President Donald Trump made sure to mention his “movie star” wife Melania at his State of the Union address as he has been desperately promoting the first lady’s documentary.
“No one cares more about protecting America’s youth than our wonderful first lady, now a movie star,” Trump declared in the House chamber. “She’s a movie star, can you believe it?”
“Who would have believed that?” he continued.
The president, 79, was referring to the first lady’s documentary Melania, for which Amazon paid Mrs. Trump $40 million for access.
As Trump spoke, his wife, who was in attendance for the speech, looked on smiling from the House chamber gallery.
The president went on to praise the first lady’s presidential AI challenge and foster care initiative, and thanked her for her hard work, but his “movie star” reference was one of several times he has alluded to her documentary during speeches and other remarks.
He has also called her “my movie star” during appearances and promoted her movie with a series of social media posts since it came out.
Last week, during the first meeting of his so-called “Board of Peace,” the president also touted the Melania documentary, which some critics have called a bribe by the tech giant.
“She has a very successful movie out right now, like number one. Can you believe this?” Trump told the room of leaders. “Big movie star, and I always say it’s trouble, because I always say there’s not room in one family for two stars.”
“I told her that we can’t have two stars in one family, so I don’t know what that means, but it’s not, it’s not good,” Trump added.
During that event and others, the president has repeatedly claimed that theaters were packed for her movie and that women kept returning multiple times to see it.
In reality, after three weeks in theaters, the documentary is on track to gross just over $15 million in total, only a fraction of the $75 million Amazon spent on it, including the $40 million to the first lady and $35 million on marketing.
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