First Lady Melania Trump will walk away with at least $28 million as part of her $40 million agreement with e-commerce giant Amazon to license a documentary film about her life, according to a report.
Trump, who is due to receive over 70% of the deal’s proceeds, has also been shopping sponsorship deals for the film, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The first lady also reportedly told blue-chip CEOs who attended her husband’s inauguration on Jan. 20 that they would need to pony up at least $10 million in exchange for being acknowledged at the end of the film’s credits.
As a bonus, the CEOs who agree to pay for the sponsorship would get an invite to the documentary’s premier, according to the Journal.
The first lady’s Amazon deal came together shortly after company founder Jeff Bezos traveled to Mar-a-Lago in December to dine with her husband — who weeks earlier trounced his Democratic opponent, former Vice President Kamala Harris, in the Nov. 5 election.
According to the Journal, the first lady was keen on persuading Bezos, the Amazon founder and Washington Post owner who historically has had a fraught relationship with the president, to buy the rights to the documentary.
Weeks earlier, Bezos had blocked his newspaper’s traditionally Democrat-leaning editorial board from publishing an endorsement of Harris.
He later pledged $1 million to Trump’s inaugural fund,
Eager to sharpen her sales pitch, Melania Trump reportedly enlisted the aid of Brett Ratner, the Hollywood director and producer known for hits including the “Rush Hour” trilogy as well as his involvement with blockbusters such as “Red Dragon” and “X-Men: The Last Stand.”
Ratner has kept a low profile in Hollywood since he was accused of sexual misconduct during the #MeToo era.
At the Mar-a-Lago dinner on Dec. 18, which included the Trumps as well as Bezos and his fiancée, Lauren Sanchez, the first lady “regaled” her guests with details about the documentary film, the Journal reported.
About two weeks later, Amazon announced that it would stream the film on its Prime Video service.
The Journal reported that the $40 million sum was the most that Amazon had ever spent on a documentary — an amount that was three time more than the nearest competing bids, according to the Journal.
Paramount, parent company of CBS, made what the Journal described as a “lowball” offer of $4 million while Disney submitted a more respectable bid of $14 million, according to the report.
Netflix and Apple declined to bid, the Journal reported.
“We licensed the upcoming Melania Trump documentary film and series for one reason and one reason only — because we think customers are going to love it,” an Amazon spokesman told the Journal.
The Post has sought comment from the White House, Amazon and Bezos.
The lucrative documentary deal is part of a broader financial windfall for the Trump family since Trump’s return to the White House.
In total, businesses have directed about $80 million to the Trumps and the Trump presidential library, including settlements from lawsuits the president had previously filed against corporations.
Meta settled a lawsuit with Trump for $25 million.
Similarly, ABC News paid $15 million to resolve a defamation suit, and Elon Musk’s X agreed to a $10 million settlement.
Paramount is reportedly in talks with the president’s lawyers about a settlement over a lawsuit filed in connection with a “60 Minutes” interview with Harris that Trump alleges was deceptively edited for political purposes.
The Trumps’ financial dealings have drawn criticism for their unprecedented scale.
Ethics watchdogs argue Trump is using his office for financial gain more aggressively than in his first term.
Credit: Source link
