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melania trump
$40 Million Amazon Documentary Deal for Melania Trump Slammed as Corporate 'Pandering'
That's a "staggering amount of money for any figure, let alone one who commands relatively little public interest," wrote one journalist.
Jan 08, 2025
In a move panned as kowtowing to the incoming Trump administration, Amazon confirmed Sunday that it will release a documentary about the life of incoming First Lady Melania Trump, which will premier in 2025 on its platform Prime Video and in theaters.
Puck news reported that Prime Video is paying $40 million to license the film, and the deal includes the documentary as well as a multiple episode follow-up docuseries. That's a "staggering amount of money for any figure, let alone one who commands relatively little public interest," wrote Hafiz Rashid at The New Republic.
The deal was denounced by the watchdog group Public Citizen, which called the move another example of "corporations pandering to Trump."
"I see we're back to openly bribing the Trump family," quipped Matt Stoller, the research director at the American Economic Liberties Project.
Writer Heidi Moore said, "imagine how much financial benefit Amazon hopes to get from the Trump administration if they think $40 million is an easy investment in Melania's doc."
Brett Ratner, the director of the film, has directed multiple blockbuster movies including the Rush Hour film series and X-Man: The Last Stand, but hasn't made a major Hollywood production since multiple women accused him of sexual harassment and misconduct in 2017 (Ranter has denied all the allegations).
The news of the deal follows multiple reports that Amazon executive chairman Jeff Bezos is making overtures to President-elect Donald Trump, likely hoping to change the script after Trump came down hard on Bezos for his ownership of The Washington Post during his first presidency and Amazon argued it was unfairly passed over for a Pentagon contract in 2019.
Bezos dined with Trump in mid-December and committed to donating $1 million to Trump's inauguration fund through Amazon.
The tech titan also intervened to halt a planned endorsement of then-candidate Vice President Kamala Harris in The Washington Post right before the presidential election. Bezos justified his decision, writing in an op-ed: "Presidential endorsements do nothing to tip the scales of an election...What presidential endorsements actually do is create a perception of bias. A perception of non-independence. Ending them is a principled decision, and it's the right one."
A cartoonist at The Washington Postquit last week after the paper's opinion section rejected a cartoon she submitted that depicted billionaires, including Bezos, genuflecting before Donald Trump.
In a Substack post, the cartoonist—Ann Telnaes—wrote that it was the first time a cartoon of hers was rejected because of "the point of view inherent in the cartoon's commentary."
"That's a game changer...and dangerous for a free press," she wrote.
Bezos' business ventures have enormous exposure to the federal government. Amazon, which faces an antitrust lawsuit by Federal Trade Commission, holds contracts with the federal government through its cloud-computing service Amazon Web Services. Bezos' company Blue Origin has a multibillion-dollar NASA contract for a moon mission that is supposed to launch in 2029. The firm is also able to compete for a next round of national security launch contracts, the Post reported in October 2024.
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Whatever Removes Donald Trump--a Miserable Bastard--From Public Life Is Good
Donald Trump has been laying waste to our Constitution, our democracy, and our very society.
Oct 02, 2020
"First and foremost, I pray for a speedy recovery for President Trump and the First Lady."
Okay. I got that out of the way.
The honest truth is that Donald Trump is a miserable bastard, and indeed a sociopath, who routinely demeans and debases others in his personal life and in his public performances.
That lead is a quote of what virtually every pundit and politician has said this morning upon learning of the COVID diagnosis of Donald and Melania Trump. Indeed, it is reasonable to think that many of those people also spoke with those quotation marks implied. They were saying what others have said, or what they think The Ideal Human Being would say, or at least what any decent human being would be expected to say under normal circumstances.
These are not normal circumstances.
One small sign: some skeptics have raised questions about whether the entire announcement is a ploy by Trump to gain sympathy and curry favor with voters. The very fact that smart people can wonder about this is a sign of how dangerously low things have fallen in this country. Anything is possible with Trump. In other words, we are all still in real danger.
It is often said that "hypocrisy is the tribute that vice pays to virtue." One can slightly extend the notion, and fairly observe that civility is the tribute that vice often pays to virtue. It is often good to be nice even to those we despise. It is good to perform a basic decency in our interactions with others, whoever they may be, as a way of enacting integrity for oneself, and of promoting some minimal level of decency in the world.
It is also true that honesty is the tribute that virtue pays to vice.
And the honest truth is that Donald Trump is a miserable bastard, and indeed a sociopath, who routinely demeans and debases others in his personal life and in his public performances.
This was on full display in Tuesday's so-called "Presidential debate," when he abused Joe Biden, went out of his way to viciously attack Biden's son, and could not even show a minimal amount of respect for Biden's other dead son, a man who did something that no person in Trump's family has ever done--volunteered for military duty and devoted his life to public service.
Trump's COVID diagnosis is The News today, the major headline in every medium, including the New York Times.
But today's Times also features these stories on its web "front page":
"Trump Virtually Cuts Off Refugees as He Unleashes a Tirade On Immigrants."
"In Profane Rant, Melania Trump Takes Aim At Migrant Children and Critics."
"Wisconsin Is Frazzled By Surging Virus Cases and Growing Campaign Frenzy."
"After Wild Fires Stop Burning, a Danger in the Drinking Water."
"Why 'Stand Back and Stand By' Should Set Off Alarm Bells."
The point is simple: as every honest person has been saying for at least months now, Donald Trump has been laying waste to our Constitution, our democracy, and our very society. He has promoted the most cruel and vicious tendencies among us. He has deliberately lied about the pandemic and has defiantly held huge public rallies, both indoors and out, in which many thousands of people have been crammed together without masks. He has deliberately conducted business in the Oval Office in defiance of all social distancing and mask guidelines.
Donald Trump is personally responsible for the many tens of thousands of deaths that could have been prevented through an honest and serious response to the pandemic. Over 200,000 Americans have died of COVID in the past nine months. It will be at least 300,000 by the end of the year. And Trump has not cared.
Donald Trump is personally responsible for the cruel family separations and mass immigrant detentions at our border.
Donald Trump is personally responsible for deploying federal forces to assault a peaceful protest in Lafayette Square, and for deploying federal forces to kidnap people off the streets of Portland, and for encouraging police brutality, and for threatening martial law.
Donald Trump is personally responsible for inciting the violence of his right-wing, white supremacist supporters.
Donald Trump is personally responsible for repeatedly and deliberately announcing that the only legitimate election result is one where he is the winner, and that if there is another result, he will refuse to honor it.
Donald Trump's very existence has been a disaster for the vast majority of U.S. citizens and residents not named Trump.
Donald Trump is personally responsible for more cruelty and injustice than any president, and any single American citizen, in recent memory.
Is it "cosmic justice" that he is now infected by the very disease that he has allowed to spread among us? The Plague gets the plague? Let the philosophers argue about this. One of my colleagues posted on Facebook last night that "Karma is a Bitch!" That seems about right to me.
Donald Trump is no different to me than any other stranger who is also a tyrant responsible for mass suffering. I really do not give a shit about him or his rather vile family members. If I am being honest, I will admit that, having been subjected to his Public Domestic Abuse for four years, I was not the slightest bit sorry to learn about his illness. Why should I be sorry? It's not like my feelings about the matter caused his illness. Indeed, his own irresponsibility caused it. And surely caused many others around him to also become ill. He is a despicable man, and he deserves nothing more than he has given to others. It is normal and legitimate for those whose lives have been disrupted and threatened by a bully or a tyrant to feel some exultation when the tyrant suffers.
Pundits are now worrying about the "national security" implications of Trump's illness. It is true, such instability in the Presidency is always a cause for concern. But can those of us who are responsible for public commentary at least be honest: Trump at full capacity is a malevolent, ignorant, and irresponsible man who has never taken his job or its public responsibilities seriously. Do you really think we are in greater danger now with Trump in bed than we were when Trump was sitting in front of his TV threatening war via Twitter? Yes, the President of the U.S. is responsible for the nuclear codes. And quite honestly, I would feel safer with those codes entrusted to my neighbor's fifteen year old daughter than to Donald Trump.
Donald Trump's very existence has been a disaster for the vast majority of U.S. citizens and residents not named Trump.
Nothing that takes Donald Trump even the slightest bit away from public life is bad.
And, honestly, all further consideration of his illness bores me.
The only thing that matters politically is the decisive defeat of Trump next month, and his expeditious removal from office by January 20, 2021.
Nothing else matters.
Fuck Donald Trump, and Melania too.
Constitutional democracy is on the ballot next month. Defending it is the most urgent imperative of our time.
We must defeat Donald Trump and elect Joe Biden.
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Just After Declaring 'End of the Pandemic Is in Sight,' Trump Tests Positive for Coronavirus
A spokesperson for the French government said Trump's diagnosis "demonstrates that the virus spares no one, including those who have shown skepticism."
Oct 02, 2020
President Donald Trump announced on Twitter early Friday morning that both he and First Lady Melania Trump have tested positive for the coronavirus, a contagion the president has downplayed since it began spreading in the United States and continued to minimize even after the nation's death toll surpassed 200,000.
"Tonight, FLOTUS and I tested positive for Covid-19," Trump, 74, tweeted just before 1 am ET Friday. "We will begin our quarantine and recovery process immediately. We will get through this TOGETHER!"
Trump's announcement came hours after one of the president's top aides, Hope Hicks, tested positive for the coronavirus Thursday morning. Hicks, who reportedly began showing symptoms on Wednesday, traveled with Trump throughout the week, including to Tuesday night's presidential debate with Democratic nominee Joe Biden.
The Washington Postreported that "since late Tuesday, Trump has appeared with thousands at a rally in Minnesota, debated Biden onstage and has interacted with a coterie of aides and political advisers at the White House. There was no immediate answer from Biden's camp as to whether he had been tested."
"After White House officials learned of Hicks' symptoms, Trump and his entourage flew Thursday to New Jersey, where he attended a fundraiser at his golf club in Bedminster and delivered a speech. Trump was in close contact with dozens of other people, including campaign supporters, at a roundtable event," the Post noted. "The president did not wear a mask Thursday, including at the events at his golf course and on the plane, officials said. He was tested after he returned to the White House, but he also appeared on Sean Hannity's TV show from the residence by telephone."
During a speech at the 75th annual Al Smith Dinner at the White House Thursday evening ahead of his positive test, Trump declared that "the end of the pandemic is in sight" even as the coronavirus continues to spread and deaths rise in states across the country.
\u201cIn a speech just hours ago, Trump vowed the \u201cend of the pandemic is in sight.\u201d \n\nNow he\u2019s tested positive for coronavirus.\u201d— Dan Diamond (@Dan Diamond) 1601614862
Sean Conley, the White House physician, said in a statement that "the president and first lady are both well at this time, and they plan to remain at home within the White House during their convalescence." Conley did not say whether Trump was showing symptoms.
World leaders were quick to respond to news of Trump and the first lady's positive tests, which come just a month before the November 3 U.S. presidential election.
"Wishing President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump speedy recovery from Covid-19," Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan tweeted early Friday.
Gabriel Attal, a spokesperson for the French government, said Trump's diagnosis "demonstrates that the virus spares no one, including those who have shown skepticism."
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