Melania Trump statue removed from her hometown for second time
Police in Slovenia are investigating the disappearance of a bronze statue of first lady Melania Trump.
The life-size sculpture was sawed off and carried away from her hometown on Tuesday.
Unveiled in 2020 during president Donald Trump's first term in office, the statue was placed near Sevnica in central Slovenia where Melanija Knavs was born in 1970.
It replaced an eight-metre tall wooden statue that had been set on fire earlier that year.
Police spokeswoman Alenka Drenik Rangus said on Friday that the police were informed about the theft of the statue on Tuesday.
She said police were working to track down those responsible.
According to Slovenian media reports, the bronze replica was sawed off at the ankles and removed.
The original wooden statue was carved from a linden tree trunk on top of a hill. It depicted the first lady in the blue coat she wore for her husband's first inauguration in 2017.
That statue was carved by local Ales 'Maxi' Zupevc in July 2019, who was commissioned by US artist Brad Downey, who had made a cast of the statue.
After the first was removed by locals and burned on US independence day, a second replica version – which has now also vanished – was made from bronze and placed on the same spot.
There are likely to be a number of local suspects after the statue was criticised for its looks, with some saying it looked like a smurf.
Sevnica has become a tourist attraction for fans of Mr Trump and his wife, with local shops selling themed products including honey and chocolates.
Franja Kranjc, who works at a bakery in Sevnica that sells cakes with Melania Trump's name in support of the first lady, said the stolen statue won't be missed.
'I think no one was really proud of this statue, not even the first lady of the USA,' he said. 'So I think it's OK that it's removed.'
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Numbers of deportations are not made public but according to two Egyptian security sources speaking on condition of anonymity, the security services had deported nearly 21,000 Sudanese, as of the end of March 2025, for their illegal presence or for violating Egypt's laws. Rights group Amnesty International has also documented the detention of migrants in Egypt in what it called cruel and inhuman conditions ahead of such deportations, which it says violate international law. Egyptian officials say the government has shown generosity by absorbing so many Sudanese despite economic pressures such as double-digit inflation and a dollar crunch. Fawzi said everyone benefits from national subsidy schemes. Migrants in Egypt who spoke to Reuters disputed this, as did an internal EU commission report in 2024 seen by Reuters. It said about 1.5 million of the 9 million migrants Egypt says it has taken in were in vulnerable situations. Of them, nearly 1 million were registered as refugees and asylum seekers as of May 2025, according to the UNHCR. "Migrants and refugees are not entitled to domestic subsidy schemes or social protection programs and a large number of them have become food insecure," the report said, adding that this had prompted many to move onwards. Five Western diplomats and EU officials said Cairo has attempted to pressure Brussels into increasing financial aid - in exchange for stopping migrants from heading to Europe. Tineke Strik, a member of the European Parliament and rapporteur for Egypt, said during a visit in December she met Fawzi and he asked her, "Imagine if our border guards took a four-week holiday. What would happen then?" "They are really using the migration card to get money from the EU," Strik said. Fawzi declined to comment. In March, the EU announced a 7.4 billion euro funding package for Egypt as part of a push to stem migrant flows. Anti-immigration rhetoric has surged throughout the EU since more than a million people, mainly from Syria, arrived via the Mediterranean in 2015. This hostility has been exploited by right-wing and nationalist parties, pushing governments to adopt increasingly restrictive migration policies focused on returns. In recent months, the EU and member states have proposed policies criticised by human rights group to accelerate deportations and send migrants to hubs in third-party countries with which migrants have no connection. Two months after arriving in Libya, Yakoub boarded a dinghy bound for Crete with about 50 other people, mostly Sudanese. The Eastern Mediterranean route he took was the second most active route into the EU from January to April, with 12,228 people crossing, the EU's border agency Frontex said. The Central Mediterranean route to Italy and Malta was the most active. Though the Eastern route has seen a year-on-year decline in traffic, the number of Sudanese has surged to among the top three nationalities from January to May, totalling about 1,469 people, according to Frontex. This represents a significant rise from 361 during the same period last year and 237 the year before. Yakoub said he was relieved to be safe finally in Greece, and to start thinking about the future. "If Greece offers me safety and stability, I will stay."
