Melania Trump's Abysmally Rated Doc Has Her Haters Flocking To Another First Lady Flick

Try as she might, Melania Trump just can't seem to step out of her predecessor's shadow. Melania Trump and Michelle Obama's relationship is awkward at best, and it's about to become even more so as the first lady's eponymous documentary weathers a barrage of withering reviews, whereas Michelle's own doc, "Becoming," was very well received. "Melania," which had catastrophically bad ticket sales ahead of its January 30, 2026, theatrical release, is now weathering equally searing reviews. The film has a 5% rating on Rotten Tomatoes at the time of writing. For reference, Obama's film, "Becoming," has a score of 93%. To add insult to injury, many are flocking to watch it in an apparent attempt to stick it to Melania and the Trump administration.

Netflix saw a spike in views of "Becoming" over the weekend "Melania" made its cinema debut. In fact, the Hollywood Reporter indicated that data from Luminate shows that viewers collectively watched 47.5 million minutes of Michelle's documentary over the weekend alone. This was no accidental occurrence, with "Becoming's" daily numbers usually falling within the low hundreds. Meanwhile, Melania's movie had trouble filling theaters. The snub has got to hurt, especially since Michelle's doc is hardly new — it was released in 2020.

A quick peek at social media indicates that the streaming numbers for "Becoming" was a collective effort from Melania's critics. "Hey guys I know things are crazy right now so I think it's really important we all take some time to watch a documentary about the First Lady...BECOMING, featuring @MichelleObama is available on Netflix," one netizen penned on X, formerly known as Twitter, on January 30. "We're getting @MichelleObama documentary to #1 on @netflix while Melania's will continue to tank this weekend," another post read.

The "Melania" documentary was shrouded in controversy, and it didn't help that most journalists were banned from the premiere. The reason why is a mystery, since typically, a studio would want to get as much publicity before a big release as possible. Reporters who flocked to movie theaters to interview attendees about their thoughts were ultimately left disappointed, finding that their colleagues outnumbered the civilians by a considerable margin. This did not bode well, and indeed, once film critics sunk their teeth in, they didn't have many good things to say. In fact, even diehard Donald Trump fans scrambling to save Melania Trump from her documentary disaster ultimately failed in their quest.

The Guardian called "Melania" "a rubbish film," while GQ dubbed it "one of the least revealing documentaries ever made," and the Daily Beast pronounced it "an unbelievable abomination of filmmaking." Despite the scathing reviews, the film still managed to surpass expectations at the box office. Outlets like Deadline initially predicted a $5 million plus debut, but the first lady's movie managed to exceed $7 million. Additionally, Politico noted that "Melania" managed to rake in more money on its opening weekend than any other documentary in 14 years.

Still, critics don't think it's worth your time or money. "It is not clear why the first lady thought she should make this film. It would be easy to write it off as pure propaganda but, if it is, it is not very successful," the Financial Times noted. Meanwhile, Arizona Republic's critic concurred, reasoning simply, "All I can say is, no matter who made it, no matter who paid for it, no matter who it's about, 'Melania' is a singularly bad movie."