One of the most consistent features of Donald Trump’s severely impaired persona is his compulsion to exalt himself at every opportunity. He does so with no regard whatsoever for any factual basis. His representations of alleged success are wildly overblown and riddled with inflated – and often just made up – numbers. When asked for verification he responds with angry insults and wanders off.

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This past weekend Trump celebrated the premiere of the CROCKumentary about his former mistress, and current wife, Melania. He described it on his dedicated propaganda platform, Truth Social, as a “BLOCKBUSTER! [that is] on track for best opening weekend of any documentary in last 10 years” Which, typically for Trump, is a blatant lie.

SEE THIS: Melania Trump Crocumentary Crew Want Their Names Removed From Credits and Hope the Film Flops

The film has already broken records. However, not the ones that anyone would brag about. It has achieved an abysmal rating of 5% on Rotten Tomatoes. And on IMDB it is scored as the “The Lowest-Rated Movie Of All Time.” But not to worry. Trump watched it twice and loved it. And the same is true for some MAGA cult followers who attended the premiere at the Trump Kennedy Center. They were interviewed by Jordan Klepper of the Daily Show, who got some revealing commentaries…

Attendee: Everyone loves that narrative arc where someone comes froma a small European country and ends up becoming the First Lady of the United States of America.
Klepper: It’s truly an immigrant story.

Exactly! A true immigrant story of a high fashion model who comes to America on a fraudulent visa, poses nude for a lot of money, and marries a nepo-billionaire. It’s the classic American rags to riches tale. Klepper also addresses the recent report that the director, Brett Ratner, was found in the Epstein files, and that his career was upended due to allegations of sexual abuse by numerous women. Which makes him a perfect fit for a film by the Trump family. In a hilarious display of mockery, Klepper entraps some oblivious attendees by simply saying “Me too.”

For the record, the film is as big a financial fiasco as most of Trump’s other business ventures. Never mind the mindless cheering from Trump and his cult disciples. The math doesn’t lie. Jeff Bezos and his Amazon/MGM Studios paid Trump a $40 million bribe for the rights. Then he spent another $35 million on marketing. And its premiere only managed to bring in $7.8 million.

MAGA World, however, is crowing about that take because it beat extraordinarily low expectations. But that is not how success is measured. Here are the facts…

• Melania opened on 1,500 screens. Each screening seats on average about 150 people. And there are five showings per day on each screen. So for the three day weekend that’s about 3.375 million available seats.
• The reported $7.8 million at $13.00 each (average ticket price nationwide) is only 600,000 seats/tickets sold. Or about 27 tickets per showing (1,500 screens, five shows each, for three days).

Selling an average of 27 tickets per screening isn’t anyone’s idea of a blockbuster. In fact, it’s a full-blown bomb. It means that some screenings in Mississippi or Wyoming might have sold out. But others in New York or Illinois would be empty. And there have been numerous reports of empty theaters. A hit film selling out 1,500 theaters would have earned nearly $44 million dollars in the opening weekend. Melania did less than 18% of that. And with a short theatrical run it’s going to earn even less streaming.

Nevertheless, the people who did go, as represented in Klepper’s video, will go away satisfied. Because their standards are so low that just seeing Melania on the big screen will send them into fits of ecstasy. And it won’t matter to them this “documentary” was produced by her as a piece of pure propaganda and a vehicle to funnel money to the Trump family. Consequently, as a bribe it truly is successful.

RELATED STORIES:

• Fox News Trump-Fluffers Preview – and Gush Over – the New Melania Trump Crocumentary
• Does Trump’s Racist Pledge to Deport Naturalized American Citizens Include Melania?
• Two New Crockumentaries About January 6th and Melania Show Trump’s Efforts to Rewrite History

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