A US lawmaker has slammed Putin’s state television for ‘publishing naked photos of Melania Trump’.
The remarks, made by Republican Representative Joe Wilson, occurred during a session in the House of Representatives on Tuesday.
In a fiery speech condemning America’s adversaries, Rep Joe Wilson said: “War criminal Putin has ignored peace initiatives with record rocket attacks on civilians in Ukraine. With Putin’s state television shamefully broadcasting nude pictures of America’s first lady, who is so beloved, Melania Trump.”
Wilson was referencing an episode of the popular Russian program 60 Minutes that displayed nude photographs of Melania Trump from a GQ feature in 2000. The episode aired following Trump’s unexpected election win in November 2024.
Commentating on Trump’s victory, the husband-and-wife TV hosts Yevgeny Popov and Olga Skabeyeva showcased several images from Melania Trump’s modeling career on air.
During the broadcast, Skabeyeva was seen smiling as Popov remarked: “Now that Melania Trump’s husband has finally won, she is getting ready to come back to the White House for a second time. Here is how Melania looked in the year 2000. This is the cover of the magazine GQ.”
“The future first lady lies on top of furs in a negligee. Inside the magazine, Melania’s sexy photos near a private plane and aboard the plane. In one of the shots, the model is wearing only her underwear, lying on a blue carpet with the U.S. seal, as though the editors of the men’s magazine knew something in advance about the future of their model.”
The segment concluded with music and a series of images of President-elect Trump, accompanied by the voice-over “What does ‘my body my choice’ really mean? ‘” This was a reference to a promotional video that Melania posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, prior to the launch of her autobiography.
Melania started her modeling career as a teenager after being ‘discovered’ by a Slovenian photographer at the age of 16. She later modeled in Paris, Milan, and New York during the 1990s and early 2000s before tying the knot with Trump in 2005.
Her infamous nude cover for GQ Magazine resurfaced during her husband’s first presidential term in 2016. Speaking about the cover, GQ editor Dylan Jones stated: “We were bombarded by requests to shoot Melania. Given that she was obviously so keen to be featured in GQ, we came up with a rather kitsch and camp story for her to feature in.”
He also disclosed that her husband Donald later asked for photos from the shoot to be sent to his office.