Jeff Bezos' Amazon gives Melania Trump $40 million for documentary on her life

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Still doesn't mean Bezos is going to get any government AI contracts for Amazon. What a tool.

Could keep him from becoming a target. It's the price of doing business in the USA

[Anonymous]

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/25/us/politics/trump-money-plane-crypto.html

As Trumps Monetize Presidency, Profits Outstrip Protests
The president and his family have monetized the White House more than any other occupant, normalizing activities that once would have provoked heavy blowback and official investigations.

When Hillary Clinton was first lady, a furor erupted over reports that she had once made $100,000 from a $1,000 investment in cattle futures. Even though it had happened a dozen years before her husband became president, it became a scandal that lasted weeks and forced the White House to initiate a review.

Thirty-one years later, after dinner at Mar-a-Lago, Jeff Bezos agreed to finance a promotional film about Melania Trump that will reportedly put $28 million directly in her pocket — 280 times the Clinton lucre and in this case from a person with a vested interest in policies set by her husband’s government. Scandal? Furor? Washington moved on while barely taking notice.

[Anonymous]

Such a clear bribe. Awful precedent that undermines our democracy.

[Anonymous]

So publishers have finally started paying payoffs to Republicans like they do with Democrats.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So publishers have finally started paying payoffs to Republicans like they do with Democrats.

Name me the publisher who paid a democrat $40 million to a Democrat.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"The Real Lives of Trophy Wives" S1E1 - Melania Trump

Who cares? If Bezos wants to waste his money, fine, but I'm not watching this dreck.

Lauren Sanchez, S2

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So publishers have finally started paying payoffs to Republicans like they do with Democrats.

Name me the publisher who paid a democrat $40 million to a Democrat.

+1 There are always political scandals about corruption. But the amount of money that the Trumps are raking in is orders of magnitude higher.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Will the documentary cover her overstaying her visa and her experience as an illegal immigrant?

Do they need photos of her modeling days I hear Russia has many to choose from....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's amazing to me that this Trump family grift is not attracting more attention. This is orders of magnitude larger than corruption scandals that used to be big scandals back in the days when ethics rules existed.

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/melania-trump-documentary-amazon.html[list]

[Melania] was looking for a buyer for a documentary about her transition back to first lady. Her agent had pitched the film, which she would executive produce, to a number of studios, including the one owned by Amazon. As the meeting approached, Melania consulted with director Brett Ratner on how to sell her idea to the world’s third-richest man. Melania regaled Bezos and his fiancée, Lauren Sánchez, with the project’s details at dinner.

Just over two weeks later, Amazon, a company that prides itself on frugality and sharp negotiating, agreed to pay $40 million to license the film — the most Amazon had ever spent on a documentary and nearly three times the next-closest offer.

Netflix and Apple declined even to bid. Paramount made a lowball $4 million distribution-rights offer. Disney, the most interested studio besides Amazon, offered $14 million.

I know it’s 2025, nothing matters anymore, and even The Walt Disney Co. is kissing Donald Trump’s ring. But I’ve also learned that Amazon is paying a cool $40 million to license the film, per three sources familiar with the deal. That price includes the Ratner documentary, which will get a small theatrical release and then appear on Prime Video, plus a previously undisclosed two-to-three-episode follow-up docuseries on the first lady. Melania will participate in both projects. (Amazon declined to comment.)

How much of that will go to Melania? According to The Wall Street Journal, she’s set to make $28 million, and as of February she was still looking for additional ways to monetize the project:

The first lady’s cut is more than 70% of the $40 million, according to people familiar with the matter. And they’re still looking for more: Melania’s agent has been trying to sell “sponsorships” for the film — starting at $10 million — to prominent CEOs and billionaires who were at the inauguration, according to people familiar with the matter. Buyers would get thanked at the end of the credits and be invited to the premiere. These overtures were made independently of the deal with Amazon, which was unaware of the outreach, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Grifters gonna grift

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So publishers have finally started paying payoffs to Republicans like they do with Democrats.

Name me the publisher who paid a democrat $40 million to a Democrat.

+1 There are always political scandals about corruption. But the amount of money that the Trumps are raking in is orders of magnitude higher.

Yet you don’t hear a peep of protest from the GOP. F#cking hypocrites.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Will the documentary cover her overstaying her visa and her experience as an illegal immigrant?

Do they need photos of her modeling days I hear Russia has many to choose from....

The ones you can find via Google are already pretty bad...

[Anonymous]

I would rather watch paint dry than watch a documentary about Melania Trump. I suspect this will not have a big audience. Almost as if...there was no good reason to give her $40 mn for a movie about her life.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So publishers have finally started paying payoffs to Republicans like they do with Democrats.

Name me the publisher who paid a democrat $40 million to a Democrat.

Look at all those book contracts, HarperCollins and SimonSchuster