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You are here: Home / Media Buzz / The Premiere of a ‘Docu-Bribe’

The Premiere of a ‘Docu-Bribe’

January 30, 2026 at 11:04 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“President Trump, Melania Trump and the top ranks of the Trump administration descended on the John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts on Thursday night for the premiere of Melania, a documentary the first lady executive produced,” the New York Times reports.

Said the president: “It’s glamorous, very glamorous… We need some glamour.”

“But what some saw as glamour, others saw as a blatant act of corporate corruption. Amazon paid $40 million to the first lady’s production company for the film rights and then ponied up another $35 million to promote it. The film’s marketing budget is 10 times what another big documentary would generally get.”

Charlie Sykes called it a “docu-bribe.”

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Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.

Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.

Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.

Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.

Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.

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