Melania Trump's Uncouth Behavior At White House Event Won't Help Dismal Movie Ticket Sales

Nearly one week after the big Kennedy Center premiere of Melania Trump's documentary, "Melania," the film has continued to receive bad press. Audiences seem similarly disgusted; while the film has done remarkably well for a documentary, it has nonetheless performed poorly considering its budget. Between paying off Melania to secure the film's rights and the enormous cost of its marketing campaign, "Melania" is now the most expensive documentary ever made. So, it makes sense that Melania would want to reverse the trend of catastrophically bad ticket sales with a little promotion.

While Melania reportedly keeps her distance from the White House as much as possible, she made an exception on February 4 to host Keith and Aviva Siegel, an American-Israeli couple who were held hostage by Hamas. The controversial first lady used the opportunity to promote her embattled documentary — or, at least, it seemed like she did. Instead, Melania denied claims that she wasn't hyping up the film mere minutes after promoting it. Of course, Melania (and "Melania") began catching even more flak on the internet after this strange display.

Here's the clip of Melania promoting her movie minutes before she denied promoting her movie pic.twitter.com/NkcvThShy3 https://t.co/XXmutFann5

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 4, 2026

Aviva appears in "Melania," where she and the first lady at the film's center discuss Keith, who was still being held hostage at the time of filming. Melania reflected on this while speaking to the press at the White House, flanked on either side by the Siegels. "It was emotional meeting, and it is captured on camera and available to see in my new film, 'Melania,'" she explained, as captured in the video above. It's hard to ignore how much that comment made this whole moment feel like an awkward ad for the film. When called out on it, though, Melania denied everything — and she's getting roasted for it.

During the sit-down with former hostages, one of whom endured torture for 484 days, a reporter asked Melania Trump, "Why do you feel it's appropriate to use an official White House event to promote your movie?" This was a fair question, since moments earlier, she was directing attention to her movie. "This is not promotion," Melania replied (per X), adding, "We are here celebrating the release of the hostages of Aviva and Keith ... They said they would like to come over to thank me ... and that's why we are here. It has nothing to do with promotion."

Interestingly, though, when the sit-down ended, Aviva and Keith Siegel both seemed focused on the film. "I also want to end by congratulating you on the release of your movie. So much looking forward to seeing it, and so grateful for you deciding to have Aviva be a part of your movie," Keith said (via The New York Post. Aviva added, "... I want to thank you for putting me in your special Melania film." That certainly sounds like promotion, and many netizens agreed.

"Denial as performance art: 'This is not a promotion' uttered while standing in a White House transformed into a $28 million infomercial set. The irony would be delicious if it weren't so corrosive," one person eloquently wrote on X. "It's hard to take that denial seriously," another person wrote, with one commenter simply adding, "They have no shame." Clearly, people aren't buying Melania's assertion that this meeting wasn't an advertisement, and the last thing this documentary needs is more bad advertising.