Melania Trump’s Big Payday Raises Eyebrows

Melania Trump may have had a flop on her hands, but she still walked away with a stunning payday.

The first lady reportedly earned a jaw-dropping $10.71 million from the Amazon documentary bearing her name, according to Donald Trump’s annual financial disclosure report.

That figure is raising fresh questions because the film itself was hardly a runaway hit. In fact, Melania’s personal profit amounted to more than half of the documentary’s entire box office haul.

The Amazon MGM-backed film reportedly cost a massive $75 million to make and promote, but brought in just $16 million at the box office. Some screenings were said to be sparsely attended, and in South Africa, the film was reportedly pulled from theaters altogether.

Critics were not exactly kinder.

On Rotten Tomatoes, the documentary reportedly earned just a 10 percent approval rating from 61 critics. The Daily Beast’s Kevin Fallon blasted it as “a level of insipid propaganda that almost resists review,” calling it “expected and utterly pointless.”

But while the movie struggled with audiences and critics, Melania appears to have cashed in handsomely.

The disclosure report also listed about $521,000 from her memoir, which was published a month before the 2024 presidential election. She also reported just over $6 million from NFTs and other collectibles.

The documentary has already drawn heavy scrutiny from critics who questioned whether the Amazon-MGM deal was simply a Hollywood gamble — or something more politically convenient.

Members of Congress previously wrote to Amazon president and CEO Andy Jassy asking whether the deal was a “box office gamble or bribe” and whether it was part of a possible “pay-to-play arrangement” with the Trump administration.

Those questions only got louder because of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ increasingly visible presence around Trump’s political orbit. Bezos, along with Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk, attended Trump’s inauguration in January.

At the documentary’s premiere at the Kennedy Center, Donald Trump was asked whether Bezos was trying to “get in good” with him and whether Americans were right to call the deal corporate corruption.

Trump brushed it off.

“No, I don’t know,” he said. “I mean, I don’t know really, I’m not involved in that. That was done with my wife.”

Bezos has also denied the accusations.

“We have denied it. Melania’s office has denied it. It’s not true. I had nothing to do with that,” Bezos told CNBC last month.

He also rejected claims that he was “buying influence,” though he admitted he understood why people were suspicious.

“I can see why people say this,” Bezos said.

The controversy comes as Amazon has reportedly been considering a reboot of The Apprentice, with Donald Trump Jr. potentially stepping into the role once held by his father.

For critics of the Trump family’s blurred lines between politics, celebrity, and personal profit, Melania’s multimillion-dollar documentary windfall is likely to fuel even more questions.

The movie may have bombed at the box office, but for Melania Trump, it appears to have been a blockbuster payday.