Inside the premiere of Melania Trump’s not-documentary documentary
By Betsy Klein, Riane Lumer, CNN
(CNN) — First lady Melania Trump wants you to know that her new documentary is not a documentary.
“Some have called this a documentary. It is not,” she told a crowd of Cabinet members, conservative influencers and minor celebrities gathered in the opera house of the newly rebranded Trump Kennedy Center for the film’s premiere Thursday evening.
“It is a creative experience that offers perspectives, insights and moments,” she said.
After more than a year of production, “Melania” is getting its debut, and the country is getting an education in what has become the lucrative business of being first lady.
Trump inked a $40 million deal with Amazon MGM Studios, plus a whopping $35 million marketing budget, according to a source familiar with the matter.
Asked how she would define success for the film, the first lady didn’t point to box office numbers or streaming statistics — because the deal has already been a win, in her view.
“I’m very proud of the film so people may like it, may don’t like it, and that’s their choice,” she told CNN as she walked the red carpet, which was actually black, in keeping with her creative vision.
She later added: “We achieved what we want to achieve. For myself, it’s already successful. I’m very proud of what we did.”
The film, which documents the 20 days around Trump’s return to the White House, marks an unprecedented move by a sitting first lady to profit off inside access to her private life — which is traditionally reserved for the post-presidency with less lucrative book deals and speaking engagements.
“She put this deal together as a private individual and she’s not an elected official, so I don’t see why we would restrict her in any way,” Marc Beckman, her agent and senior adviser, said on the red carpet.
Trump was still a private citizen during the presidential transition when the ink dried. But director Brett Ratner and his team were given access to the first lady well after President Donald Trump’s inauguration, flying aboard Air Force One as they documented the first couple’s trip to storm-ravaged North Carolina and, later, Pacific Palisades, still reeling from the California wildfires.
Reporters were not invited into Thursday’s screening. But the film is carefully curated, according to one source who attended, underscoring that Trump, as an executive producer on the project, had full editorial control. But there are a couple of new details from Inauguration Day preparations, the source said.
Among the notable scenes is one moment where Donald Trump questioned why the college football championship game was scheduled on the same day as his inauguration – and whether that was intentional. In another scene, Trump was told he would be riding to the US Capitol in the car with his predecessor, President Joe Biden, quipping, “That’ll be interesting.”
The first lady speaks personally in the film about losing her mom, Amalija Knavs, who died in January 2024. She also takes the audience behind the scenes of picking out her outfits and planning the day’s events, narrating it all.
The president offered an early review of the not-documentary-documentary Thursday night.
“I got to see it for the first time the other night. It’s really good. Glamorous – very glamorous. We need some glamour,” he told reporters.
He had uncharacteristically skipped two opportunities to take questions from the press earlier in the day, while running characteristically late. But but he arrived at the premiere on time and ready to chat.
It was his wife’s big night, but the president made news — announcing he’d be naming a Federal Reserve chair “tomorrow,” weighing in on his director of national intelligence’s trip to a Georgia elections office, and saying he’s been holding conversations with Iran.
The space was fully decked with black-and-white branding and images of the first lady — her name emblazoned on windows and doors in the iconic Hall of States, next to a bronze bust sculpture of John F. Kennedy, and on posters and cocktail napkins.
Ahead of the VIP arrivals, workers meticulously ran a Swiffer over a black carpet under a lit step-and-repeat bearing Trump’s name: MELANIA, MELANIA, MELANIA.
And a swarm of reporters and photographers from dozens of outlets assembled to document their arrivals: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth with his sequin-clad wife; Education Secretary Linda McMahon in a fur coat; Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins in a jacket trimmed in beaded fringe; Dr. Mehmet Oz — the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services — with his family, including influencer daughter Daphne Oz; and even an appearance by the first lady’s father, Viktor Knavs.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who has come under criticism for her handling of the federal law enforcement shooting of Alex Pretti over the weekend in Minneapolis, skipped a dramatic entrance. But she was spotted inside the theater, according to the source in the room.
Worldwide audiences will be able to see the film in theaters on Friday — an opening that will test whether there’s enough curiosity about the first lady to drive people to the cinema.
For House Speaker Mike Johnson — who attended Thursday’s premiere as his Senate colleagues struck a deal in a bid to avert a government shutdown — the answer was yes.
“I think it’s worth the investment,” he said, adding, “I think it’ll pay off.”
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