{"id":271688,"date":"2026-01-30T09:39:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-30T09:39:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/271688\/"},"modified":"2026-01-30T09:39:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T09:39:08","slug":"trumps-cabinet-attends-premiere-of-amazon-backed-documentary-melania-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/271688\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump\u2019s cabinet attends premiere of Amazon\u2011backed documentary Melania \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

With tensions in Minneapolis<\/a> still high and a possible US<\/a> military strike on Iran<\/a> looming, movers and shakers in the Trump<\/a> administration took a \u200dtimeout on Thursday night to attend a lavish event celebrating a big-budget documentary about first lady Melania Trump<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The movie, Melania, was financed at an eyebrow-raising $75 million (\u20ac63 million) by Amazon MGM Studios. Amazon\u2019s chairman, Jeff Bezos<\/a>, also contributed \u200dto US president Donald Trump\u2019s inaugural fund earlier this year.<\/p>\n

Amazon MGM Studios paid $40 million to license the film and a related docuseries, which is scheduled to be released later this year on the Amazon Prime Video streaming service. <\/p>\n

The first lady is one of the producers of the film, which documents the 20 days leading up to Trump\u2019s 2025 inauguration and the family\u2019s return to the White House.<\/p>\n

The studio \u200cspent another $35 million promoting and distributing the movie, which will be available in about 25 territories outside North America, according to a person familiar with the matter. This week, promotional ads could be seen in places \u2060such as London\u2019s Piccadilly Circus.<\/p>\n

Amazon, along with the film\u2019s director, Brett Ratner, have rejected suggestions that the studio bought and promoted the film to curry \u200cfavour \u200bwith \u200dthe administration.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt wasn\u2019t about getting rich,\u201d Mr Ratner told reporters at Thursday\u2019s premiere at the Kennedy Center in Washington. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think the Trumps are wealthy and successful enough,\u201d added Mr Ratner, whose credits as a director include the Rush Hour film series with Jackie Chan.<\/p>\n

\"USUS first lady Melania Trump speaks before the premiere of the new documentary film Melania at the Kennedy Center in Washington. Photograph: Doug Mills\/The New York Times
\n \"USUS president Donald Trump and New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft (centre) listen as first lady Melania Trump speaks before the premiere of her movie Melania. Photograph: Doug Mills\/The New York Times <\/p>\n

At the event if the Amazon film deal was to curry favour with him and the White House, Mr Trump said that was fake news. \u201cI\u2019m not involved, \u2060and it was done with my wife.\u201d<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for Amazon said: \u201cWe licensed the film for one reason and one reason only \u2013 because we think customers are going \u2060to love it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The film offers rare access \u2060to the deeply private, enigmatic first lady, who has kept a low public profile during her husband\u2019s second term.<\/p>\n

The trailer opens on Inauguration Day in January 2025, showing her donning a navy wide-brimmed hat for the ceremony at the US Capitol. It also depicts \u200dher role as an adviser to the president, including a moment in which she encourages him to emphasise \u201cpeacemaker and unifier\u201d in his inaugural address.<\/p>\n

The film\u2019s premiere was attended by top Trump administration officials, including health secretary Robert F Kennedy jnr, commerce secretary Howard Lutnick and defence secretary Pete Hegseth.<\/p>\n

They strode upon a black \u2013 not red \u2013 carpet in front of a large backdrop emblazoned with the word \u201cMELANIA\u201d in black-and-white letters as flashbulbs popped.<\/p>\n

A US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the cabinet\u2019s attendance was seen as obligatory.<\/p>\n

Mr Kennedy said the first lady has \u201clargely been misunderstood. She\u2019s a deep person. She\u2019s deeply concerned about our country.\u201d<\/p>\n

The documentary opens in about 1,700 theatres in the US and Canada on Friday, following a robust marketing campaign \u200cof the kind typically associated with a big \u200cHollywood release, one that included television ads during the NFL playoff games, billboards and a promotional video projected on the exterior of Las Vegas\u2019s Sphere.<\/p>\n

Kristy Guevara-Flanagan, head of documentary film at the University of California Los Angeles, said the promotional budget was well above a typical budget for \u200cmarketing documentary films, which often rely on reviews and word-of-mouth to attract viewers.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an extremely high budget for promotion of a documentary,\u201d said Ms Guevara-Flanagan. \u201cIt really feels like it\u2019s so much in excess it\u2019s like stuffing \u2060it down our throats.\u201d<\/p>\n

Box office forecasters predict Melania could bring in as much as $5 million on opening weekend.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe question is, for opening weekend, \u2018How much does Donald Trump\u2019s appeal to the public extend to Melania?\u201d said Daniel Loria, senior vice-president of The Boxoffice Company, a data analytics firm for cinemas. \u2013 Bloomberg<\/p>\n

(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With tensions in Minneapolis still high and a possible US military strike on Iran looming, movers and shakers…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":271689,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[3468,969,93,61,60,3916,22680,282,90],"class_list":{"0":"post-271688","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-amazon","9":"tag-donald-trump","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland","13":"tag-jeff-bezos","14":"tag-melania-trump","15":"tag-tv","16":"tag-us"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271688","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=271688"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271688\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/271689"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=271688"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=271688"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=271688"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}