Donald Trump’s Horribly Broken Propaganda Film

Added: 2026-06-01

[00:00:00]Melania is a 2025 documentary following the first lady Melania Trump during the 20 days before her husband's second presidential inauguration. Everyone wants to know, Melania says. So here it is.

[00:00:13]>> Everyone wants to know. So here it is.

[00:00:17]20 days in my life.

[00:00:18]>> That sentence, the first spoken line of the film is perhaps its greatest lie.

[00:00:23]Nobody was asking for this. It's genuinely unclear what she's talking about. It's rare to see a bit of art that literally should not exist, that is in and of itself morally wrong. Melania isn't bad primarily because of what it's about or what it says. It's bad, as most of you probably know, uh, because it's a bride movie. Jeff Bezos spent $40 million on the rights to the film, far more than it could have ever hoped to make back. And he did so obviously because he wanted to be in the good graces of the Trump administration.

[00:00:55]Melania personally received $28 million from the sale of the film. So look, the actual documentary that is Melania is obviously less important than the simple fact that it is a crime against the people of the United States in some real sense that is the end of the conversation. Even so, I find myself drawn to this thing like like sure, it's a bribe, but you know, they actually had to make a movie to attach to the bribe.

[00:01:21]It was directed by someone, the disgraced but fairly competent Brett Ratner. Melania Trump spent weeks being filmed for its sake. It was released in theaters around the world. At base, it is a propaganda film about an important person and an important moment, and the way it goes about telling its story does matter, right? It can't help but to matter.

[00:01:43]Melania is a profoundly broken documentary. Like, just on an aesthetic level, it does not work. It is malformed. And it might seem like a strange place to start, but the easiest way I can express the brokenness of this film to you is by talking about its needle drops, its uses of famous bits of music. There are nine needle drops in this movie, much more if you count the iconic classical pieces that pepper the last 40 minutes.

[00:02:22]The sheer number of tracks used is particularly notable because for the most part they are what the audience is directed to pay attention to. So much of the movie consists in sequences without dialogue and action. And during these sequences, the only thing that the audience has, the only thing we can think about is the song that's being blasted at us. And more often than not, the song choice makes no sense. Let's take it from the top. Melania opens on a drone shot of Mara Lago, the massive resort where Donald and his wife spend much of their time. And the song we hear is Gimme Shelter by the Rolling Stones.

[00:02:59]It's an odd choice, I think, because the song is quite dismal feeling. It famously reflects and is associated with social unrest over the Vietnam War. It's not so strange for Trump to use a song in a way that goes against its original purpose. Much to Bruce Springsteen's chagrin, Trump played Born in the USA during his 2016 campaign. And that song has some pretty on-nose criticism for the United States. Send me up to a land.

[00:03:30]>> But at least Born in the USA makes sense for Trump because Bruce sings the line >> over and over again. It is the most prominent line in the song and if you're not listening too closely, it sounds pretty patriotic. We can't really say the same of Gimme Shelter because its most iconic moment has a woman screaming a rape murder. It's just a shot away.

[00:03:54]It's just a shot away. A line that we get to hear during a close-up of Melania's face as she boards her private jet.

[00:04:09]Perhaps the movie here is trying to evoke some of that feeling of dread and discomfort. Melania goes from the safe world of her private club in Florida to the tumultuous war zone of life as a political figure. We see the harsh black cars and Trump jet cast against opulent surroundings and think this is Melania's Vietnam war and it's kind of badass. But this doesn't work for me because there's nothing to back up that feeling. The sequence is slow and plotting. Melania just gets on a plane and says hi to the crew and sits down. She's not even going somewhere of no, just flying to New York to try on dresses. And without any central action, any emotion expressed on screen, the song choice just feels confused, malevolent, strange. We'll talk about the use of Gimme Shelter a bit more later on, but suffice it to say, this is a problem with the movie's needle drops as a whole, a lack of motivation. Melania is in New York trying on her inauguration dresses and the song Lamarita by Sylvia Varton plays.

[00:05:11]>> Voila.

[00:05:12]>> Hey, how are you?

[00:05:13]>> Hello Jackie. How are you?

[00:05:15]>> Good. Good.

[00:05:16]>> Looks beautiful.

[00:05:17]>> The song feels refined and fancy and so you'd think it would pair well with the movie uh but it doesn't. Lamarita has an accelerating tempo. It gets bigger and more energetic as it goes on.

[00:05:28]>> To cut the point needs to be on the floor. So, the dress is a little bit long, but as you can see, the scene it's playing under doesn't even attempt to accommodate that fact. It almost feels like the film is lying to us, saying, "Look what a crazy hectic life Melania Trump has."

[00:05:47]>> Well, we will the next fitting we will do the right length.

[00:05:53]>> But there is absolutely no action shown that communicates that feeling. And so it comes off as fasile, reminds the audience that we really are just watching a woman having a dull, methodical conversation about the fit of her dress. Directly after Gimme Shelter is played in the film's opening moments, we segue into another needle drop, Billy Jean by Michael Jackson.

[00:06:16]>> And that makes sense, right? It's a song that calls on us to think about Melania's beauty and poise, and that's certainly an important part of the movie. But then uh 40 minutes later, Brett Ratner asks Melania what her favorite MJ song is and she says Billy Jean and we have a second Billy Jean needle drop. There are good ways to reuse songs in a movie. Like if they'd asked Melania at the beginning what her favorite song was and she'd said Billy Jean, it might make sense to play it again at the end of the film as a bookend. But as is, the choice just feels so lazy and off-putting, like the film just wanted to be crammed full of Billy Jean for no discernable reason.

[00:06:56]Melania is at St. Patrick's Cathedral, lighting a candle for her beloved dead mother. It's a very small scene. The cathedral is almost empty, no doubt emptied out for Melania, and so one might expect an intimate melancholic song to be played. But no, instead the film uses Artha Franklin's rendition of Amazing Grace, peppered with the claps of the live audience who who were there to enjoy that song back in 1972.

[00:07:29]>> Look, you can cope your way into any artistic decision. Maybe this is a really effective use of music because it captures the rapturous immense nature of Melania's grief over her mom. Sure, I guess. But I'm just telling you that's not how it feels at all. To me, it feels like Ratner got footage of Melania in this cathedral and just thought, "What's a cool religious song we could play under that?" The result is messy and tonally jarring.

[00:08:04]Toward the end of the movie after the inauguration, Trump and Melania walk through a hallway and then he kissed me by the crystals place.

[00:08:17]>> This is an obvious illusion to the most famous scene in Good Fellas where Ray Leotaa takes his date through a back door of the Copa Cabana because he's so rich and cool.

[00:08:29]How you doing?

[00:08:30]>> Good. Good. What's up?

[00:08:38]>> This, I think, is also the reason why Ratner uses Gimme Shelter earlier in the film because Scorsesei uses that song in three of his mob movies.

[00:08:47]>> I I started using Sandy's Place to mix the stuff. And even with Sandy snorting more than she mixed, I could see that this was a really good business. The ultimate purpose with both tracks is to identify Trump as a kind of fun mob boss, a guy who holds all the cards, who lives a life of almost sinful opulence.

[00:09:05]But even leaving aside how weird it is for a propaganda film produced by the Trump administration to imagine him as like a badass criminal, it's also just horrible film making. Yes, Ratner, I understand that Trump and Melania are walking through a hallway and that that's just like the movie directed by your hero Martin Scorsese. But the problem is nothing is actually happening in the hallway. Nothing communicates good fella's energy. Melania just looks vaguely uncomfortable and Donald stares off into space and they get into their car. You're not fooling anyone. There is a kind of mismatch in this movie. A sense that it wants to be about something, wants to feel legitimate and big and important, wants to justify the use of these expressive huge songs, but it just can't. So why not? We can talk about the structure of propaganda, the ways in which the basic requirements of this Trump documentary limit how interesting it could have possibly been.

[00:10:05]Audiences are attracted to conflict and vulnerability and narrative, but Melania and her husband must both be depicted as perfect angelic creatures unburdened by any problem at all. And so the film was doomed to be dull from the very start.

[00:10:19]And all of that is true. It's obviously true, but it's also quite a convenient explanation, and it doesn't give us the whole picture. To put it simply, Melania is more boring, more useless than it had to be. And a lot of that simply comes down to who the first lady is and the way the film chooses to deploy her. On paper, I think there's a pretty interesting story to be found in Melania Trump. She was born to a quite wealthy family in the communist country of Slovenia. She was a moderately successful model. She married a billionaire celebrity 24 years her senior and he became to everybody's surprise the president of the United States. Melania ended up with Trump because he's rich and powerful and it's interesting just how obvious that is.

[00:11:06]I'm not saying that she doesn't like him or find him fun or whatever. You know, she probably does. But nobody's fooling anyone here or even really trying to.

[00:11:15]When an NYU student asked her if she would be with Trump if he didn't have money, she responded, "If I weren't beautiful, do you think he'd be with me?" All this to say, there aren't any other first ladies like Melania Trump.

[00:11:27]And I do find her kind of fascinating. I listened to an audio book about her, The Art of Her Deal, and it had its moments.

[00:11:34]You know, I'm not saying I recommend it, but it it intrigued me. The problem, though, is that Melania is a very sterile and wooden character. I'm not talking about her personally. I don't know her. But with regard to the media she produces for the public, uh, woof. I read like half of her memoir for the sake of this video. It's also called Melania, which is very annoying. But I just want to read you a few passages here. Talking about her modeling career, she writes, "Despite setbacks, I remain dedicated and true to my values. While some industry encounters were difficult, I handled them with poise." talking about museums. Quote, "I have always made time in my schedule to enjoy the city's cultural gems, the Museum of Modern Art, the Guggenheim, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Visiting museums is a habit I have maintained in every city I've lived in. They bring me joy and inspiration." Talking about her career, quote, "Sometimes in order to succeed, you must be willing to take risks and make tough decisions. You need to trust yourself and your abilities and never settle for anything less than what you deserve. The path to success may not always be easy, but with determination and courage, you can achieve your dreams. Just one more. I'm really sorry.

[00:12:47]Uh talking about her early life with Donald Trump. Quote, "I took pleasure in cooking for him, supporting him in his daily routines, and maintaining a beautiful home. It was my priority to safeguard his welfare, meticulously attending to every aspect of his life."

[00:13:02]I can't emphasize it enough. The whole book is like this. She never quips or shares any personal observations. She doesn't get into anecdotes or write with specificity about the people who who populate her life. The whole thing reads like a chat GBT generated cover letter.

[00:13:17]As manager of Burger King, I believe I could provide this cherished American establishment with discipline, care, and grace. You know, that sort of writing.

[00:13:26]Look, this book is obviously ghostritten, and I wouldn't be surprised at all if 2024 ChachiBT was in fact involved in its production. But whoever or whatever was used to create this book, uh, they got it back for the movie. The film is packed to the gills with scripted narration where Melania describes in the vaguest possible terms how cool she is.

[00:13:49]>> As first lady, I constantly think about how our lawmakers can build dignity, create equal opportunity, and foster compassion through the unity of all Americans.

[00:14:01]>> Like my dear mother, I care about fashion. My mother, Amalia's fashion talent and expertise cultivated my deep appreciation for great design.

[00:14:12]>> Like my father, I enjoy cameras.

[00:14:14]>> My father always filmed these special moments when I was a child. He showed me the world through his lens, the essence of living life with passion and purpose.

[00:14:25]>> This way of talking is not necessary for the propaganda film to function. We could easily imagine a puff piece about Melania where she was given the opportunity to be more spontaneous and funny and human. But instead, we are shown a robot who, with the exception of a few scenes, says nothing.

[00:14:42]>> I carry the idea of home within myself as I often move from New York to Palm Beach to Washington DC. Essentially, I find peace in each location. We're told that Melania is sad that her mother died, but we don't get a sense for who the mother was. We're told that she's very proud of Donald Trump, but we don't get a glimpse into their relationship.

[00:15:04]>> Being handin hand with my husband at this moment is very emotional.

[00:15:09]>> Toward the midpoint of the documentary, Melania tells us that she wants to reinvent the position of the first lady, make it less formal in some way.

[00:15:18]>> One of my goals is to evolve the role of first lady beyond formal social duties.

[00:15:23]What does this mean? I legitimately have no idea. From the perspective of the documentary at least, her life is totally passive. The inauguration needs to be planned. So, she has random people showing her invitations and color palettes and she goes, "You know, that looks good. Wow." The LA fires happen and she goes, "Wow, that's sad."

[00:15:43]>> I think about the families, >> the children who have lost everything.

[00:15:47]>> An Israeli woman comes to talk about her hostage husband and she goes, "That's sad. my husband will do something about that.

[00:15:54]>> We are only a few days away that uh my husband will be in office. I know that once he's commanderin-chief, I I know that's his priority.

[00:16:04]>> She speaks in generalities with the Queen of Jordan and Bridget Macron.

[00:16:08]>> My next step and my next goal is to foster relationship and work on it with like-minded leaders and establish coalition. And when we do, I hope you will join me.

[00:16:19]>> Always pleasure. The documentary feels aware of this lack of action or personality and it even tries to compensate for it at times. One of the most important scenes in the film happens right toward the end. We see Trump delivering his big inauguration speech and suddenly there's a flashback to the day prior. Melania is walking around and stumbles upon Trump preparing his speech. There she suggests that he add the word unifier and Trump likes the idea. and unifier. Peacemaker and unifier.

[00:16:50]>> Okay, don't put that on tape, please.

[00:16:54]>> Please do.

[00:16:55]>> Cut back. Trump says that very word as he becomes the 47th president of the United States.

[00:17:00]>> My proudest legacy will be that of a peacemaker and unifier.

[00:17:06]>> We then cut to Trump thanking his wife as if to imply that he's thanking her for her helpful speech notes. It's a moment that's clearly trying to say this is Melania and yeah, she's pretty important. Personally, I believe that this sequence is basically scripted.

[00:17:22]Something feels contrived to me about the way she just happens upon Trump. The way he invites her and her cameraman into the conference room.

[00:17:29]>> You can come and >> maybe I'm wrong, though, because you'd think that if they pre-prepared this moment, they could have made it a bit more interesting. What does she add to this speech the word unifier? That's not important. That doesn't change anything.

[00:17:44]It's just kind of a filler word, right?

[00:17:45]It sounds nice. Right at the end of the movie, there's another Melania is a badass sequence where we read all of her accomplishments as first lady. I've never in my life seen more text at the end of a movie. But here, the point is to basically convince the audience of what the film couldn't, that Melania is a real go-getter and does lots of cool stuff. Maybe I could make a separate video going over these claims, but for our purposes, I think I only need to point out that one of Melania's greatest achievements is that she actually played an instrumental role in freeing an Israeli hostage. What are they talking about? How did she help to free this guy? Did she negotiate with Hamas? It's genuinely one of the weirdest and most audacious lies I have ever seen put to film. Look, the truth is Melania just doesn't do many interesting things. or if she does, she certainly doesn't want the public to know about it. And Ratner's hands are just completely tied by this basic fact. He has no idea what to do with this woman. And so, in the end, the audience is left asking, "If this woman isn't really here, is the movie about her at all?"

[00:18:53]Around the 50inute mark of the movie, Melania just kind of disappears. Whoa, I didn't know this was a a magician's YouTube channel. How do you do that? The film is about the days leading up to Donald Trump's inauguration, and it turns out that the event itself is where she has to tap out. There is no more dress to worry about, no French president's wife to discuss the children with, and so she's stuck following Donald around. In one particularly striking scene, we see Melania quietly watching the television that her husband appears on. It's It's baffling. And while watching the film's supposed protagonist be transformed into a ghostlike figure feels unreal, it is also, I think, the most effective part of the film, the place it is most persuasive as a work of propaganda.

[00:19:40]Donald Trump is a profoundly divisive and unpopular president. He also has a big mouth, constantly shares venomous, cruel thoughts about the US and other countries and about his political enemies and about journalists and stuff.

[00:19:55]>> Why? And because of this, he is uniquely ills suited to be a subject for hero worship. Trump doesn't have a huge speaking role in this film. But he does get one very odd moment. In the days before the inauguration, he talks to some advisers and complains that the National College Football Championship falls on the same day as the inauguration.

[00:20:16]>> So, they put a game.

[00:20:18]>> We're working extremely closely with the networks.

[00:20:20]>> I know, but why did they have to put the National Championship at the same time?

[00:20:23]His disappointment and confusion at this fact immediately take a conspiratorial turn as he supposes that actually this was all part of the plan.

[00:20:33]>> They probably did it on purpose.

[00:20:35]>> All right, let's go.

[00:20:37]>> The football people are trying to get him. I think this is the true, the uninhibited Trump. And he is a small resentment-driven man whose self-obsession drives him toward a kind of grandiose paranoia. You can't make a whole movie about a person like that. He wouldn't come off well. And so, outside of this one scene, they don't. Because Melania is our unthinking point of view character, Donald Trump is able to emerge as a presidential figure. We don't have to hear from him so much and so can instead enjoy the trappings of his office. Look how fancy the inauguration dinner is. Look how many people are in this arena. Look at the size of his estate. Look at the raw scope of his power. Throughout the film, Ratner inserts brief clips that look like they were taken on a Super Eight camera. I personally think they look quite out of place and cheesy, but of course, they accomplish this same task.

[00:21:32]Like Melania Trump herself, the film produces the feeling that we are watching some kind of historical larger than-l life moment. Donald Trump becomes a hazy version of himself. This presidency as it exists today already turned over to the archives, dignified and nostalgic. One of the best sequences in this entire documentary occurs right at the beginning where Melania suggests alterations to her inauguration dress.

[00:21:58]>> I want to take away this. No more turtleneck. So it will be very sharp. I want to see only two piece >> crossover.

[00:22:07]>> This cross not too heavy here.

[00:22:09]>> Question. Do you think we can remove? I don't know. just um >> it's fun to watch because it's the only time Melania seems to take an active interest in her own life where she seems to exert any agency at all. I'm not a fashion expert and so can't really evaluate the artistic merit of this dress. I guess I think it's cool and insane in equal measure, but one can't help but notice that the hat she chooses all but covers her face. For much of the latter half of the film, we can't look into the first lady's eyes. Of course, that's just a coincidence, but it is an appropriate one because Melania in this movie is not here to be seen with the president, but to look at him. And I suppose the question we have to answer is what actually is she looking at?

[00:22:56]So, look, Donald Trump isn't literally Hitler. I'm not trying to make some boring onetoone comparison here. It's just it's hard to watch Melania without thinking about Lenny Reefenstall's most iconic Hitler movie, Triumph of the Will. The two documentaries, after all, have much in common. Both are produced by and for conservative administrations.

[00:23:18]Both seek to present their central figures as uncomplicated saints. Both center on a big spectacular event, Hitler's Nuremberg rally, Trump's inauguration. Both situate their leaders within some mythic nostalgic tradition.

[00:23:31]Both are devastatingly boring and both pad their run times with endless music sequences that make the audience crave death.

[00:23:47]Triumph of the Will is an inevitable companion piece for Melania, and I'm certainly not the first person to use it as such. But this comparison, as tempting as it feels, can only go so far. And that's because Triumph actually makes sense. It's quite easy, I think, to dismiss Triumph as a benal and vapid film. I mean, it is those things. It's obviously more concerned with its endless Nazi processions, its images of power and supremacy than it is with advancing any particular political agenda. But despite that, it is coherent. It is self-aware. At base, Triumph of the Will seeks to identify Adolf Hitler as the ultimate embodiment of the German people. And it says as much explicitly multiple times.

[00:24:36]East Hitler Hitler.

[00:24:41]To that end, the film takes some pains in expressing not just the awe inspiring spectacle of the SA and SS soldiers marching down the streets of Nuremberg, but also in conveying what state exactly Hitler represents. Specifically, the people of Germany must be mandated to do work directly carry out Hitler's will.

[00:25:13]And they must be racially pure, connected to Hitler via some abstracted bloodline.

[00:25:24]>> The Germany of Triumph of the Will is also new. Yes, the film invokes images of old architecture and traditional cuisine, but Hitler emphasizes that all of this is part of a movement that begins with him a few years ago.

[00:25:58]To put it simply, Hitler's people descend from Hitler are like Hitler.

[00:26:03]When you watch his grand parade, you are seeing him. If you search for it, you can certainly find this sort of gesture in Donald Trump. I mean, it's no secret that he identifies with the state apparatus of the US in a way that's quite unusual for a modern president. At base, the guy is fixated on plastering his likeness on things. His name must be on the Kennedy Center. His face must appear on passports. His signature must be on money. Endless portraits of him must be strewn around the White House.

[00:26:34]And you can sense this desire in Melania, too. The film bears the name of and stars his wife. And she kind of functions as an extension of Donald, right? A blank canvas through which he gets to exalt himself as an imposing figure. And that's all well and good.

[00:26:49]But the problem is there's nothing to exalt here. So Trump is the president.

[00:26:55]So he was inaugurated. So what? There is no public in this movie. No theory of politics. No thought about what America means to Trump. Why any of this actually matters. If Triumph of the Will is the quintessential authoritarian propaganda film in that it disseminates a grand theory works to justify Hitler as a totalizing embodiment of the state, then Melania is best understood as a post propaganda film. It refuses the grand narrative, refuses to cohhere. Instead, the movie just packs itself full of these empty signifiers. Mob music tells us that Trump is a cool badass, but it isn't justified contextually. And so it feels like gibberish. Super footage is splattered throughout the film to remind the audience of the regal presidents of America's past, the mystique and tragic aura of JFK. Yet it's without any feeling of intent. At multiple points, we see Melania's high heeled shoes, the ultimate devil wears Prada shot. These obviously exist to communicate her elegance, her regal stature, her status as queen bee. Yet as a viewer, I can't feel that status for her. Every act in the movie just feels prefuncter and pointless. She visits Arlington Cemetery and says this, >> "As first lady, I carry each of their memories in my heart with humility and gratitude."

[00:28:18]>> This sentence that feels like it should have weight and dignity, but it also sounds like it comes out of Mad Libs.

[00:28:25]What do you mean you carry them in your heart? No, you don't. And you know, there's something kind of fitting about all of this. The centerpiece of Melania, of course, is Donald Trump's inauguration. And that's a convenient subject because that event was, in its own right, a celebration of naked corruption. Trump's inauguration fund racked in an unfathomable amount of money. Unlike campaign funds, there is no legal cap for inauguration funds. And while other presidents like Obama or Biden put their own caps on these donations, um Trump had no such compunction. And so he was able to raise $245 million. That is the most well-funded inauguration fund of all time. And it's not close. Second place goes to Donald Trump in 2016 uh when he raised a poultry 88 million. The inauguration was of course a who's who of tech billionaires and you can see them in multiple shots of Melania. Mark Zuckerberg and Elon make chitchat. Tim Cook sits directly next to Baron Trump while Donald delivers his inauguration speech. And yeah, Jeff Bezos is there.

[00:29:31]Between his donation and Amazon streaming of the event, Bezos donated $2 million to Trump's fund. And there's something uncanny about seeing him here.

[00:29:41]featured in multiple shots of the film.

[00:29:43]He bribes the president's wife to license. In a sense, this is the only thing the film can offer us. This closed loop, this self-referential image, because Melania does not exist to persuade the public of anything, but to proclaim arrogantly that persuasion is not necessary. The film was not made for us, but for the people in it, the people we follow, and the people who linger in its background. And for them, Trump's presidency is like the sham film they decided to produce. Basically meaningless