President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump on Saturday night hosted a private screening of “Melania,” a new documentary about the first lady, according to the White House’s public calendar — drawing criticism from Democrats who questioned the president’s priorities hours after another fatal shooting in Minneapolis upended domestic politics and raised the possibility of a government shutdown.
The screening, which was scheduled before the shooting, was not made available to the White House press pool. The documentary “offers unprecedented access to the 20 days leading up to the 2025 Presidential Inauguration — through the eyes of the First Lady herself,” according to its official description.
The documentary is being released by Amazon MGM Studios, which reportedly paid $40 million for its rights. (Amazon founder Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post.) Puck News reported Friday that Amazon is spending an additional $35 million to help promote the film.
The White House did not immediately respond to questions about Saturday’s screening, including who attended the event. The Hollywood Reporter and Reuters reported that executives from Apple, Amazon and other major tech companies were invited.
The event was held after a U.S. Border Patrol agent on Saturday morning fatally shot Alexander Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive care nurse, with video footage of the event broadly shared on social media and by media outlets. It was the second fatal shooting of a U.S. citizen by federal agents in Minneapolis this month, after the killing of Renée Good, also 37 — and came amid a sweeping immigration crackdown by the Trump administration, which has prompted weeks of protests in Minnesota and other states.
Trump administration officials and some allied Republicans defended Saturday’s shooting, saying that Pretti was intent on attacking law enforcement and labeled him a “domestic terrorist.” On social media, Trump posted a photo of a gun that federal officials said Pretti had on him before he was killed.
“I don’t know of any peaceful protester that shows up with a gun and ammunition rather than a sign,” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem said at a news conference.
Congressional Democrats called the shooting unjustified, citing video footage that contradicted the Trump administration’s claims that Pretti was brandishing a weapon. They also pledged to block a funding packagethat must be approved before the end of the day on Friday to keep much of the government open, saying that they could not support continued funding for the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees immigration enforcement, without changes to its operations.
“Federal agents cannot murder people in broad daylight and face zero consequences,” Sen. Patty Murray (D-Washington), the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, wrote on social media on Saturday. “The DHS bill needs to be split off from the larger funding package before the Senate — Republicans must work with us to do that.”
Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-Louisiana) also called for a “full joint federal and state investigation,” writing on social media that the events in the city were “incredibly disturbing.”
Some Democrats further criticized Trump for hosting a film screening at the White House as a major winter storm is menacing much of the country. About two dozen states had declared states of emergency as of Saturday night, with sleet, ice and snow pelting parts of the central United States.
“So what is the President up to? Having a movie night at the White House,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York), a frequent Trump critic, posted on social media. “He’s unfit.”
The White House said Friday that Trump has been involved in briefings ahead of the storm and that the administration is preparing a whole-of-government response.
Saturday night’s screening of “Melania” kicked off a week of White House promotion for the film, which opens Friday in theaters. The first lady is scheduled to ring the opening bell of the New York Stock Exchange on Wednesday. The president and the first lady are also set to attend a public premiere of the film on Thursday night at Washington’s Kennedy Center, which the administration has renamed the Trump Kennedy Center.
Trump also has pinned a post to the top of his Truth Social feed that promotes the film as “an unforgettable, behind-the-scenes, look at one of the most important events of our time.”
Riley Beggin contributed to this report.
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