The president said there’s only room for one star in the family.

Donald Trump worries Melania is a ‘big movie star’ following doc: ‘It’s not good’

The president said there's only room for one star in the family.

By Raechal Shewfelt

Raechal Shewfelt

Raechal Shewfelt is a writer at **. She has been working at EW since 2024. Her work has previously appeared on Yahoo and in American *Journalism Review* and *The Shreveport Times*.

EW's editorial guidelines

February 19, 2026 7:45 p.m. ET

President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump in January. Credit:

Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty

President Donald Trump is bragging about wife Melania Trump's star power after the release of her documentary.

"She has a very successful movie out right now, like number one," the president falsely claimed of its box office status during a Thursday meeting of his new Board of Peace in Washington, D.C., per multiple outlets. "Can you believe this? Big movie star, and I always say it's trouble, because I always say there's not room in one family for two stars."

He emphasized that last line.

"I told her that we can't have two stars in one family, so I don't know what that means, But it’s not good."

*Melania* documents the first lady in the final 20 days before the second Trump inauguration.

Melania Trump in 'Melania' movie.

Amazon MGM Studios

***Get your daily dose of entertainment news, celebrity updates, and what to watch with our EW Dispatch newsletter.*****

Directed by Brett Ratner, in his first film since being accused of sexual misconduct by multiple women in 2017, the movie was "filmed in real time during the transition period," Amazon MGM Studios touts, and "captures the immediacy and pressure of preparing for one of the most scrutinized roles in American public life."

The studio spent $75 million on the project, between acquiring and marketing it. It was released in theaters on Jan. 30.

'Melania' doc pulled from theaters in South Africa amid tension between the country, Donald Trump

Ex-Disney head Michael Eisner slams networks for paying Trump money in settlements over Jimmy Kimmel

While the pricey doc opened bigger than expected, finishing second at the box office in its first weekend, its numbers fell 67 percent in its second weekend. Over this past President's Day weekend, it sat at number 15 at the U.S. box office, a far cry from the top spot as the president claimed. That honor went to Emerald Fennell's *Wuthering Heights*.

Like anything involving Trump, the film was received quite differently depending on who was watching. It currently has a disastrous 11 percent from critics, but a resounding 98 percent from moviegoers on review aggregation site Rotten Tomatoes.

Donald Trump and wife Melania pictured at the White House in April 2025.

Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty

*Melania* notably drove Trump's opponents to the documentary of former first lady Michelle Obama, 2020's *Becoming*, on Netflix.

Trump himself is no stranger to movies either. He famously played himself in films such as *Home Alone 2: Lost in New York* (1992), *Zoolander *(2001), and *Two Weeks Notice* (2002), before of course popping up in *Melania*. He's also been on TV, in shows such as *The Nanny* (1996), *Sex and the City *(1999), *Days of Our Lives *(2005), and reality show *The Apprentice*, which he hosted from 2004 to 2015.**

Donald and Melania Trump married on Jan. 22, 2005, in Palm Beach, Fla. Their reception was at his Mar-a-Lago resort.**

- Documentary Movies

Original Article on Source

Source: “EW Documentary”