Trump defender’s 'standing room only' claim about Melania doc puzzles critics

A former Trump White House official claimed in a Monday Fox News appearance that a family member's screening of First Lady Melania Trump's documentary was packed enough to be "standing room only," a claim that was swiftly questioned and mocked by critics.

The film, simply titled, Melania, arrived in theaters under a shadow of controversy, with many observers accusing Amazon of buying the project for $40 million, an outlandishly high amount for any documentary, in an effort to bribe and curry favor with Donald Trump. Others lambasted the glossy and celebratory film as an attempt to distract from the ugliness of Trump's political agenda.

The film ultimately opened ahead of expectations with $7 million in its opening weekend, the highest opening for a documentary in a decade, after opening in 1,400 theaters and costing $40 million to produce and an extra $35 million to market. And when discussing the movie, Kayleigh McEnany, a former Trump White House press secretary turned Fox News contributor, made a big claim about how packed her mother's screening of the documentary had been.

"My mom went to see Melania. She said the theater was packed, it was standing room only," McEnany said. "People were cheering through it, they were excited. It was interactive — people interplaying with the film. She said it was just electric."

The claim came under heavy scrutiny, with various users pointing out that movie theaters never sell "standing room" access to screenings, for a variety of reasons. For one, having people standing in the theater is a violation of fire codes in most buildings, as it would impede the ability of attendees to evacuate. For another, "standing room only" policies generally exist for events that will only happen once at a venue, whereas movie theaters show most titles multiple times and encourage people to buy tickets for other showings when one sells out.

For all these reasons and more, various critics accused McEnany's story of being fake.

"What movie theaters allow standing room..." Semafor media editor Max Tani asked in a post to X.

"Uh-huh," journalist John Harwood wrote in his own post to X, a simple phrase he often deploys to cast doubt on claims from Trump officials and allies.

"I am now prepared to bet money on my earlier prediction that Trump is going to sue the Academy Awards when Melania isn’t nominated for Best Documentary," Meidas Touch editor-in-chief Ron Filipkowski posted.

"I actually wish this happened and that video existed. (Though obviously it didn’t happen.)," Franklin Leonard, a film producer and founder of The Black List, posted.

"'People interplaying with the film' is actually hilarious," Justin Kanew, a journalist and founder of The Tennessee Holler, posted. "The sick part of all this is they aren’t even good liars."

"This is the biggest bag of b—— I’ve ever heard," Brian Ortega, a podcaster and entertainment industry commentator, posted. “'Standing room only.' Seriously? I witnessed Barbenheimer on opening day. Probably the biggest movie day in the past 5 years and the theaters were packed. Nobody was standing. This is such idiotic b——. $7 million against $40 million that’s a failure in this industry folks."