Watch Melania – Just To Annoy The Media
Viewers are loving the new documentary on the big screen about Melania Trump. It’s only the media and the leftists that aren’t. It has 99% audience score on the “popcornometer”, completing destroying the critics reviews on just 6%. And it had the strongest start of any documentary in over a decade. Whoops!
Well as you know, I’m often one to make sacrifices and take one for the team. For you.
So that’s why I sometimes have watched interviews on 1Breakfast, or the 6pm news, or documentaries on TVNZ+ or Sunday programme – so that I can warn you as to the media narrative and what the real agenda behind
I also went to Jacinda’s Prime Minister Documentary and reviewed that for you – so that you wouldn’t have to.
And that was a very tough assignment.
So given my love for politics both here but also overseas in Australia the UK and the US, I couldn’t resist grabbing some popcorn, a Choc top vanilla ice cream, a Diet Coke (to cancel the calories in the chopped top ice cream and popcorn) and go to the new movie that is just out on screens but which I’m sure you weren’t aware of –
Melania – 20 Days To History.
It’s described as “An intimate chronicle offers a rare glimpse into the life of Melania Trump, exploring her role as First Lady and her relationship with the President.” And it’s from behind the scenes and the 20 days leading up to the Inauguration for the second time of President Trump in January 2025.
Remember all the wailing and howling you could hear from newsrooms around New Zealand and the world? Yeah – that day!
And that alone probably tells you why you haven’t heard much about this movie, and the media aren’t talking about it.
One – it’s indirectly about Trump
Two – it means you get to relive the second inauguration of Trump, and of course that would trigger most media outlets.
So here’s the promo for it
Here’s another promo
Let me tell you briefly about some of the content, and then let me tell you the response – from the media & movie critics, and then from those who actually watched it.
By the way, despite it being 1pm in the afternoon, the movie theatre was almost full. Small theatre at Sylvia Park – but not the one pre sold ticket – which I’ll come back to.
So the movie goes officially for 1’48” although I didn’t actually notice the time. It went quite quickly which is always a good sign.
We get to see inside the White House, Mar-a-Logo (which is impressive) and Trump Tower (which is also impressive).
It starts with a rather cheeky statement from Melania about becoming “First Lady of the US… again”, she says with a smile.
What I did notice throughout the movie was the pomp and circumstance which is really to mirror the same pomp and circumstance that we see surrounding the royal family in the UK.
You also can’t help but notice the level of security around leaders in the US. It is just constant and everywhere.
So the first theme is what she wears at the inauguration. So for fashion designers & stylists, it will be an interesting watch. That was probably the time that I started to eat the choc top ice cream.
Then there was the event planning for the four days of the inauguration. Right down to the finest detail. The table settings for the candlelight dinner – the plates, the flowers, the carpet.
The type of stuff I take absolutely no notice of, but I bet many do.
For interior designers and event planners, this would be an interesting aspect. That was probably when I started dipping the choc top into the popcorn for added flavour.
They hadn’t quite got to the politics side which I was more interested in.
It continued with showing the design of furniture in the White House for the new presidency. Basically a new owner of the house, which changes every four or eight years. For example Barron their son needed a bigger bed because he’s so tall. The first time he entered the White House was when he was 10 years old.
Then some more time on the design of the first dress that Melania would wear during the inauguration – which looked glamorous, but….
The popcorn and ice cream were almost consumed.
It’s not until about 25 minutes into the documentary that President Trump actually appears, although we do hear his voice on a phone call between Trump and Melania straight after his win and the election in November 2024.
He’s his usual self – going on about how great it is and the great win and the great seats. She just agrees and smiles.
They’re shown attending President Jimmy Carter‘s funeral which is on the same day one year after Melania‘s mum‘s death. There is a very strong tribute to her mum, including lighting a candle at a large beautiful church in New York, and in the background the playing of Aretha Franklin‘s powerful rendition of “Amazing Grace”. Melania then receives a blessing from the priest as she exits the church.
We also learn about some of the charitable work that Melania does – which I’m sure you’ve never heard of.
Now don’t tell Candice Owens, but Melania had a zoom call with Mrs Bridget Macron – the first lady of France. Yes, Mrs.
Sharing about their combined efforts around the well-being of children, online safety, cyber bullying, and opioid abuse. It’s called Be Best – but I bet you’ve never heard about it, because of the media won’t have told you about it.
In another scene she meets one on one with the wife of Keith Siegel who was being held hostage by Hamas after the October 7 terrorist attack on Israel. She was also a hostage that had been released after 51 days, but her husband hadn’t. We actually find out at the end of the movie that he was released in February 2025 after 484 days in captivity under a ceasefire deal that Trump helped broker just before he took office.
We’re then back to fashion design, and talking about the design for that hat at the inauguration. You know, the big one that Trump couldn’t get near her face to give her a kiss on the cheek because the room of the hat was so wide – which got the media all excited.
But, she is an ex model, and the documentary makes it quite clear that that is very important to her. Her theme is “Living with purpose and style”.
The hat was designed by Eric Javits, who said dressing the first lady has been one of the greatest honours of his career. (Which means nothing to me 😊).
Interestingly, immediately following the swearing-in ceremony, they show Trump actually kissing Melania on the cheek – twice – and then turning cheekily to the camera with a grin.
But of course, I’m pretty certain that wasn’t pictured or reported.
The other thing is that one of her favourite music artists is Michael Jackson. Don’t tell Black Lives Matter that Trump’s wife loves Michael Jackson’s music.
We finally get into the side of the movie that I’m most interested in, which is the political aspects of the inauguration including the fact that Trump and President Biden have to travel in a car together (which gets a smile from Trump), anger that a sports game is scheduled at the same time as the inauguration which Trump thinks is deliberate by the television networks (probably), Melania is concerned about safety during a possible walk-around after the inauguration – especially after the attempted assassination not long before that, and what’s interesting to note is that Trump doesn’t shut down or negate her concerns around that.
We see all the aspects of the inauguration from behind the scenes, all the pageantry, all the detailed organisation, practising his speech (yes Trump does practice his speeches!), and Melania even recommends a phrase to use which Trump then cheeky tells the cameraman not to record so that she doesn’t get the credit.
It’s the type of humorous banter you often see between married couples.
How dare Trump be shown as human. How can an orange man be human?
We’re always showing the bad side of Trump (and yes there’s plenty of that) but we never really shown any human side.
I think that’s one thing that really comes out in the movie is the chemistry between Trump and Melania, and the constant physical taps and touches and holding hands and talking to each other. It’s a side of them that you probably haven’t seen, and the media aren’t keen on showing you.
Yet they haven’t had the same problem with Biden and Jill his wife, or Obama and Michelle, or Clinton and Hillary.
Sooooooo…. How did it go.
The media were hoping and praying it would flop
The Atlantic said “The Melania Trump documentary is a disgrace”
The Standard said “She’s not Princess Di but she wants us to know she cares”
The Independent said “First lady is a preening, scowling void of pure nothingness in this ghastly bit of propaganda”
Variety said “Why would Amazon spend $75 million on a movie this boring?”
The Guardian said the file was “dispiriting, deadly and unrevealing”
Another review on Variety called it a “cheese ball infomercial of staggering inertia“.
The Hollywood Reporter wrote: “To say that Melania is a hagiography would be an insult to hagiographies.”
USA Today scowled “Mocking Melania Trump’s documentary is an act of patriotism” and says
For starters, there’s the question of why. Why do we need this documentary? Who asked for it, aside from the film’s namesake? And who cares?… To be the subject of a documentary, one would think you’d have to accomplish something beyond being a complicit grifter in two of the most cruel, dishonest and dangerous presidential terms in American history… Assuming this new documentary flops, as predicted – and even if it doesn’t – we have a patriotic duty to make fun of it and the film’s subject.
We have a duty to never buy or read USA Today. It’s a joke newspaper anyway.
Of course if this had been written about Jacinda, Kamala or Hillary, the reviewers would have been cancelled for misogyny and sexism.
Why don’t they just say “we hate women”???
9News in Australia couldn’t hide their contempt
One of the worst I saw was the Sydney Morning Herald whose piece was entitled “‘Face like a fist’ and ‘Pure, endless hell’: Critics slam Melania doco”.
Golly, where’s Andrea Vance and Kate Hannah from the Disinformation Project when we really need them. Oh wait – Melania is from the right of politics eh
Just imagine – just imagine if someone had said that about Jacinda when reviewing her documentary. Face like a fist.
Yeah – you don’t have to imagine it because the leftist media would never say it.
Here’s the problem.
On Rotten Tomatoes, the people are loving it. It’s only the media and the leftists that aren’t.
It has 99% audience score on the “popcornometer”, completing destroying the critics reviews on just 6%.
As you know, if the leftist media and critics are panning a movie – especially a documentary – it’s probably worth seeing.
But the opposite is also true. The leftists loved the Jacinda documentary (93%!) but the people only gave it 66% – which I think is quite generous.
In the US it had the strongest start of any documentary in over a decade, taking US$7m at the box office
In fact, CNN had to admit it had done well!
Ironically, our own NZ Herald did a review – but they didn’t actually go to the movie. They used a review from the Washington Post which said “‘Melania’ promises to take us behind the scenes. There’s nothing to see”
1News also took a review from Associated Press and another negative review from the BBC
State broadcaster Radio NZ – not a peep. The last report I could find was a CNN sourced report saying it was coming.
And just yesterday, the Christchurch Press had a stab at the movie with a columnist saying it was a “truly terrible, and a grovelling two-hour hagiography of the mute former pin-up” and “a sure and certain horror show” – but also admitting that he hadn’t actually watched the movie.
Quality journalism there eh
Miranda Devine who spoke at our conference about six years ago and who now works at the New York Post put up this review entitled “‘Melania’ serves as a dainty middle finger to Trump’s media tormenters — who were wrong about everything” – and I want to quote from it.
We see inside the gilded walls of Mar-a-Lago and Trump Tower, a whirl of limos and private jets, as the first lady glides inscrutably among Palm Beach, New York and Washington, DC. Occasionally, we see a flash of private quarters — like the dressing room off the bedroom at Mar-a-Lago, where Joe Biden’s DOJ sent FBI agents to rummage through her underwear drawer.
…You also see a little of the poky living room of the White House residence upstairs from the grandeur of the state rooms. She beckons the camera into the tiny kitchen at 2 a.m. after a whirlwind of inaugural balls. Staff can be seen pulling a dinner from the fridge for the returning president to eat. As Trump heads out of the living room, presumably to enjoy his meal in private, he jokes to the camera before saying good night: “She’s very difficult, but there’s nobody like her.” Then he laughs and says she’s “not difficult.” Melania laughs.
…“She represents the country so beautifully,” he says at one point, griping that she doesn’t get credit.
…Over footage of Trump’s swearing in at the Capitol, Melania says: “People wanted to murder him, incarcerate him and slander him — and here he is. I’m so proud.” The camera pans to her standing nearby with two Bibles, tall and strong in a severe navy coat dress and matching flat-brimmed hat that shades her eyes.
…The outfit is unmistakably an armour she has donned to signal that things are different this time. She won’t be trifled with as she was in Trump’s first term, when the media buzzed with nasty leaks from her office and vicious commentary about everything from her clothes to her Christmas decorations. She worked hard to do everything right, but nothing suited them.
…The portrayal of Melania was that she was either a trapped princess desperate to escape a loveless marriage, or a Slovenian gold digger with a shady past who shared her husband’s vile worldview. As if to rub it in, the minute a frumpier first lady arrived in the form of Jill Biden, they fawned over her and put her on the cover of Vogue four times.
…Theaters in Manhattan and Los Angeles might have been empty over the weekend, but there were sold-out crowds in Dallas, Orlando, Tampa, Phoenix, Houston, Atlanta, West Palm Beach, Fort Myers, Miami, Nashville, St. Louis, Las Vegas and Cleveland.
And reviewer David Marcus writes on Fox News
It is frankly remarkable, given that Melania is literally a fashion model, that while former presidents’ wives such as Jill Biden and Michelle Obama regularly graced glamorous magazine covers, Mrs. Trump is treated as the icy foreigner when she isn’t just ignored completely.
This cold shoulder from the legacy fashion and social pages, while obvious, does not mean that the first lady doesn’t have a lot of loyal fans. Quite the opposite: Among Trump supporters, especially women, she is wildly popular.
He concludes
Melania Trump is the stand-in for women who prioritize their husbands and families, who are accomplished but do not insist on honorifics, who go to church but can also rock stilettos and seductive gowns when the situation calls for it.
These are women who are mainly mocked in our society, and yet behind the scenes, they make much of our society function, a role many think Melania Trump plays in the White House, as well.
So, good for Melania and good for her fans. They deserve this star turn, and if it makes a bunch of whiny liberals upset, then that’s just the tiara on top.
Anyways, I would give it a 7 out of 10.
Too much dress design, furniture choice and colour coordination for me – but it was still a great insight, and I enjoyed seeing behind the scenes of the inauguration and all the lead up.
It was an insight into the side of the Trump family that you will never likely see in the media
But it’s worth going to the movie – just to really annoy the leftist media who are hoping it all crashes and burns.
For winding up the critics and the media, it’s worth every bit of the $15.
But I think you’ll still enjoy it.
Oh, and the choc top ice cream.
Let me know what you think
