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Melania film will not stray behind her painted smile

The Independent

|

December 19, 2025

A new documentary follows Donald Trump's wife in the run- up to his second inauguration. It is the latest in a spate of 'fly on the walls' that tell us very little

- Katie Rosseinsky

Melania film will not stray behind her painted smile

“Here we go again,” Melania Trump trills in the opening scene of the trailer for her new Amazon documentary. The footage in question was captured at her husband Donald's second inauguration, with Melania peering out from under that much-memed wide-brimmed black hat.

But her remarks will also probably echo exactly what most viewers will be thinking when they watch the clip. Here we go again indeed: another glossily overproduced puff piece dressed up as a doc, promising to offer never-before-seen insight into the world of an enigmatic celebrity while actually serving up a few highly curated snippets and a lot of shots of the back of their head getting into cabs (or, in this case, video of the first lady's pointy-shoed feet trotting on and off Air Force One).

“Witness history in the making,” white, caps-locked text screams from a black background. “Twenty days to become First Lady of the United States of America,” another of these taglines reads. Frankly, if that is the most exciting strategy the filmmakers could come up with to sell their wares - woman who has previously been first lady, erm, becomes first lady again! - then we're surely in for something truly barrel-scraping.

Of course, trailers aren’t meant to give all the good stuff away at once; they’re supposed to be more of an amuse-bouche for the main event. But it’s near-impossible to watch this teaser and genuinely feel as if this film will actually offer us a window into Melania’s psyche. One vaguely revealing moment arrives when Trump asks his wife whether she watched a speech of his, and she responds with “I did not - I will see it on the news”, only for the film to immediately cut away to a shiny promotional portrait.

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