Posters for Melania on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.
Photo: Michael Nagle/Bloomberg via Getty Images
The Melania Trump movie is set to play in 3,300 theaters worldwide starting on Friday. But none of those screens are in South Africa, as the documentary was pulled from the entire nation yesterday.
Filmfinity, Melania’s South African distributor, said on Wednesday it would no longer release it. The only reason given was “recent developments,” as the New York Times reported:
“Based on recent developments, we’ve taken the decision to not go ahead with a theatrical release in territory,” said Thobashan Govindarajulu, the head of sales and marketing for the distributor, Filmfinity.
Mr. Govindarajulu declined to say what recent developments had led to the decision, but said that the company was not pressured or asked to pull the film. “That was our decision,” he said. The decision was first reported by the South African outlet News24.
That’s quite vague! But early Thursday morning, Katie Miller, MAGA podcaster and wife of White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, shared a novel explanation for this mysterious move: The First Lady is the victim of anti-white racism:
Donald Trump has repeatedly accused South Africa of anti-white racism, even going as far as (falsely) claiming white South African farmers are the victims of “genocide.” Miller did not provide any evidence to back up this theory about the film, and it doesn’t really make sense. The fact that Melania is white has been pretty well known for quite some time; it’s hard to believe Filmfinity just realized this a few days ago and decided to cancel the release.
So what else might be going on here? Sources told Deadline Melania was pulled for “political reasons.” And there are plenty to choose from, as the Times noted, including President Trump’s hitting South Africa with tariffs and his baseless allegations of a white genocide:
The decision to pull the film in South Africa comes at a time of deep hostility between the South African government and Mr. Trump. The president has been extremely critical of South Africa since the start of his second term, spreading false allegations that the country’s white minority is facing a genocide.
Many South Africans have grown angry with what they see as Mr. Trump’s promotion of misinformation about their country, and with the punishing tariffs he has introduced.
Low ticket sales could also be a factor.
Whatever is really going on, this is rough news for the handful of South Africans who are so desperate to see a documentary about the U.S. First Lady, helmed by the disgraced director of the Rush Hour movies, that they can’t wait until it hits Amazon Prime.
