On Saturday, the same day that an ICE agent shot and killed intensive care worker Alex Pretti while he was pinned facedown on the floor in Minneapolis, a few dozen VIPs – including Apple CEO Tim Cook, Queen Rania of Jordan and former heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson – gathered at the White House for a lavish party. The upcoming documentary “Melania: Twenty Days to History” was celebrated. complete with custom popcorn buckets and gift boxes decorated with the First Lady’s portrait.
Invitation with footnote
The private preview took place ahead of the world premiere of the Brett Ratner-directed film, scheduled for Thursday at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. The fine print at the bottom of the invitation stated: “If you are a government employee or official, by accepting this invitation you acknowledge that you have received approval from your ethics officer or legal department to attend this event and accept items provided.”
This standard language refers to the fact that federal officials and government employees are subject to strict rules when it comes to accepting gifts from people or companies that do business with the government – to avoid conflicts of interest or even the appearance of such conflicts.
An ironic background
The irony is hard to miss: Just over a year earlier, Melania had sparked a bidding war among Hollywood studios looking to secure the favor of the incoming Trump administration. Amazon MGM Studios ultimately prevailed over Disney (which had just donated $15 million to Trump’s incoming presidential library to settle a questionable defamation lawsuit brought by the then-president-elect against its ABC affiliate) and Paramount, which sought good relations with the White House as it faced a multibillion-dollar merger that would have required FCC approval.
A few weeks before Amazon offered MGM Studios a staggering $40 million for the film rights – the most the streaming service had ever paid for a single piece of content – Amazon founder Jeff Bezos dined with Trump and his wife at Mar-a-Lago.
Money, ethics and influence
According to The Wall Street Journal, the first lady kept about 70 percent of the royalties herself, or about $28 million. And technically, there’s nothing illegal about it. “The first lady is ethically considered a private citizen, so conflict of interest laws and regulations for other executive branch employees simply don’t apply here,” said Don Fox, the former acting director of the U.S. Office of Government Ethics who served under Presidents George Bush and Barack Obama.
However, Fox added that his office would have advised against accepting such a lucrative deal with Amazon at the start of a new term – given the extensive business relationships Bezos has with the federal government: “It just looks like you’re buying access and goodwill.” Amazon Web Services is a huge federal contractor for numerous agencies, including the Defense Department, and Bezos’s space company Blue Origin has NASA contracts worth billions.
A spokesperson for Amazon MGM Studios denied any ulterior motives, telling Rolling Stone: “We licensed the film for one reason – because we believe customers will love it.”
Shooting in a state of emergency
Amazon’s purchase of “Melania” sparked a frantic race to collect as much footage of the first lady as possible in the weeks leading up to the inauguration. The result was a chaotic process with three separate production teams in Florida, Washington, DC, and New York City. Each team had a renowned cinematographer: Jeff Cronenweth, known for his work with David Fincher; Michael Mann’s regular cameraman Dante Spinotti; and Barry Peterson, most recently cinematographer of the infamous Colleen Hoover film “It Ends With Us.” Each of them shot parts of the film.
“People were subjected to extreme harshness. Very long hours, very disorganized, pure chaos,” said one person who worked on set. “It wasn’t easy money,” another added. “It was very difficult because of all the confusion. … Normally with a documentary it’s like, ‘Follow the person.’ But it’s Melania Trump. With First Lady and Secret Service you can’t just do what you normally do.”
Names better not in the credits
A full-time travel coordinator was hired to address logistical problems, such as crew members boarding the Trump Organization’s Boeing 757 to film the first lady on a flight to Mar-a-Lago and then being left without transportation back.
A person familiar with the project estimated that about two-thirds of the crew members in New York asked not to be named in the credits. Another named in the film said she now regrets it: “I’m much more alarmed now than I was a year ago.”
Ratner as a problem figure
Most people involved reported that they had fewer problems with Melania Trump herself – she was friendly and very engaging – than with director Brett Ratner. “She was really nice,” one person said. “She was the opposite of Brett Ratner.”
“Melania” is the first film Ratner has made since he was accused of sexual harassment and assault by six women in 2017. Actress Natasha Henstridge told the Los Angeles Times that Ratner forced her to perform oral sex on him when she was 19. Olivia Munn reported that Ratner masturbated in front of her when she visited a set as a young actress. Ratner denied the allegations and was never charged. A photo of a shirtless Ratner with model scout and Epstein confidante Jean-Luc Brunel later appeared in newly released Epstein files. Ratner denied to Rolling Stone through an intermediary that he ever met Epstein.
“I feel a little uncomfortable about the propaganda element,” said one team member, “but Brett Ratner was the worst thing about this project.” The person said he only learned of Ratner’s involvement a few days before filming began and would otherwise have turned down the job.
Another confirmed: “There’s been more talk about how sleazy Brett is than about Melania.”
Disrespectful behavior on set
According to the crew, Ratner left trash everywhere – orange peels, chewing gum wrappers. “He actually chewed a piece of gum and spit it into a coffee cup on my car,” one person said, “and didn’t even acknowledge my existence for a second.”
Another recalled a long day of filming where no meal breaks were allowed and no outside food was allowed. Everyone was hungry. “Brett got his own food, went upstairs, ate it and licked his fingers in the most disgusting way – either on purpose or completely unaware that everyone else was working and had nothing to eat.”
A third person involved, however, defended Ratner: “He’s an intuitive, incredible, emotionally intelligent director. You’ll see that on the screen. It’s not just a documentary, it’s a film.”
Proximity to the center of power
How Trump and Ratner originally met is unclear. What is certain is that the director is close to the presidential couple: he reportedly lives in a villa in Mar-a-Lago and continued to film the first lady even after filming was completed.
An audit of his political donations shows that Ratner did not financially support any of Trump’s three presidential campaigns. Instead, he donated several times to Hillary Clinton in 2016 and later to Kamala Harris, then Senator from California.
Lots of money, few revelations
Despite the extraordinary access to the First Lady and the enormous sums of money poured into the film, viewers shouldn’t expect any major revelations. “Some people are boring,” said one crew member. “And some people never drop their facade.”
Amazon refused to provide an advance screening of the film. After the $40 million deal, the streaming service is now investing another $35 million in marketing, according to “Puck News” – with TV spots during NFL broadcasts and a takeover of the Las Vegas Sphere. Whether this investment will pay off beyond political goodwill remains an open question.
Forecasts and comparative cases
Forecasts vary: BoxOffice.com expects only around a million dollars on opening weekend, while the National Research Group expects around five million. However, there are recent examples in which films aimed at conservative audiences performed better than expected: the critically panned Dennis Quaid biopic “Reagan” grossed around $30 million in 2024, and the also heavily criticized Daily Wire film “Am I Racist?” grossed $12 million, making it the most successful documentary of the year.
