Trump Family Corp.: How Melania Trump is capitalizing on her status as U.S. first lady

Melania Trump - coming soon to all movie theaters nationwide. On January 30, 2026, a documentary about the First Lady will be released on US movie screens. It is being produced by Amazon. In addition to theaters, the film will be available on the streaming platform Amazon Prime. WSJ sources say that Bezos's company paid $40 million for the license to show the film, of which at least $28 million will be on Melania's personal account. Oninvest continues the series of materials about how the family of the American president earns on the surname "Trump". In the new issue - business projects of the First Lady of the United States.

According to WSJ, the idea to make a movie about her life belonged to Melania Trump herself. In an interview with Fox News, the president's wife argued that her autobiography "Melania" was a huge success - the book hit the New York Times bestseller list - and therefore it is time to try a new format and transfer the personal story to the big screens. Fox reporters did not mention the rebuke from colleagues at The Guardian, who called the book "a 180-page exercise in blame-shifting and blame-dodging." The first lady's team wrote a script for the picture, but there were no willing buyers.

According to the WSJ, Netflix and Apple did not even make a commercial offer. Paramount offered $4 million for distribution rights. Disney, which showed the most interest, was ready to give $14 million.

But after a private dinner at Trump's personal residence in Florida with Jeff Bezos, the company he owns, Amazon, made an offer of $40 million - a sum that not only outbid its competitors, but is also a record budget for a company to produce documentaries. The figure, of course, is unofficial - it's cited by WSJ sources and mentioned by the Guardian and New York Post.

The film, which will be released at the end of January, is about the brief period 20 days before the presidential inauguration - the focus is on Melania and "how she navigates the preparations for the ceremony, deals with the complexities of transitioning power in the White House, and returns to public life with her family." In addition to the full-length feature, several episodes will be released on Amazon Prime that will take a closer look at the life of the president's wife. Additional attention (and criticism) to the picture attracted the choice of director: to shoot the documentary will be Brett Ratner - the creator of such films as "Rush Hour", "Red Dragon" and "X-Men: The Last Battle". In 2017, he was accused of harassment and indecent behavior, after which all his projects were canceled and his contract with Warner Bros. was broken.

At the same time, as WSJ found out, the 70% share of Melania's contract was not enough: sources close to the president's family say that the first lady's team was actively seeking sponsorship. Aides to the First Lady allegedly called businessmen who attended Trump's inauguration and offered them $10 million each for the chance to appear in the movie credits and receive an invitation to the movie premiere. Whether anyone accepted the offer is unknown.

American Forbes in its recent article wrote: "Melania earns not only in typical ways for the first lady - books, lectures, documentary film, but also very "Trumpian" projects. The Observer specifies, "She sometimes charges up to $250,000 in fees for appearances at events where the wives of presidents usually perform for free."

But Forbes, speaking about "Trump's projects," had something else in mind - the presidential wife's experiments with digital currencies.

Melania Trump is the first presidential wife in the history of the United States and the world to decide to issue her own cryptocurrency. In January 2025, she introduced the memcoin $MELANIA. However, the project did not go well: the market capitalization of the digital currency at the time of launch was at $2 billion, in September it was estimated at around $200 million; on October 30, according to CoinMarketCap, it was $124.75 million.

And now the $MELANIA memcoin has been caught up in a major scandal: the first lady's digital currency has found itself in a lawsuit that, along with some other memcoins, calls it part of a large fraudulent scheme. Allegedly, a number of digital currency creators used a "pump-and-dump" scheme - heating up interest in tokens, driving up prices, and then selling their assets at a profit, leaving ordinary investors with losses. Among the "coins" mentioned in the court documents is $MELANIA. And although the lawsuit explicitly states that Melania was not personally involved in the criminal scheme, she allegedly unwittingly added credibility to the memcoin with her name by her public support.

Melania's other digital project is much more successful (or at least not so scandalous): in 2021, the politician's wife launched her NFT blockchain project. Officially, not for the purpose of enriching herself, but to help orphans.

The first NFT lot was a painting that was described in a press release - without a shadow of irony - as "a stunning watercolor work by artist Mark-Antoine Coulon, embodying Mrs. Trump's cobalt blue eyes and serving as a kind of amulet for the collector to inspire." The painting also came with a voice recording from the first lady, "with a message full of hope." The lot was valued at about $150.

In the following months, Melania sold NFT collections commemorating the anniversary of the moon landing, timed to coincide with Independence Day and Christmas; she also had a separate line honoring "iconic moments during President Trump's administration." The tokens cost an average of $50 to $100. The size of the collection, such as the one honoring her husband's success, is 10,000 pieces. According to Melania Trump's website, all the works are sold out.

When Donald Trump won the election in 2024, Melania posted photos of herself @duty - attending official events, accompanying her husband - on the blockchain platform. The value of these photos was already twice as high - $200.

Melania's last NFT came with a gold pendant - a set that the First Lady released for Ma Day in the US this August. The cost of that set is already $245.

It was with the jewelry business that Melania's entrepreneurial career once began: 5 years after her marriage to Donald, she founded her own jewelry and watch manufacturing company. The first collection of jewelry released by Trump's wife was sold out in 45 minutes. The models ranged in price from $30 to $200, targeting suburban housewives and young women starting their careers. The company lasted for 7 years and was liquidated in February 2017. No official reason was given for the company's closure.

The president's wife's second business project was a caviar-based skincare line. The collection was called Melania Caviar Complexe C6, it included 5 different products, in the price range from $50 to $150, the goods could be bought only in luxury stores Lord & Taylor. The brand didn't last long and was shut down due to litigation, but, as journalists found out, Melania was not to blame - her firm was caught up in someone else's legal proceedings. The Week wrote: "Melania Trump had been developing and perfecting her product for ten years, came up with the packaging design herself, and was going to "fry" with the sales of her product. Her dedication to the brand was phenomenal, but sometimes lawsuits start for really stupid reasons."

But the first lady is not discouraged: she is now willing to peddle more or less everything under her own brand on a name-brand website. There, everyone can buy for $25 an audio version of her memoirs, voiced by AI but "with the participation of Melanie Trump" and books with her autograph - priced from $150 to $250, depending on the quality of the edition itself. But the most important merchandise is Christmas tree ornaments. Toys from the First Lady cost from $75 to $90, their main motifs are patriotism and U.S. history.

The publication Vanity, commenting on the first lady's venture, writes "Melania Trump doesn't care about Christmas, her jewelry is just another line on MAGA's list of tasteless merchandise."

Perhaps behind Melania's attempts to squeeze the most out of her status as first lady is a simple desire to keep up with other family members. The assets of her stepsons Don Trump Jr. and Eric Trump are estimated by the media to be in the ten digits. And even her own son, 19-year-old Barron, already has $150 million in assets at last count.

But information about Melania's own income has always remained a mystery. The general consensus of journalists is that Melania undoubtedly lives the life of a billionaire's wife, enjoying all the benefits - from private jets to luxury real estate. But, judging by everyone, her personal capital is small. Over the years, the media have reported estimates ranging from $50 to $70 million, most of which she allegedly earned back in the modeling business. If true, the Amazon deal alone could increase her personal account by a third.

Melania also owns a large collection of unique jewelry and watches, from a $1.5 million engagement ring from Graf to a Vacheron Constantin watch set with 800 diamonds.

But perhaps Melania's most valuable asset is her prenup with Donald Trump. Its terms are also a mystery. It is only known that she changed it twice - in 2017, after the start of the first presidential term of the politician, and in 2023, when it became known that he will run again. Page Six, citing its sources, claims that Melania decided to revise the terms of the contract, afraid of numerous lawsuits against her husband.

"I know she wanted it to provide her with more money, and also - as I understand it - there is a certain minimum amount that Barron should receive. She wanted written confirmation that, when it comes to financial opportunities and inheritance, Barron would be seen as more equal than the older three Trump children," Page Six writes.

However, the only way to cash in on this asset is to divorce the politician. This is not in Melania's immediate plans, if sources in the First Lady's entourage are to be believed.

In previous episodes:

- Trump Family Corp: crypto-business and vodka - how Eric Trump is building up the family fortune

- Trump Family Corp.: how Don Trump - the first-born son of the US president - earns his money

- Trump Family Inc: how her father's name first helped and then ruined Ivanka Trump'sbusiness

- Trump Family Corp.: Barron Trump is a boy worth $150 million

To be continued

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor