Culture
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February 2, 2026
The $45 million advertorial abounds in unintended ironies.
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Melania Trump attends the premiere of Melania on the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, on January 29, 2026.
(Brendan Smialowski / AFP through Getty Images)
My husband and I noticed the Melania documentary, at 10:45 am on the Upper West Side, which I admit was not a good take a look at of its viewers enchantment—there have been solely six folks there apart from us. They had all left by the point the film was over—possibly journalists on deadline, like me—so I missed my probability to interview them about their responses. I did catch a middle-aged lady who confirmed up early for the subsequent screening, well-armed with an infinite bucket of popcorn. Why was she there, I requested? To see Melania after all! What did she like about Melania? “She’s so confident and she does so much to help people.” Confident, I provide you with.
I used to really feel sorry for the wives of wealthy and highly effective males. I noticed them as trapped—birds in gilded cages, who had made a horrible mistake in youth, and now needed to endure countless rounds of tedious socializing with a frozen smile on their Botoxed faces, to say nothing of getting to be good to their ghastly husbands, who have been most likely all having intercourse with prostitutes. I wasn’t alone—bear in mind all these Free Melania memes? The method folks endlessly retweeted pictures of her trying fed-up and frowny and never holding Donald’s hand? Quite just a few girls I do know believed that Melania was depressing however couldn’t depart him for some unlikely motive, like she would haven’t any cash or he would have her murdered. What century did they assume that is? Melinda Gates and Mackenzie Scott divorced their unsatisfactory husbands and live the dream right now as fabulously wealthy philanthropists.
Melania, this documentary makes completely clear, likes her gilded cage simply nice. After all, it lets her produce this film starring her garments, her hair, her footwear, and her complexion, and what number of girls can say the identical? Could you, middle-aged girls of America, spend all day day by day sporting six-inch spike heels with by no means a wince or moan? The rewards for aching toes and wrinkle-free face are on full show: Melania is attended each minute by folks paid to be deferential and nice; every little thing round her is gorgeous and costly, and she or he has all of the designer clothes she desires. She will get to speak about serving to youngsters with Queen Rania of Jordan and the evils of screens for youngsters with Brigitte Macron. She will get to look somber and critical inserting lilies on the Arlington graves of three troopers killed in the withdrawal from Afghanistan—take that, Joe Biden! All your fault! If she has to spend just a few hours pretending to care in regards to the tablecloths for the Inaugural dinner and the golden caviar-filled eggs deliberate because the appetizer, nicely, that’s not too excessive a value to pay for luxurious and admiration, is it?
As you may anticipate, the movie abounds in unintended ironies. Melania is famously a non-public individual, however she makes a film about herself. She says she loves the White House, with all its storied historical past, whereas she tears up Jackie Kennedy’s rose backyard and her husband tears down the East Wing. She says she cares about younger folks, whereas her husband destroys USAID, ensuing in lots of of 1000’s of deaths of African youngsters. She reminds us that she is an immigrant, as are her French good friend Hervé Pierre, whom we see designing her Inaugural ball robe, and Tham Kannalikham, the White House inside decorator, who arrived from Laos on the age of two. And after all there are her dad and mom. (Her mourning for her mom, the primary anniversary of whose demise takes place through the filming, is a uncommon second when she expresses deep feeling.) Meanwhile, her husband presides over the mass detention and deportation of immigrants, lots of whom have lived in this nation for many years, possibly longer than she has. Cherry on prime: The director, Brett Ratner, was persona non grata in Hollywood after being accused of sexual misconduct by six girls—strategy to remind us of the continued scandal of the Epstein recordsdata.
I do know there’s a actual human being hidden inside these extreme, stiffly constructed outfits and beneath that well-known black hat that hides half her face and makes her appear like a sinister fembot or possibly a really assured murderer. This is, in any case, the primary girl who wore a jacket painted with I REALLY DON’T CARE DO U on her journey to the Mexican border. This is the primary girl who plagiarized a speech by her nemesis Michelle Obama. And—my favourite Melania second— that is the primary girl who complained to her former shut good friend Stephanie Winston Wolkoff about having to “work my ass off” on the White House Christmas. “Who gives a fuck about the Christmas stuff and decorations?” Remember these scary blood-red timber that appeared like they got here from Dracula’s personal forest?
That Melania was distant, haughty, mysterious, beset by grievance and resentment. She didn’t even attempt to ingratiate herself with the general public. That was form of bizarre—however much more fascinating than this dutiful trend plate delivering platitudes about how “in the end family is what really matters.” On the opposite hand, this Melania has managed to get Jeff Bezos to pay $45 million for the best to make this absurd advertorial, and $35 million to put it on the market. Bezos stands to lose most of it, however (sorry, Dems) the movie is on monitor to be one of many highest-grossing documentaries ever. In a household of champion grifters, Melania holds her personal.
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Katha Pollitt
Katha Pollitt is a columnist for The Nation.
