Promotional materials for First Lady Melania Trump’s calamitous documentary are being defaced throughout Los Angeles, with officials calling the damage “severe.”
Melania, the Amazon-MGM production that chronicles the first lady in the days before Donald Trump returned to the White House in 2025, has been subject to widespread review bombing and criticism. In L.A., billboards and bus posters promoting the $75 million documentary have been relentlessly marked up, with the graffiti ranging from Hitler-style moustaches to devil horns and insults.
One massive billboard in Culver City was defaced to depict the first lady defecating on the American flag.
The city’s Metro officials told The Los Angeles Times the vandalism spree took place after federal immigration agents killed 37-year-old Alex Pretti in Minneapolis last week, the second U.S. citizen to be shot dead in less than three weeks.
Officials called the damage to bus stops “extensive and severe.”
“Given that Metro buses have had significant vandalism and damage during previous periods of heightened public activity, we made the decision in the interest of protecting our riders, employees and assets, and out of an abundance of caution, to shift some of these buses to areas where we were not observing that vandalism,” Metro spokesperson Patrick Chandler said in a statement to the LA. Times on Thursday.
Many posters were marked with references to the president’s ties to the late sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.
“My husband f–--s kids,” read a message sprawled on one poster. Another was marked to say that Melania “is in the Epstein Files.”
The activist collective Indecline claimed responsibility for altering the billboard in Culver City, where the headquarters of Amazon MGM Studios is based. The group, comprised of artists and self-declared “rebels,” famously created and displayed provocative statues of Trump in 2016.
In a facetious Instagram post, the anonymous group said their artwork on Melania’s promotional poster was “to help create a little marketing buzz ahead of her big premiere tomorrow.”
“We hope that this small gesture, from our movement, to hers, is as effective and inspirational as her husband’s homicidal immigration policies,” the collective wrote.
A spokesperson for the group told Rolling Stone they titled the vandalism: “Melania Gives a S--- About America?”
Amazon reportedly spent $35 million on marketing the documentary, in addition to the staggering $40 million spent on acquiring it.
Melania opened in theaters in the U.S. and worldwide on Jan. 30. Box office predictions have been bleak, even as the president has claimed tickets have been “Selling out, FAST!”
