How did Trump Model Management operate in the late 1990s and who were the other models signed alongside Melania?
Executive summary
Trump Model Management (founded as T Models in February 1999) positioned itself as a New York talent arm tied directly to Donald Trump’s business brand and signed Melania Knauss (later Melania Trump) as one of its earliest recruits; reporting shows the company worked with many foreign-born models and leaned on existing industry networks to place them in U.S. work, but its immigration and labor practices have been the subject of dispute [1] [2] [3].
1. Origins and ownership: a brand play that began in 1999
The agency launched as T Models in February 1999 and marketed itself as a high-profile New York modeling operation linked to the Trump Organization’s name and resources; later corporate histories of the firm identify Donald Trump as the founder and majority owner, and the agency operated publicly under the Trump brand through the 2000s [1] [2].
2. How the agency recruited and placed talent: industry networks and foreign models
Reporting ties Trump Model Management’s early recruiting and placements to established European agent networks—figures such as Paolo Zampolli and others who had been instrumental in bringing Eastern European models to Western markets—and shows the agency used those connections to place foreign-born talent in U.S. shoots and advertising during the late 1990s [4] [5] [6].
3. Visa and work-status disputes: conflicting accounts in the record
Multiple reporters and former models have alleged that Trump Model Management and related firms relied on models who entered the United States on temporary visas that did not authorize work, with former noncitizen models telling Mother Jones they had performed paid assignments without proper work visas; that account sits alongside statements that individuals involved—including Melania—have said they complied with immigration laws, and court, ledger and accounting records from Metropolitan International Management show models being paid as independent contractors and taxed, while also documenting payments before work visas were issued for some people [3] [7].
4. Melania’s recruitment and the company roster: who else was there
Multiple sources identify Melania Knauss as among the first models associated with Donald Trump’s agency after its 1999 founding, and contemporary industry photos and reporting place her alongside other working models of the era—examples cited in fashion coverage include Emma Eriksson and other European models who worked in New York in the mid- to late-1990s—although full, contemporaneous public rosters from Trump Model Management in 1999 are not widely published in the available reporting [1] [5] [8].
5. Business model and labor practices: management, commissions, and litigation traces
Documents and reporting tied to Metropolitan International Management—a firm that managed dozens of models in the mid‑1990s—showed a business model of paying models as independent contractors, taking roughly 20% commissions and deducting expenses; later civil complaints and reporting about Trump Model Management include allegations by former models about excessive expense deductions and low pay, and the agency’s visa requests in later years (e.g., requests for visas for hundreds of international models) added to scrutiny over how the business operated vis-à-vis labor and immigration rules [7] [2] [3].
6. Contested narratives and gaps in the public record
Available sources present two competing currents: industry and insider accounts linking Trump Model Management to established European agents and describing the practical mechanics of placing foreign models in U.S. work, and investigative reporting and ledger material that call into question whether all placements were covered by appropriate work authorization; however, public documentation that definitively lists every model signed to Trump Model Management in 1999 or that fully reconciles each model’s visa status at specific dates remains limited in the cited reporting [6] [7] [3].
7. Bottom line: what can be said with confidence
It is verifiable in contemporary and retrospective sources that Trump Model Management began in 1999, that Melania was among its early recruits and appears in industry shoots and advertising tied to that moment, and that the agency’s use of foreign models and its immigration and labor practices generated dispute and later reporting and legal claims—while precise rosters and definitive visa-by-assignment timelines are not comprehensively documented in the sources reviewed [1] [2] [3] [7].