If ‘Melania’ flops, Donald Trump will get the blame

Even before it opens in cinemas on Friday, a glossy biopic about America’s first lady has been beset by pitifully poor ticket sales and online ridicule – but commercial failure would be a very personal blow for the Trumps, says Emily Sheffield

There couldn’t have been a more catastrophic week in which to release Prime Video’s feature-length documentary on America’s first lady, which opens this Friday. With two killings in Minneapolis by Donald Trump’s highly controversial ICE agents, including the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti by federal agents last Saturday, animosity towards the US president has never felt higher.

And Donald Trump has never been lower in the American polls. In an extraordinary last-minute intervention, Melania reacted yesterday to the mounting crisis by going on Fox News to call for unity in Minneapolis. “I’m against the violence,” she opined calmly to the camera, “so please, if you protest, protest in peace. And we need to unify this time.”

Of all the times she has made her presence felt on her husband’s stage, this felt like the most direct and unplanned. There must be real panic in the White House – and in her own office – that her documentary, which the president insisted would be a sellout, might instead turn out to be a flop.

Hostility towards the film also rose after it became widely publicised that the White House had hosted a celebrity screening of the documentary on Saturday, after Pretti’s killing, attended by Apple’s Tim Cook and other billionaire titans of American industry, as the furore intensified.

Every second of Pretti’s violent death has been agonisingly played out in videos captured by bystanders and nearby protesters, forming its own natural documentary – in stark contrast to the highly stylised, image-driven film Melania.

If Melania does tank, the personal humiliation will be real; its failure will be a Trump failure. Shot in the three weeks leading up to the president’s second inauguration, Melania will be followed up with a three-part docuseries released on the Amazon streamer later this year. Her publicist and agent have let it be known how closely involved she has been in the filming, script, editing and marketing.

Melania has always lived in the shadow of Michelle Obama, a still much-loved public figure in America, who was mobbed during the global tour that followed the release of her autobiography.

Anyone was going to struggle against the former first lady’s natural charisma and warmth. But the data doesn’t lie. Michelle received a rock-star welcome at London’s O2 Arena when her tour to promote Becoming: An Intimate Conversation sold out the 20,000-capacity venue. By all accounts, Melania has struggled to sell out one of the smaller screens at the O2 Cineworld.

If expectations of Melania’s biopic aren’t high, it has at least given the world a chuckle at a time of increasing darkness caused in no small part by her mercurial husband. The gag-meisters are out in force on social media. As one person joked about the documentary on Twitter: “Even if they showed this on a plane, people would walk out.”

Curiosity will inevitably drive many to see if they can gain a deeper insight into the enigmatic flotus (although any such glimpses are going to be slim, given that the whole project will have been as highly orchestrated as her first-lady outfits).

We’re led to believe that the film, which hasn’t been screened to reviewers, will challenge Melania’s image thus far. During her husband’s first term as president, she cut a lonely, distant figure, a presidential wife who shunned Washington and was widely regarded as a reluctant first lady.

Ivanka, Donald Trump’s daughter, even suggested at one point changing the name of the “first lady’s office” to the “first family office”. Admittedly, the rumours that abounded during Melania’s initial stint seem ridiculous now. “Free Melania” even became a social media hashtag. This was despite close associates of the Trumps describing their relationship as very much the opposite of oppressive.

But for Donald’s second term, there has been a distinct ramping up of Brand Melania. Now we see a woman who is far more confident in her role, and firmly in charge of her image. Her wardrobe has become more stateswomanly, though no less glamorous – no more slouchy jackets with “I really don’t care, do you?” in white paint on the back. And she has been much more actively engaged in advocacy, charity work, and cultural diplomacy.

There was her staged public intervention to secure the return of Ukrainian children, 20,000 of whom have been abducted into Russian territory during the ongoing war. During the Alaska summit last year, Donald handed Vladimir Putin a handwritten letter from Melania, in which she pleaded with him to allow their safe return, to release “their melodic laughter”. Her call did not go unheeded, and she was later able to announce the return of eight children in one day alone.

Remember her tiptoeing around Windsor Castle in a fruit-salad-yellow dress with a Spam-coloured belt, having a ball with Camilla and Kate, three pros at the top of their game (and with great hair)? That was a world-stopping moment.

In September, she launched a “first spouses club” with Queen Rania of Jordan and Olena Zelenska, Ukraine’s first lady, focused on using technology to help children. Behind the scenes, it was Melania’s intervention that helped soften her husband’s stance towards Ukraine following his disastrous monstering of Volodymyr Zelensky in the White House.

For all we know, the documentary might yet be filled with the dry apercus at which Melania excels, and reveal a warmer character behind the Slovenian cool. Last year, Donald Trump recalled an exchange he had had with his wife: “I tell the first lady, ‘You know, I spoke to Vladimir today – we had a wonderful conversation.’ She said: “Oh, really? Another city was just hit...’”

Right now, though, there’s a real possibility that the film will become another opportunity for Americans to vent their fury and frustration at their president. Indeed, polling by YouGov has seen Melania’s popularity fall alongside her husband’s, to just 36 per cent.

What is certain is that they won’t be showing Melania in Minnesota any time soon.