Politics - News Analysis

FLOTUS LIES: Experts Agree That Melania Trump’s Claim She Speaks 6 Languages is a Lie

People in conservative circles have often said that Melania Trump has a higher IQ than any other First Lady.

Of course she has never released her IQ score, which is something that most people with high IQs don’t do anyway.

Given that the last three First Ladies included a Wellesley graduate who went on to Yale Law, and a Princeton graduate who attended Harvard Law, a woman who dropped out after her first year at the University of Ljubljana probably isn’t well matched in that department regardless of how difficult the exams to enter there are (that was the position that one of her professors took: she must be intelligent because the entrance exams are quite difficult).

In looking into this the matter I remembered that Melania boasts of being multi-lingual.

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 it but does she or has she used it regularly. And what does she consider “fluent”. I know that I did four years of high school French and graduated each year but I don’t speak French and comprehend what is being said only a little better. 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.”

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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