A Republican Lawmaker Accused Russia of Airing 'Nude Melania Trump Photos' on TV. It Was the Cover of GQ Magazine

South Carolina Rep. Joe Wilson, a Republican, attacked Russian President Vladimir Putin and his state television for broadcasting nude photos of First Lady Melania Trump without acknowledging that the photos were from a magazine photoshoot years ago and had already been published.

Rep. Wilson condemned the Russian President for the images, aired by the popular Russian show 60 Minutes, during congressional proceedings in the House of Representatives on Tuesday. However, the images had been taken as part of a GQ magazine photoshoot in 2000 to accompany a profile of Melania Knauss, Trump's then-girlfriend, reported Irish Star.

"War criminal Putin has ignored peace initiatives with record rocket attacks on civilians in Ukraine," he said. "With Putin's state television shamefully broadcasting nude pictures of America's first lady, who is so beloved, Melania Trump."

Following Donald Trump's victory in the 2024 presidential election, the Russian show aired various images of Melania from her modeling days while presenters Yevgeny Popov and Olga Skabeyeva discussed the Trump family.

"Now that Melania Trump's husband has finally won, she is getting ready to come back to the White House for a second time. Here is how Melania looked in the year 2000. This is the cover of the magazine GQ," said Popov.

"The future first lady lies on top of furs in a negligee. Inside the magazine, Melania's sexy photos near a private plane and aboard the plane. In one of the shots, the model is wearing only her underwear, lying on a blue carpet with the U.S. seal, as though the editors of the men's magazine knew something in advance about the future of their model," he continued.

While they were taken in 2000, the photos resurfaced in 2016 after Donald Trump was elected to his first presidential term.

"We were bombarded by requests to shoot Melania. Given that she was obviously so keen to be featured in GQ, we came up with a rather kitsch and camp story for her to feature in," said GQ editor Dylan Jones.

However, Melania has repeatedly defended herself for her earlier nude modeling work.

"Why do I stand proudly behind my nude modeling work? The more pressing question is, why has the media chosen to scrutinize my celebration of the human form in a fashion photo shoot? Are we no longer able to appreciate the beauty of the human body?" she wrote on X (formerly Twitter).