'Little evidence' to confirm Melania Trump's longtime claim about herself: investigation
Former First Lady Melania Trump has boasted being multilingual but for years there hasn't been indisputable proof.
The speculation was stirred back up by former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury Monica Crowley, who while appearing on Fox News "The Ingraham Angle" this week showered praise on Melania's attire — a covered-up black Michael Kors pantsuit with a leather belt wrapped tightly twice around her waist — that had been apparently not wowed a The New York Times reporter during a Mar-a-Lago fundraiser on Saturday.
"Mrs. Trump looks absolutely beautiful in anything," said Crowley, and first reported by Newsweek. "She is highly accomplished, she is fluent in five languages, and yet they always have to try to find something to bludgeon her because by extension they are trying to hit her husband, of course."
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She continued: "You know Sigmund Freud's old and very famous saying: 'Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar'? Sometimes a chic, gorgeous black suit is just a chic, gorgeous black suit."
Melania back in 2016, came forward that she was fluent in not only her native Slovene, but also English, Italian, French, and German. (That same year, a Wall Street Journal report had Serbian instead of Italian.)
Notably, Newsweek's article "could not find" Melania making the multi-language claim herself.
Among the video clips the outlet researched it remained inconclusive what languages Melania was using when conversing with world leaders and foreign delegates.
Though the article notes: "There does not appear to be other footage of her speaking proficiently in languages other than English."
Political commentators on Decoding Fox News, wrote the day after Crowley's appearance that "there's no evidence that Melania is fluent in five languages."
Moreover, the truth-seekers on Snopes back in 2019, were unable to determine if she could speak languages beyond Slovenian and English.
In their research they pointed to the first family back in 2017 visiting Rome and meeting with Pope Francis.
Francis asks a veiled Melania in Italian what she feeds her husband, and she remained confused until a translator informed her what was said in English, "What do you give him to eat?"
She answered a Slovenian pastry: "Potica."
The site also scrutinized Melania using the informal greeting for a single person — not a group — "Come stai?" to greet some kids in a children hospital.
Newsweek also cited a 2020 biography "The Art of Her Deal: The Untold Story of Melania Trump" by Mary Jordan, finding no found evidence of Melania speaking languages beyond English and Slovene.
The outlet concluded that there isn't enough proof to know either way if Melania "does not speak these other languages" but "there still isn't enough evidence to prove it."