“Are you getting in?”
”No, are you?”
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On Thursday afternoon, in the lobby of the Trump Kennedy Center, reporters whispered in hushed voices to each other to see which journalists, if any, would be allowed entry to a screening of Melania Trump’s documentary “Melania.”
In the hours before the film screened (press check-in began at 2 p.m. for the 6 p.m. carpet), there was slight optimism from veteran reporters, accustomed to slipping their way into Trump World, that they’d be able to network their way into a seat. But by 6:30 p.m., when members of the administration began walking the carpet, it became clear that most of the mainstream press would be blocked from attending the Amazon MGM Studios film.
Reporters from The New York Times, The Washington Post, AP and Vanity Fair, among dozens of other outlets on the carpet, were not granted tickets to the invite-only screening in the Opera House, located one floor above the carpet. The only press from the carpet allowed into the screening (not counting those separately invited) were One America News anchor Dan Ball and his wife Peyton Drew, a producer for the far-right news channel.
“I feel overdressed,” Drew, who wore a floor-length glitter ballgown on the press line, told her husband before talent arrived. “But,” she quickly reassured herself, “we’re attendees.”
Members of the Trump administration — Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Pete Hegseth, Lee Zeldin and Mike Johnson — attended the film’s premiere, in addition to the film’s director Brett Ratner and producer Marc Beckman. Several times when government officials walked towards the press line, Ball would encourage them to skip the “fake news” and come straight to him. At one point, after wrapping an interview with former Trump advisor Alina Habba, he called the rest of the reporters on the carpet “mongrels,” to which they both laughed.
That said, President Trump spent a surprising amount of time answering questions from mainstream press while Melania, wearing a Dolce & Gabbanna skirt suit, posed for photos. Reporters from The New York Times and Reuters asked Trump a slew of questions, such as progress on the government funding deal and when he plans on choosing a replacement for Jerome Powell as Federal Reserve Chair (Friday morning, he says).
The film is opening in theaters against a backdrop of political unrest, with ICE raids in Minneapolis and other parts of the country — causing increased backlash against the administration’s glitzy White House screening earlier this week (with Apple CEO Tim Cook in attendance) and tonight’s premiere.
When asked about the exorbitant amount of money Amazon spent on the film — Amazon MGM paid $40 million for rights to the doc, and reportedly another $35 million on marketing — Trump said he “wasn’t involved with that.”
“It was done with my wife,” he said, adding that he thinks the movie “is very important” and ” a big deal.”
Despite the staggering sum spent for a documentary, it is only expected to earn $3 million to $5 million at the box office. The lack of advance ticket sales have become a meme online, with screenshots of empty movie theaters on ticketing sites such as Fandango making their rounds on social media — although, these can only be verified on a case-by-case basis.
But producer Marc Beckman said the reports he’s received — “the real numbers” — are tracking “very positively.”
The film also marks Ratner’s return to directing after a hiatus following several sexual misconduct allegations in 2017. Ahead of the premiere, Rolling Stone reported that some crew members requested to not be formally credited on the film, with one citing the “alarm” they felt about the administration following Trump’s second term.
“I understand if a liberal is working on the movie and they don’t want to be credited but they want to feed their family,” Ratner told Variety. “I don’t blame anybody for that.” He continued to say that the “main crew” will all be credited but because the doc shot in multiple places — such as Washington D.C.. New York and Florida — it was likely the daily or short term hires that decided to distance themselves from the project.
In general, members of the administration looked to be in high spirits while walking to the pre-screening reception. “Happy to be here!” Hegseth, who attended with his wife, exclaimed to the press line. Others expressed how excited they are for the public to see the “real Melania.”
Kennedy said he came to support Melania because she has been one of his biggest supporters in the administration for his agenda, such as children’s health, food regulations and foster care.
“I think she’s been portrayed as a one dimensional figure,” he said, “but that’s not who she is.”
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