Donald Trump has been hyping his wife Melania’s documentary at the White House, on social media, and on the world stage, but the president’s latest comment suggested he might be a little jealous of the first lady.
The 79-year-old brought up the movie, which critics have called an Amazon bribe, once again while holding the first meeting of his so-called “Board of Peace” in Washington, D.C., surrounded by a group of world leaders on Thursday.
“She has a very successful movie out right now, like number one. Can you believe this?” Trump said. “Big movie star, and I always say it’s trouble, because I always say there’s not room in one family for two stars.”
“I told her that we can’t have two stars in one family, so I don’t know what that means, but it’s not, it’s not good,” Trump added.
He went on to insist they were actually proud of her and that people in the U.S. love the first lady, despite a recent poll finding her to be the second least popular first lady.
The president on Thursday then repeated his claim that the movie, Melania, is the bestselling documentary in 20 years as top officials from countries around the world looked on.
“The theaters are all packed. Women, especially, they go back, and they see it two or three times, four times,” Trump declared before making a sharp pivot to the war in Gaza.
Trump has repeatedly called the first lady a movie star since her documentary on the 20 days leading up to the inauguration came out.
Despite having a strong opening weekend for a documentary with a $35 million marketing budget and nationwide release, the movie has plummeted at the box office. In its third weekend, it saw a more than 62 percent drop in attendance in theaters, according to data from IMDbPro.
It’s on track to gross $15.4 million in total, a fraction of the $40 million Amazon spent to acquire, on top of the marketing blitz for its release and ongoing promotion by the Trumps from the White House.
Before he even brought up the film at the “Board of Peace” meeting on Thursday, Trump referred to her as “my movie star.”
The moment happened when Trump was still complaining about the escalator at the United Nations, which stopped just as he and the first lady stepped on it in New York last September.
“First they had an escalator that stopped, you know that,” Trump rambled. “It’s going up, bum. It’s lucky my movie star first lady was in front of me because I put my hand on a certain part of her body, and I was able to stop my fall.”
Video of the episode showed the president’s hands on the escalator handrails, not on any “part of” the first lady’s body. It’s not clear why the president is remembering it differently nearly five months later.
Trump, 79, noted that the first lady had no trouble with a halted escalator but argued it was a very sharp stop.
“I said, ‘That was strange.’ I’ve been on a lot of escalators, that’s never happened before. Usually, it stops very slowly. This was just boom, but our first lady was right in the proper location for me. I’m waving to people, and she was holding on a little tighter,” Trump recalled.
