Sevnica, population 5,000, is a small town by the Sava River in eastern Slovenia which drew the attention of the press worldwide in 2016, when Melania Trump, who grew up there, was set to become the first lady of the US. The town has since launched many Melania-themed products to honour its former resident, and is looking forward to celebrate the second time Trump takes up the role of first lady.

Born in 1970, Melania Trump grew up in Sevnica, where her interest in fashion and modelling was first sparked. Her mother Amalija worked at a children's clothing manufacturer, as textiles used to be Sevnica's mainstay industry, and Melania would take part in the company's fashion shows.

She later decided to pursue a modelling career, which led to her moving to the US in 1996. By that time she had changed her original name Melanija Knavs to Melania Knauss. Two years later she met businessman Donald Trump, married him in 2005, and the rest is history.

Following her husband's election win in 2016 she became the second Catholic first lady after Jacqueline Kennedy (1929-1994) and the second foreign-born first lady after Louisa Adams (1775-1852). She is also the first naturalized citizen to have become first lady.

After Republican Trump's second presidential win in last year's election, she will become the second first lady in US history to serve two non-consecutive terms.

Melania Trump, Donald Trump and their son Barron celebrate the former US president's non-consecutive election win in November 2024. Photo: dpa/STA

Friends from Slovenia invited to inauguration ceremony

Melania Trump will return to the White House on 20 January when her husband is sworn in as president at an inauguration ceremony, ushering in his second term.

The newspaper Delo recently reported that Melania and her father Viktor Knavs have invited a number of friends from Slovenia to the ceremony.

The list includes prominent aircraft designer and entrepreneur Ivo Boscarol, whose company Pipistrel was sold to a US aviation company in 2022, and Auxiliary Bishop of Ljubljana Anton Jamnik.

Also invited are the founder of Medicor, a centre for cardiovascular diseases, Metka Zorc, and several of her family members, many of whom work at the centre. Former owner of the arms company Arex, Ivan Kralj, and his son Gregor Kralj are on the guest list as well.

Sevnica to celebrate Inauguration Day

Melania Trump's hometown is also ready to mark Inauguration Day. There will be several events, including an open day at Sevnica's hilltop medieval castle, featuring a cultural programme and culinary delights.

The Culture, Sport, Tourism and Youth Sevnica will unveil an updated version of its brand First Lady, which was launched eight years ago. The brand includes various local products celebrating Melania Trump such as wine, chocolate, tea, salami and a beauty cream.

First Lady products honouring Melania Trump. Photo: KŠTM

The event will moreover feature the famous local culinary treats that honour the town's former resident - cake Melanija, apple pie Prva Dama (First Lady) and Predsedniški Burger (President's Burger).

There will also be a free guided walk through the town visiting some of the places where Melania spent her childhood, with the family-run café Slaščičarna Julija, one of the locals' favourites, being one of the destinations.

Cake and pie intertwining the local and American

Julija, a bustling café near the town's railway station, is famous for its various cakes, of which the one called Melanija stands out with its golden and white hues. The cake was first introduced as the café's spontaneous response to Donald Trump's win in November 2016 and Melania Trump's becoming first lady for the first time, Nuša Vidmar, who owns the café together with her husband, told the Slovenia Times.

"Being a Sevnica local, I was very proud of our former townswoman, who at the time moved in the White House for the first time. That was a historic moment for our town and, of course, for Slovenia as a whole," she said.

The cake's ingredients were chosen from the best the town could offer in November, and so the café, which is also a patisserie and bakery, used hazelnuts and walnuts as well as almonds to add a "touch of cosmopolitan chic".

The cake's white chocolate mousse brings to mind the White House and there are edible gold embellishments on top of it to signify prestige, Vidmar added.

Customers love the cake, and since Trump's win in the 2024 election, Sevnica and the café have been once again the subject of increased media attention, according to Vidmar.

Not far away from Julija is another cafe and bakery, Kruhek, that also makes a local treat honouring Melania. Decorated with an M, Prva Dama (First Lady) is an American-style apple pie that uses a Sevnica variety of Slovenian apples in an effort to fuse the local and the American, says Maja Kozole Popadić, whose family runs the bakery.

In the past four years, when Melania did not serve as first lady, the apple pie was not as popular as before, but recently its popularity has increased again.

Sipping Melania-themed wine while wearing White House-themed slippers

The First Lady brand has also seen an increased interest from customers in the months following Trump's win.

One of the products it features is red wine which is made using Blaufränkisch grapes from four local wineries. This variety was chosen because it is native to the region and one of the best dark-skinned grape varieties there, says Kaja Šetinc, a tourism adviser at the brand's owner, the Culture, Sport, Tourism and Youth Sevnica.

"The characteristics of Blaufränkisch - freshness, fruitiness, fullness and richness perfectly represent the quality and potential of the region," she told the Slovenia Times, adding that the Blaufränkisch red is the "first lady of wines".

There are also other Melania-related products or treats in Sevnica such as "Whitehouse slippers", decorated with white pom-poms, which are sold at the town's Kopitarna shoe store, and "Predsedniški Burger" (President's Burger), the staple of the town's pizzeria Rondo.

A frizz of crusted cheese on top of the bun is reminiscent of Donald Trump's hair, and Bruno Vidmar, whose family owns the restaurant, told RTV Slovenija recently that after Trump survived an assassination attempt in July last year, ketchup was added on top of the burger.

Melania Trump put Sevnica on the map

Following Donald Trump's 2016 win, Sevnica's tourist arrival figures went up by some 30%.

In the wake of the Covid pandemic the numbers naturally dropped, but in recent years the situation has been improving again, the Culture, Sport, Tourism and Youth Sevnica, also known as KŠTM, says.

"We've been seeing an increase in foreign tourist arrivals, particularly from the Netherlands. Almost every foreign tourist mentions the first lady or asks questions about her. They often want to know about her life while she was growing up in Sevnica and the house where she lived," says Šetinc. There are also Slovenian tourists who visit Sevnica to learn more about Melania's hometown.

After Trump made his political comeback last year, Mayor Srečko Ocvirk told the public broadcaster that Sevnica people and Slovenians in general would be proud to see Melania visit Slovenia and her hometown but there are no hard feelings that she has not been on an official visit there yet.

"We're also proud that her son Barron speaks Slovenian," he said.

News broke recently that a documentary about Melania Trump's life started shooting in December, and whether the film will feature some scenes from Sevnica will become clear when it is released by Amazon in the second half of this year. Melania is an executive producer of the film.