Trump likes to surround himself with models; indeed, his wife is a former model. Questions have been raised about whether Melania Trump was an undocumented immigrant when she first worked in the United States, but Mother Jones has smartly decided to focus on Trump’s hypocrisy on this issue. In a blockbuster article, Mother Jones documents that Trump Model Management employed undocumented immigrants who were encouraged to come to the United States on promises of work visas that were only infrequently met.
With no secure documentation, Trump’s firm exploited these models, whose wages were eaten up by the exorbitant fees they had to pay for rent and other amenities. The conditions in the barrack-like residences the models lived in were the opposite of chic. One model, identified only as Kate to protect her identity, tells a striking tale:
Living in the apartment during a sweltering New York summer, Kate picked a top bunk near a street-level window in the hopes of getting a little fresh air. She awoke one morning to something splashing her face. “Oh, maybe it’s raining today,” she recalled thinking. But when she peered out the window, “I saw the one-eyed monster pissing on me,” she said. “There was a bum pissing on my window, splashing me in my Trump Model bed.”
“Such a glamorous industry,” she said.