Melania Trump, who will soon become the first lady of the United States for a second time, has been named the most influential Slovenian in 2025 by the magazine Reporter.
The 54-year-old former model reclaimed the top spot after a five-year absence as her husband, Donald Trump, prepares for his inauguration as the 47th U.S. president on January 20. She leads the annual Reporter Top 100 list, which evaluates both formal influence tied to a person’s role and informal influence assessed by the magazine’s editorial team.
Prime Minister Robert Golob ranks second, followed by Marta Kos, the European commissioner for enlargement, in third. Ljubljana Mayor Zoran Janković and Slovenia’s first president, Milan Kučan, round out the top five, with Kučan noted for his enduring informal influence on the left-leaning political scene. Meanwhile, UEFA President Aleksander Čeferin, last year’s leader, has slipped to sixth place, and President Nataša Pirc Musar dropped to seventh, attributed in part to her rivalry with Golob.
