Hacker Cinema
Melania
2026 · Film · documentary · 105 min
Directed by Brett Ratner
Offering unprecedented access to the 20 days leading up to the 2025 Presidential Inauguration — through the eyes of the First Lady-elect herself — step inside Melania Trump's world as she orchestrates inauguration plans, navigates the complexities of the White House transition, and reenters public life with her family. With exclusive footage capturing critical meetings, private conversations, and never-before-seen environments, Mrs. Trump returns to one of the world's most powerful roles.
1 positive17 negative6 neutralfrom 24 commenters
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31 comments on Hacker News
Also for all the people saying Amazon's part in this couldn't be fabricated, remember that Amazon is a "friend of the administration". During Andy Jassy's tenure, they paid $75MM (wildly outbidding everybody else) for a Melania documentary that grossed ~16MM, a move publicly defended by Jeff Bezos. Any neutral observer could see this was a wild overpay, and after the fact, a terrible business move. But that is not what Amazon said or continues to say. This was just a bribe with more steps to it.
When the government comes out and says this is due to something Amazon pointed out, even if that is a complete lie, they know that Amazon won't say anything publicly about it. Amazon wants to maintain their "friend of the administration" status that they paid a lot of money to get.
It is frustrating for all of us to have to think about our government like this, but if you just look at the reality of what is happening it is very difficult to trust not only anything the government is saying, but also anything companies aligned with the government are saying.
It's just one more facet of the enshittoscene, the era where actual product quality is completely irrelevant. Put it in the same bucket as websites that lag when you scroll, apps that refuse to show you video without a huge play/pause button overlaid in the middle of it that never goes away, and the movie Melania. My hypothesis is that billion-dollar businesses no longer exist to sell things to customers, but only to impress other billionaires to get their investment money.
It's less than the other tech CEOs who seem to evade criticism on HN. Elon literally worked for Trump, accomplished nothing, and ended up just leaking everyone's social security data. Thiel and Palantir are profiting from war and building out the surveillance state. Bezos made a $75M documentary about Melania. Larry Ellison took over TikTok US to squelch any criticism of US and Zionist war atrocities.
And winning athletes and sports teams don't go to the white house due to 'scheduling conflicts'. And Amazon paid $75m for a Melania documentary because they saw real profit and need there. And Qatar bought Trump an airplane because it was important for his work. And everyone nominates him for a nobel prize because he ends wars and doesn't get into wars (we're just in a special military operation atm).
The Melania documentary is an important artifact that historians will be talking about for decades, although not in the way those involved anticipated.
About the same as Bezos invested in the Melania documentary, watched by about six people.
Maybe for now. I wouldn’t be surprised if Hegseth pressures Amazon to kick them out. At which point AWS is irrelevant but it’ll take time for it to fall. Keep in mind Andy Jassy is pro Trump and donates bigly by funding the Melania documentary.
This is why Andy Jassy was a big supporter of BLM in the Biden era and is now funding the Melania documentary in the Trump era. Amazon bribes each administration to avoid the law. Many companies do this though, not just them. Companies worth more than a trillion shouldn’t exist, yet here they are corrupting our entire system.
It’s absolutely because Microsoft has not done enough to prop up Trump and his family. Apple gave him a gold award. Amazon paid a bribe by funding the Melania documentary and helping Flock/ICE. But Microsoft has been less visible as a collaborator of the administration.
Last paragraph:
> The Federal Aviation Administration opened an investigation into Amazon’s drone delivery program in November after one of its drone struck an Internet cable line in Waco.
Looks like the rest of that sentence has been cut off: "... but the company doesn't expect to be punished, since it spent $75 million dollars bribing President Trump in the form of the Melania movie.".
Bezos is "better" depending on if youu think more rational, less overly fascistic oligarchs are "better." I'm going to go see if they reviewed Melania's movie.
All these tech companies have cowards for leaders, and Sundar Pichai is no different. And he’s a non white immigrant! The CEOs fear being attacked by the administration through regulations or anti trust or not being given contracts. They are some of the most powerful people and yet they bend the knee so easily. Andy Jassy of Amazon is the worst though - funding the Melania documentary is so blatantly corrupt.
This era is evidence for why we cannot continue allowing individuals or mega corps to accumulate the kind of money and power they have. It is too easy to corrupt them.
And worst of all he had to watch "Melania"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melania_(film)#Release
Instead of both-sides-ing this, you can look at objective data. Here's BoxOfficeMojo: https://www.boxofficemojo.com/release/rl4287397889/. Right now it says $8.1M in the US, $75k worldwide. Not bad for a movie that cost $40M to make and about as much to market, huh?
One rationalisation I've heard is that it made more money than expected for a documentary. If we take that at face value, it's worth asking why Bezos felt the need to pay Melania tens of millions more than the budget for the typical documentary.
Your case study in media bias writes itself. All it took was a google search.
The one breaking box office records?
> Melania film earns $7m in US, strongest documentary debut in over a decade
He allegedly spent $70M to market that dreadful documentary about Melania Trump. Surely he could afford spending that much every year to keep an historic paper afloat.
I don't think Melania the documentary is going to be that popular in France, Germany or Australia, do you?
I agree that Luckey is effectively saving taxpayers hundreds of billions given how slow and expensive and uncompetitive the old defense companies have been. But I am very uncomfortable with the strong ties between this new wave of tech companies and the Trump administration, with all the usual investors and middlemen like Andreesen, Thiel, Joe Lonsdale, etc, who I find hard to trust. For example, Joe Lonsdale is literally pumping the Melania documentary:
https://xcancel.com/JTLonsdale/status/2017844903099732184
It’s also disturbing to see Luckey admit he is a propagandist who will twist the truth and manipulate people to get his way.
> With Silicon Valley elites going MAGA post—last year's election, Luckey is taking a Trump-stanning victory lap. After all, he was "one of the true Trump OGs," he told Rogan. When Luckey was 15, he wrote Trump a letter asking him to run for president: "I loved his extremist rhetoric going back to 2009!" Trump seems to stan Luckey, too: At a press conference in the spring, the president archly called Anduril's Roadrunner drone a "nasty looking thing."
'A fantastic flick, our theater was sold out and erupted in applause and cheers at the end of the show. Melania is a wonderful human, a class act and America is blessed she is once again our First Lady. This behind the scenes sneak peek was so well done and such a wonderful watch. A must see.'
'This is the first movie I’ve gone to watch in the theater in 10 years. I thought getting to see a little glimpse into her personal life was great.'
It's not done well in the UK[0]. Given these genuine "verified reviews" maybe we're missing out.
[0] https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jan/26/melania-trump-documentary-uk-cinemas-vue-soft-sales
But his precise objectives remain unclear. Speaking at the premiere of the documentary Melania, the US president told reporters Iran had to do “two things” to avoid military action. “Number one, no nuclear. And number two, stop killing protesters,” saying that “they are killing them by the thousands”.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jan/30/donald-trump-iran-end-nuclear-programme-killing-protesters-face-us-military
To be "for the masses", it would need to:
- be smaller
- have an actually usuable truck bed
- be painted (so rust isn't an issue)
- have a body that's not literally duck taped together in some places and can easily snap in others
- use steel (which bends) for body construction
- be suitable for towing hauls
- not be ridiculously overpowered (...to the extent where engine can overpower the breaks)
- have good visibility with a windshield that isn't at a sharp angle to the ground and body geometry which doesn't maximize blind spots
- not have sharp corners that the cut you or doors that can decapitate your dog
- have door handles that make doors openable in case of emergencies/no power situations/electric shorts
- not have bulletproof glass (WTF, "for the masses"?) which makes makes it harder to rescue people when accidents happen
- be easily repairable, or at least amenable to repairs in local non-Tesla shops, with customers being confident it their warranty won't go poof (as the law requires)
- be easily customizeable for different applications (particularly when it comes to the bed)
- not look so different from other trucks without any reason other than "Elon Musk wants to be edgy": ugly is subjective, being a billionaire's fashion statement isn't
...to start. That's off the top of my head.
And, of course, being priced for the masses, which doesn't just happen. It's a design requirement.
As it stands, the Cybertruck is, and has always been, a rich boy's luxury toy — and it was designed as one.
It really seems like something got to Musk's head that he thought the world has so many edgy rich boys.
You want to see a modern truck "for the masses"? That's Toyota IMV 0, aka Hilux Champ [1]. Ticks all the above boxes.
And hits the $10,000 price point [2]. A literal order of magnitude cheaper than the Cybertruck.
Speaking of which: a car "for the masses" isn't a truck. It's a minivan (gets the entire family from one place to another), it's a small sedan/hatchback (commuter vehicle), a crossover/small SUV to throw things, kids, and dogs into without having to play 3D Tetris in hard mode.
But not a pickup truck, which is a specialized work vehicle.
The masses aren't farmers and construction workers (most people live in the cities, and only a small number needs such a work vehicle).
The popularity of The Truck in the US is, in a large part, a byproduct of regulation which gives certain exemptions to specialized work vehicles.[3]
That's not even getting to the infrastructure part: trucks shine in remote, rural areas. And while one can always have a canister of gas in the truck bed, power stations can be hard to find in the middle of the field or a remote desert highway.
But again, it's not impossible to make a truck for the masses (at least for certain markets). That's the $10K Hilux Champ.
For all the luxury aspects of the Tesla sedan, it's been one of the most (if not the most) practical electric vehicles on account of range alone. It also looked like a normal car at a time when EVs screamed "look at me, I'm so greeeeeen!" from a mile away (remember 1st gen Nissan Leaf or BMW i3?). It was conformal and utilitarian, while also being futuristic and luxurious enough for the high price point was fair for what was offered.
The public image of having a Tesla was good: you are affluent, future-forward, and caring for the environment.
The Cybertruck went back on everything that made Tesla a success: it's conspicuous, impractical, overpriced, and currently having publicity rivaling that of the recent Melania documentary.
It was not a risky bet. It was an a-priori losing bet. The world simply never needed as many edgy toys as Musk wanted to sell.
And driving a car shaped as an "I'm a Musk fanboy" banner really lost its appeal after a few Roman salutes and the dear leader's DOGE stint.
Overly optimistic engineering assessments? Perhaps, but they are much further down on the list of reasons of Cybertruck's failure.
[1] https://www.roadandtrack.com/reviews/a45752401/toyotas-10000-future-pickup-truck-is-basic-transportation-perfection/
[2] https://www.motortrend.com/reviews/2025-toyota-imv-0-pickup-truck-first-drive-review-japan-mobility-show
[3] https://reason.com/2024/02/02/why-are-pickup-trucks-ridiculously-huge-blame-government/
With only two mobile OS providers, they should be highly regulated. But given Tim Cook gave Trump a golden award and attended the premiere of the Melania documentary, I doubt they’ll get any antitrust trouble. Disappointing rent seeking behavior.
Amazon's MGM subsidiary spent 75 million dollars thus far on the Melania Trump documentary that by all accounts, is looking like its going to be a box office bomb. Reportedly, 30 million of that 75 went directly to Melania[0]
[0]: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2026/jan/28/melania-trump-documentary-amazon-release
It's just grifting, bribery, and extortion.
Bezos gave $40m to make the movie. It was a way to maintain his companies position. It's standard oligarch tribute to the godfather. See Russia or Hungary for further examples.
The movie cost nowhere near that much to make. Melania got the money. It was her very own little grift, while her husband and his children have been extracting literally billions.
I just googled confused what a "Melania screening" (Thought it was like a sort of security screening, maybe all the ICE is messing with my head) is. First time i heard about the Movie. This feels like one more step the Trump fam. took to become some sort of celebrity-king thing.
I'm amazed that Klemen Slakonja's First Lady Melania Trump documentary made it out of Slovenia.
It's certainly a beautiful country.
> Today we’re calling on our CEOs to pick up the phone again: 1. Call the White House ...
For Amazon employees, your CEO doesn't even need to pick up the phone - he was already at the White House last night for a screening of the new film about Melania Trump [1]. Amazon already paid $40 M for it and now are paying many millions more to promote it [2].
[1] https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/first-lady-melania-trump-preview-new-film-private-white-house-screening-2026-01-23/
[2] https://ca.news.yahoo.com/jeff-bezos-underlings-ordered-prop-113220382.html
Amazon funded it. They paid $30 million or so for rights to the documentary for Amazon Prime. I doubt viewers will care about it, but I look at it as a bribe from Amazon to the administration. They give Melania and by extension Trump this money, and they will get better regulatory help and more government contracts.
Among other things, with everything going on in the US today, the CEOs of Apple and Amazon were apparently at the WH for a screening of the Melania film.
Companies deciding not to spend money with X because consumers objected to ads there more than they bought products from ads there is "organized cartel like boycotts" and Zuck deciding to ditch decade old programmes because the new President hates them and him and his platform (and owns a rival platform too!) is freeing him to do what he believed all along!? I've heard it all now.
Bet Bezos has spent years dreaming of making that Melania documentary he's finally become free to spend $40m on too...