Photo: Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
Melania Trump briefly met with freed Israeli hostages Keith Siegel and Aviva Siegel on Wednesday afternoon. During the Q&A, a reporter had the gall to ask her, “Why do you feel it is appropriate to use an official White House event to promote your documentary?”
Wow! Where would that reporter have gotten the idea that the event was meant to plug Melania?
Well, the First Lady’s meeting last year with Aviva, in which she talked about her kidnapping by Hamas and pleaded for help securing Keith’s release, was the only truly emotionally resonant scene in the entire film.
And if you watch all ten minutes of Wednesday’s White House event, Melania does kick things off by saying her meeting with Aviva was “captured on-camera and available to see in my new film, Melania.”
Keith Siegel also comments, “I also want to end by congratulating you on the release of your movie. I’m so much looking forward to seeing it and so grateful for you deciding to have Aviva be part of your movie.”
Then Aviva Siegel adds, “Thank you for putting me in your special Melania film,” and wishes the First Lady “good luck with the film.”
Melania claimed the event was meant to celebrate Keith’s release last year. The Siegels just happened to be in Washington, D.C., days after her movie premiered, and they “called me they said they would like to come over to thank me and to give hugs,” Melania said.
Still, upon closer examination, it does seem reasonable to conclude that you’re watching movie promotion when you see a film mentioned five times during a ten-minute event.
So does the First Lady think we can’t spot blatent promotion when we see it? Or is this more like when she shared delusions of artistry at the Melania premiere, insisting that it’s “not a documentary” but a “creative experience that offers perspectives, insights, and moments that only few have seen”?
