It’s been a rough few weeks for Melania Trump: She was caught plagiarizing part of her speech at Republican National Convention, there have been questions about whether she really graduated college, she still lags far behind Michelle Obama in Facebook popularity and then this week, her website was scrubbed from the Internet.
* Change.org Petition
Immigration is the least understood yet most politicized conversation in America today. Define American stands by all patriotic American immigrants, regardless of documentation or status, and encourages Melania to join others by sharing her full immigration story.
In light of recent inquiries into Melania Trump’s potential past visa violations on her way to becoming a naturalized American citizen, Donald Trump and his family are experiencing the confusion that so many immigrants and families face on a daily basis as they try to navigate a fundamentally broken immigration system.
While the Slovenian-born immigrant who speaks five languages has gone on to achieve great success in her adopted country, this has been done amidst her husband’s proposed immigration policy which suggests those who violate their visas should be deported.
In order to have a more fact-based, humanized conversation than the one currently in the media, we’re asking Melania Trump to join our ‘Coming Out’ campaign by sharing her own immigration story more fully with the people of her adopted home country of America, which she may one day represent to the world as our First Lady.
Coming out and sharing stories helps to emancipate the spirit, instill pride and increase immigrants’ visibility as real Americans and human beings. At Define American we believe we must transcend this political conversation, which is why our offer to help Melania tell her story remains after the political season is over.
Will you sign your name supporting Melania Trump, encouraging her to join others in telling her full immigration story?
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