From stilettos to security issues on Inauguration Day: 4 takeaways from Melania Trump’s new film | EUROtoday

The new documentary “Melania” opens on a close-up of the trademark stilettos of first woman Melania Trump as she walks the halls of Mar-a-Lago, her Palm Beach house, in early January 2025, following her as she climbs right into a darkish SUV for the brief drive to the airport and a flight aboard her husband’s private airplane to New York and their Trump Tower penthouse house.

The film, which stretches practically two hours, is a behind-the-scenes glimpse of the primary woman’s life through the 20 days earlier than she resumed the function final yr. The first woman, who is understood to fiercely shield her privateness, had movie crews observe her in Palm Beach, Florida; New York City and Washington, throughout that window to point out her transition from a non-public citizen to public determine to an viewers that largely regards her as type of a thriller.

“With this film, I want to show the American people my journey,” she says within the documentary, which opened Friday in theaters within the U.S. and world wide.

Here are some takeaways:

The first woman focuses on getting particulars excellent

Viewers observe Melania Trump by way of a wide range of conferences — and fittings — the place the previous style mannequin seems keenly centered on the exact match of her inaugural coat and hat and the robe she plans to put on to the balls. In one of many scenes the place she’s sporting the coat, she asks for it to be tightened round her hips. In one other, after she comes downstairs within the strapless robe, her request is for the black trim on the high to be fastened straight throughout and to not flop.

She opinions the minute preparations for a pre-inaugural candlelight dinner in Washington for President Donald Trump’s donors, such because the invites and the caviar served inside a golden egg. And she works on furnishing the household’s non-public dwelling quarters on the second flooring of the White House. She asks her inside designer for an even bigger mattress for his or her son, Barron, “because he’s much taller now” than in Trump’s first time period.

She meets with highly effective girls

Melania Trump, who was concerned in each side of the movie’s growth, consists of scenes from conferences with some highly effective girls earlier than Inauguration Day: a video name with Brigitte Macron, the French president’s spouse, to debate working collectively on youngsters’s initiatives, and a sit-down with Queen Rania of Jordan.

She additionally meets with Aviva Siegel, who had been held hostage by Hamas militants after the Oct. 7, 2023, assault on Israel, and whose husband of 44 years was nonetheless in captivity on the time of the assembly. The movie’s credit say Melania Trump performed a key function in profitable the discharge of Siegel’s husband.

Melania was involved about security on Inauguration Day

She and President Trump attend a gathering with Secret Service officers to evaluate plans for the day. Told that there can be a number of factors alongside the parade route the place they might get out of the limousine to stroll alongside Pennsylvania Avenue, she asks, “Is it safe?”

She would not seem reassured by the reply, and says she is aware of Barron won’t get out of the automotive. Trump had been the goal of two assassination makes an attempt throughout his marketing campaign, together with one at a rally in Pennsylvania wherein his ear was grazed by a bullet and a supporter standing behind him was fatally shot.

Trump finally moved the standard out of doors inauguration ceremony indoors as a consequence of issues about bitterly chilly climate, and the parade was moved indoors to the Capital One Arena.

Melania Trump, who narrates the documentary, calls it a “practical decision” to maneuver the parade. “But in truth, I was relieved,” she says.

Melania says she desires to modernize the function of first woman

She says within the movie that she desires to maneuver past the standard “social duties” of first girls. In some methods, she’s already completed so, particularly with the documentary.

Presidents and first girls usually wait till they go away the White House to pursue such initiatives to keep away from questions on doable conflicts of curiosity or ethics.

The movie, introduced earlier than the Trumps returned to the White House, is the product of a reported $40 million take care of AmazonMGM Studios. Amazon does enterprise with the federal authorities, and co-founder Jeff Bezos has sought to enhance relations with the president.

Melania Trump additionally has not been tied to dwelling within the White House. In Trump’s first time period, she took the weird step of dwelling in New York for a number of months in order that Barron, then in elementary faculty, might end the college yr. In the second time period, she spent a lot of the primary yr in New York and Florida engaged on the movie.