Melania Trump’s new documentary is panned by critics.Image: keystone
Film critics from all over the world have panned the new documentary about Melania Trump. Nevertheless, another trend seems to be emerging with “Melania”.
Feb 1, 2026, 5:33 p.mFeb 1, 2026, 5:33 p.m
Steven Sowa / t-online
When a film about a current First Lady comes into theaters, expectations and attention are high. The new documentary “Melania” about Donald Trump’s wife seems to do little to redeem this. The initial media response is catastrophic and the public response is disappointing. There is a lot of ridicule and malice on social media about Melania Trump – and the license holder Amazon, which is said to have shelled out around $75 million for the film adaptation and marketing.
The tenor has been the same for days: Nobody is interested in this work, which tells the first 20 days before Trump’s inauguration from the first lady’s perspective.
As soon as the cinema opened on Friday, it became clear how little demand there was for the screenings. Postings on social media showed yawningly empty cinema halls or the detailed pages of online reservations, which showed a similar picture: “Not a single ticket sold for the premiere,” wrote one user from the USA.
Not a single ticket sold for the opening night 9:55pm showing of Melania at the busiest movie theater in the metro-Jacksonville area. pic.twitter.com/NZz7T7PkwS
— Travis Akers (@travisakers) January 27, 2026
Others remembered an earlier documentary about Melania Trump. This was published by the streaming service Netflix in 2020. At the time, the US media “Vanity Fair” wrote in its review: “Even if this film were shown on a plane, people would walk out.”
Press reviews of the film “Melania”
The press reviews for the new Amazon film “Melania” are similar this time too. The “Irish Times” writes: “The former Slovenian model does not leave a good impression. But not a bad one either. Rather, the film achieves a kind of passive distance – the kind you get when you point a camera at a wheat field for almost two hours.
The British “Guardian” says: “It’s one of those rare films that doesn’t have a single positive quality. I’m not even sure it can even be called a documentary. It’s more like an elaborate piece of designer taxidermy, terribly overpriced, ice-cold to the touch and presented like a medieval tribute to appease the greedy king on his throne.”
Devastating reviews: Press and viewers pan the documentary “Melania”.Image: metacritics.com
The US newspaper “Variety” judges: “It is so staged, embellished and manipulated that it hardly rises above the level of a shameless commercial. Is it cheesy? Sometimes it is, but most of the time it’s just boring. It looks like it was cut together from the most harmless clips from a reality show.”
The magazine “The Atlantic” simply says that it is a “cripplingly boring work”. And “The Daily Beast” writes: If it weren’t for isolated scenes that provoke laughter – most of which, I suspect, were not intentionally intended to be humorous – I would describe the film as an atrocity.” The film is “such bland propaganda that it almost defies criticism; “It’s so predictable and completely pointless.”
Resistance from Trump fans
There are 14 listed press reviews on the review portal “Metacritic” – all of them are exclusively negative. The user reviews on the portal are also above average negative. There is talk of an “overwhelming dislike” among the 195 votes cast so far. Out of a possible 10 points, “Melania” only achieved 1.2. Nevertheless, in many places strikingly positive, almost anthemic reviews are mixed into the mix.
An unusual gap: 11 percent among critics, 99 percent among users.Image: rottentomatoes.com
Do these classifications come from Trump fans trying to save the work’s reputation? “It was just fantastic, I’m at a loss for words: I would spend another $20 to see the film again,” reads the comments section on Metacritic. And on “Rotten Tomatoes” in the so-called “Popcorn Meter”, the user area, there are a particularly large number of users who express their enthusiasm something like this: “What a beautiful First Lady we have in the White House, we can really count ourselves lucky!”
While the value for the professional reviews is only 11 percent, the “Popcorn Meter” has a strikingly high value of 99 percent. Such a gap between the ratings is rare – and could at least be an indication that MAGA supporters are clearly trying to capture the negative mood.
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