Bimbo? Nitwit? Underestimate Melania Trump at your peril

And yet, jeer as people will — and some who should know better make a specialty of mocking Melania – the documentary demonstrates that she’s not a bimbo, nor a nitwit. She is, rather, very much in control of her brand, or as Marc Beckman, her agent, puts it, “Melania’s vision is very symmetrical… It’s all about supporting this luxury brand that she’s building.” Yep. He said “brand”.

It was the First Lady’s own, rather ballsy, decision to go for a full release in cinemas, which is why she chose Amazon MGM for the release. Jeff Bezos (sucking up to the President, say critics) paid $40 million after a bidding war with Netflix, Paramount and Disney and quite a lot of that will be going Mrs Trump’s way. Another $35 million will go on promotion: you can see the trailer non-stop on an enormous screen in Piccadilly Circus. No one knows details about the deal arrived at with cinemas, but the upshot is, London has the chance to spend Friday evening with Melania… at the pictures.

Some of the attendees, obviously, will be looking for more reasons to dislike her and they’ll inevitably find what they seek. Going through the coverage of Melania Trump over the years reveals almost limitless disdain on the part of those who can’t stand her husband. And yet, apart from marrying Donald T, whom she met when she was 28 and he 52 (the age gap between them is the same as that between Brigitte and Emmanuel Macron, 24 years), it is hard to know what she’s actually done to deserve their disdain.

She is, unquestionably, beautiful – if AI were told to go away and embody most people’s concept of beauty, it would probably come up with something like her – and that plays badly with the plain and the resentful. But the sneery way commentators talk about her online seems to have has the whiff of sexism and, on the part of some, xenophobia. Maybe it’s something to do with her pronounced Slovene accent but that criticism is a bit rich, coming from mostly monoglot Americans. She doesn’t exude American warmth, but she’s not from a gushing culture.

She is precisely the same generation as my husband, who is also from the former Yugoslavia, and much of her background seems familiar; modest circumstances but a decent standard of living and a good education. Indeed, a Slovene friend who knows some of her schoolmates says they remember her as an intelligent, nice girl. She became a model at 16; with her sculpted cheekbones and slanting eyes, she was obvious model material. She has other languages – she worked in Milan and Paris – and speaks Serbian as well as Slovenian. Who are the critics putting down?

The documentary gives a very different Melania from the one we saw in the first Trump presidency. It features the 20 days running up to Donald Trump’s second inauguration and starts with Melania about to step out for the inauguration ceremony. With something like a wink, she turns to the viewer and says, “here we go again!” We see her in the White House sitting demurely to the side of the room as Donald practices his speech from the podium and declares his proudest legacy will be as “peacemaker.” Melania pipes up: “And unifier”. Well, maybe not; but it’s a fascinating insight into how she wants to be seen: an influence on the President. What’s remarkable is how quick off the block she was with this project. Just days after the presidential election, she signed up as executive producer and star of her own documentary.

In the trailer, which she edited herself, Melania isn’t shy of using her assets – one shot is of a shapely leg sheathed in a stiletto cropped boot emerging from a car – a humorous touch, I think -and there’s at least one close-up of her vertiginous stilettos as she mounts what looks like Air Force One. Remarkably, we see her laughing and smiling, sometimes with her son Barron. This is how she wants us to see her. What’s more, she didn’t balk at employing Brett Ratner as director, even though he’s been in the Hollywood doghouse since sexual misconduct allegations in 2017 (he denied the allegations at the time and was not charged with any offences).

So, is there substance to the Slovene sphinx? Recently the Donald admitted that she “hates” him dancing because it’s not ‘presidential.’ Too right. But she has in the past weighed in on matters of substance. One was when detainees at the US border were separated from their children. Another was helping to reunite Ukrainian children, taken illegally into Russia, with their families, and there she exerted influence discreetly. She was involved in the passing of legislation to ban non-consensual explicit images.

Last year she told Fox and Friends that, “I have my own thoughts. I have my own yes and no. I don’t always agree with what my husband is saying or doing, and that’s okay.” If the film conveys that, job done.