From empty theaters to packed houses, response to Melania Trump documentary reflects America's political division

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Politics • 5 min read

From empty theaters to packed houses, response to Melania Trump documentary reflects America’s political division

Updated 13 hr ago
Updated Jan 31, 2026, 9:13 AM ET
PUBLISHED Jan 31, 2026, 7:00 AM ET
By Eric Bradner


Posters for a screening of "Melania" are ready to be put up in a movie theater in Ljubljana, Slovenia, on Friday. (Darko Bandic/AP)

Carmel, Indiana — Marla Ailor attended President Donald Trump’s inauguration last year with her family, and remembered thinking it was a long day.

So she breathed a sigh of relief on Friday as she watched Melania Trump’s documentary and saw that — after a day that included three balls and returning to the White House at 2 a.m. — the first lady kicked off her heels.

“It’s a gauntlet,” she said. “You really appreciate what they have to go through in order to get through an event like that, and what their day must really be like.”

Ailor, the elected clerk-treasurer of nearby Westfield, was one of about 100 people — mostly older women — who packed all but two of the 10 rows of seats at a Regal movie theater northeast of Indianapolis on Friday for one of the first showings of Amazon MGM Studios’ “Melania,” which documents a 20-day stretch leading up to Trump’s return to office. In Carmel, a group of about 20 women who are active in local politics bought tickets for the 12:45 p.m. showing.

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[Coldwater]

1. It does make for a great hideout