![\"First](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/6732285.jpg\" "\\"First")
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US First Lady Melania Trump at the New York Stock Exchange where she promoted her film (Image: Bloomberg via Getty Images)<\/p>\n
There are no grey areas with Melania Trump. Everything is very clearly black or white.<\/p>\n
Critics have hated the First Lady\u2019s documentary, released earlier this month, titled simply Melania, almost as much as audiences have loved it.<\/p>\n
Supporters of US President Donald Trump<\/a> have wanted her movie to succeed as eagerly as his opponents have prayed for it to flop.<\/p>\n The film vindicated Melania with its record opening weekend box office, and delighted her detractors when its earnings plummeted this last weekend.<\/p>\n Slickly made with glossy adoring shots of her soaring stilettos, designer gowns and cheekbones sharp enough to fillet a flounder, while it won\u2019t win any Oscars, the production is not the mortifying mess that many left-wingers hoped it would be.<\/p>\n More importantly, it has established Melania Trump<\/a> as a commanding presence ready to hold centre stage in her own right: a possible nod toward her post-Washington DC future stepping out on her own.<\/p>\n While Donald Trump resides in the White House, Melania now lives in a gilded tower at the couple\u2019s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. Considering the veiled tensions between the duo in recent years \u2013 the slapped-away hand, the withering side-eye, reports of separate bedrooms, and Trump chronicler Michael Wolff claiming \u201cthey are separated\u201d and \u201clive separate lives\u201d \u2013 the documentary Melania could be seen as a major step toward her independence.<\/p>\n She is such a polarising figure that it should be no surprise that in the documentary, the First Lady\u2019s stylist, Herv\u00e9 Pierre, describes the inaugural gown Melania wore last year as being in her colours: \u201cblack and white.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s very me,\u201d agrees Melania, aged 55.<\/p>\n Black and white was the colour scheme on the cover of her 2024 memoir, Melania; in her official portrait, clad in a black Dolce & Gabbana tuxedo suit with white shirt; and in her documentary\u2019s advertising posters featuring the First Lady in various black-and-white ensembles, with her name spelled out in black against a field of white.<\/p>\n Her film\u2019s White House screening and launch party featured a black carpet, with black-and-white popcorn buckets, biscuits and cake pops.<\/p>\n The black and white theme is not only symbolic of the bitter divisions that Melania inspires, but also stands in stark contrast to President Trump\u2019s favourite colours of red, white, blue, and copious lashings of gold.<\/p>\n It is also the clearest sign that she is positioning herself as a brand in fashion, media, and beyond, that could give her a new life \u2013 and financial freedom \u2013 after she and her husband depart the White House.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s all about supporting this luxury brand that she\u2019s building,\u201d says Melania\u2019s longtime agent Marc Beckman, describing her powerfully minimalist sartorial vision and tailored silhouettes as \u201cvery symmetrical, right angles, black and white\u201d.<\/p>\n President Trump and First Lady Melania arrive for the state banquet in Windsor Castle last September (Image: AP)<\/p>\n Melania recognises that her highly visible status as First Lady offers her a \u201cunique, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity\u2026 to launch a broad-based commercial brand in multiple product categories\u201d and make millions leveraging her celebrity.<\/p>\n That was the message in a lawsuit defending her reputation that she filed in 2017 during her first stint in the White House, declaring her interest in capitalising on fashion, accessories, jewellery, haircare and fragrances.<\/p>\n Yet back then, Melania expected her plans to wait until after her husband left office.<\/p>\n \u201cThe First Lady has no intention of using her position for profit and will not do so,\u201d said her lawyer, Charles Harder.<\/p>\n But times have changed, and the Trump clan has since been royally cashing in on the presidency, with a Trump cryptocurrency, social media site Truth Social, hotel and office tower deals overseas, and other enterprises raking in more than \u00a31billion last year.<\/p>\n Melania is no stranger to branding her image: she began selling her own line of watches and jewellery on QVC in 2010, and launched her own skincare line two years later.<\/p>\n Though her brand has been slow to build, she is now poised to exploit the global platform she has been given.<\/p>\n Her documentary is Brand Melania\u2019s declaration of intent.<\/p>\n Admittedly, film critics have not been kind, condemning it as blatant propaganda. Variety called it a \u201ccheeseball infomercial of staggering inertia,\u201d and The Guardian dubbed it \u201cdispiriting, deadly and unrevealing.\u201d<\/p>\n Yet they fail to recognise that the film is just a building block in the brand edifice Melania hopes to create.<\/p>\n After its run in cinemas, the documentary will stream on Amazon Prime, where it will doubtless gain millions more viewers. Amazon will also stream a docu-series comprising additional material that didn\u2019t make it into the movie: yet another opportunity to solidify Melania\u2019s brand.<\/p>\n Her website, melaniatrump.com<\/a>, already sells jewellery including a \u00a3440 Lady Liberty gold necklace, and a \u00a3180 three-leaf clover \u201cLove & Gratitude\u201d necklace presumably aimed at next month\u2019s St Patrick\u2019s Day. She has produced five tranches of \u201ccollectible\u201d ornaments that have all sold out.<\/p>\n And her newly formed Muse Films production company holds the promise of further forays into film and television, aiming to emulate Oprah Winfrey\u2019s lifestyle, media and marketing empire.<\/p>\n \u201cSuperior storytelling drives culture and in turn moves markets,\u201d said Melania as she rung the bell opening the New York Stock Exchange last month to promote her movie.<\/p>\n Nobody would be surprised if the Slovenian-born former model launched her own signature fashion, skincare and fragrance lines before too long. It’s arguable Melania is already proving her haters wrong<\/p>\n Despite her critics, Melania\u2019s documentary proves there is an audience out there eager for a glimpse into her lifestyle.<\/p>\n Prince Harry<\/a>\u2019s equally polarising wife Meghan has shown that a beautiful woman in the public eye can parlay her elevated position into a television series as the launchpad for a lifestyle brand. Melania has surely been taking notes, and is already counting the banknotes.<\/p>\n (L-R) Melania Trump with Peter Giacchi about to ring the opening bell at the NYSE (Image: Getty Images)<\/p>\n Her film was produced at a near-record cost for a documentary: Amazon boss Jeff Bezos paid an unprecedented \u00a329million \u2013 of which Melania received \u00a320million \u2013 to have cameras follow her for the 20 days leading up to her husband\u2019s inauguration in January 2025, plus another \u00a325million on marketing and advertising: unheard-of sums in the low-rent world of documentaries.<\/p>\n Sceptics have accused Bezos of over-paying Melania to curry favour with the president, repairing their previously fractious relationship in the hope of winning favourable treatment for Amazon in any future interactions with government anti-trust regulators, its defence contracts, and Bezos\u2019 Blue Origin spaceship\u2019s federal contracts.<\/p>\n Yet the film surpassed all expectations, earning \u00a35million at the US box office in its opening weekend.<\/p>\n![\"Trump](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/6732289.jpg\" "\\"Trump")
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