In her memoir and the lavishly produced documentary that now follows her, Melania recasts that first meeting as a moment of control, not surrender. She insists the 24-year age gap never intimidated her; instead, she portrays herself as the one quietly setting the terms. Refusing to give Trump her number, demanding his multiple contacts, and then waiting to see how he followed up becomes her proof that she was never just another young woman dazzled by a billionaire.

Yet the public conversation around them has only sharpened. Critics see a familiar pattern: a powerful man in his fifties pursuing a woman in her twenties, wrapped in glamor and money. Supporters counter that she was an adult, established in her own career, and that two decades of marriage speak louder than online outrage. Between those extremes stands Melania’s own version—carefully curated, expensively lit, and determined to show that, from the very beginning, she believed she was choosing him, not being chosen.