Did Amazon bribe Trump with the $40 million ‘Melania’ documentary? Congress is asking questions
Melania Trump’s self-titled documentary may have been more than a mediocre movie: It’s also the grounds for questioning if Amazon violated federal anti-bribery laws.
In a March 15 letter, a group of U.S. lawmakers including Elizabeth Warren, D-Massachusetts, called on Amazon to explain its deal to acquire Melania, particularly the reasoning behind its sky-high price tag. Amazon spent $40 million to acquire the movie (and the rights to a proposed docuseries), the most expensive deal for a commissioned documentary ever and $26 million more than Disney, the next highest bidder, offered for the first lady’s film.
“The fact that Amazon is seeking favorable treatment from the Trump Administration while paying a far-above-market sum to produce and promote the Trump family’s film raises questions about Amazon’s exposure under federal anti-bribery law,” the letter states, as revealed to USA Today. “When corporate giants […] transfer tens of millions of dollars to the family of a sitting President, that not only raises questions about corporate governance but also risks eroding public trust in the fairness of our economic and political systems.”
The documentary deal joins a growing list of controversial interactions between Amazon and the Trump administration. The company donated $1 million to Donald Trump’s reelection campaign, with founder Jeff Bezos himself attending his inauguration in 2025.
Amazon also backed down on its plan to display how Trump’s tariffs were impacting its prices, after the president reportedly spoke to Bezos directly. “He did the right thing. Good guy,” Trump said of Bezos to reporters at the time.
The letter also cites evidence that Amazon and Bezos have financial stakes in being on good terms with the Trump administration, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s visit to one of Bezos’ Blue Origin space facilities in February of this year.
The letter gives Amazon a deadline of March 30 to respond to a list of questions “to assist Congress in understanding the circumstances surrounding this transaction and in assessing Amazon’s compliance with applicable federal anti-bribery laws.”
“Giant corporations shouldn’t be able to bribe their way out of paying taxes or fines they’ve been issued for breaking the law,” Warren said in a statement about the letter to USA Today. “If Amazon is bribing the Trump administration, the company and its executives should be subject to criminal penalties.”
Among the letter’s demands is a commercial rationale for the $40 million Amazon shelled out for the film, along with the $35 million the company then spent on marketing.
Those numbers seem to make little sense when taking Melania at its artistic merits: The movie was near universally panned, not only for its controversial subject matter (the first lady’s life in the two weeks leading up Trump’s second inauguration) or its choice of director (Brett Ratner, who previously hadn’t made a film since 2017 after allegations of sexual misconduct), but for what critics called poor craft of filmmaking.
On Rotten Tomatoes, it has a critics’ score of only 11%, with reviewers decrying it as “shallow,” “agonizingly dull,” and “two hours of almost pure absence.” At Sunday night’s Academy Awards, Jimmy Kimmel poked fun at the film while presenting the award for Best Documentary, saying, “He is gonna be mad that his wife wasn’t nominated for this,” all without ever mentioning Trump’s name.
Amazon did not reply to Fast Company’s request for comment by the time of publication. But the company has previously fielded accusations of bribery surrounding the deal, with a spokesperson saying at the time, “We licensed the film for one reason and one reason only—because we think customers are going to love it.”