First Lady Melania Trump’s Documentary Pulled from Showings in South Africa

The feature length documentary Melania has been pulled from the entire country of South Africa. The film, which looks into the life of the First Lady during the 20 days leading up to the second inauguration of her husband President Trump, opened globally last Friday.

The South African distributor of the film, FilmFinity, announced the cancellation with a very vague statement and refrained from giving a motive for the decision. “Based on recent developments, we’ve taken the decision to not go ahead with a theatrical release in territory,” said the head of sales and marketing for Filmfinity, Thobashan Govindarajulu. He also reassured the press that the company was not pressured or asked to pull the film simply stating, “This was our decision.”

It is very difficult to say what the “recent developments” are, and for the company not to give a formal and precise reason seems like extreme cowardice. The only tensions between the US and South Africa are the reciprocal tariffs Trump enacted in April of last year and claims of white genocide made in May. Neither of these are necessarily recent.

The reciprocal tariffs President Trump put in place mostly affected exports like citrus fruits, wines, and certain automotive parts. All together, exports to the US make up only approximately 8% of all South African exports. It is hard to imagine that such a small percentage of just exports has drastic negative impacts on the whole economy of the country.

In May 2025 leader of South Africa Cyril Ramaphosa visited with President Trump after some white refugees from the country were granted asylum in the US. President Trump made reference to an alleged “genocide” that white farmers are suffering in South Africa. While the term “genocide” may be a bit extreme. It seems safe to claim that these white farmers are being attacked and some of them murdered. Why else would they need to seek asylum in the US? After the end of apartheid in the 1990s, racial tensions were high and many white South Africans who are in the minority have been targeted since. It is absolutely true that white farmers have been murdered, but South Africa does not track crime statistics based on race, so it is almost impossible to determine how prevalent black on white crime may be. President Trump calling attention to the very real possibility of racially motivated crimes in South Africa is not wildly uncalled for.

Despite being pulled from South Africa and a fairly limited release, Melania is set to do very well financially. The film was estimated to pull in $5 million from the 1,500 theaters in the United States alone. Even in deep blue cities like Los Angeles and New York City, the film sold out thanks to presale tickets. “Melania” earned $7 million at the domestic box office during its debut this weekend, the highest opening for a nonmusic documentary in more than a decade, CNBC reported.

It appears losing money from South Africa will not detract majorly from the film’s overall sales, and Amazon seems confident it will recoup its $40 million. The company reportedly said it “licensed the film for one reason and one reason only — because we think customers are going to love it.”

Overall, tariffs and claims of white genocide seem like the most plausible reasons for South Africa to pull the showings of Melania, and even those are not strong reasons. However, since FilmFinity claims there was no pressure from outside forces such as the country’s government to block the film, neither tariffs nor racial tensions seem likely to affect the company itself and, therefore, definitely should have played no role in the decision. What is clear is that disrespecting the First Lady of the United States with vague motives like “recent developments” does nothing to help diplomacy and allyship between the two countries.