Wait until they buy her book and sell it for free on Amazon

To my huge surprise, I saw an ad for it in person.

In a Berlin shopping mall.

I've heard that one of the advantages of this administration is that you don't need data or convincing arguments -- just bribery and flattery. If you're OK with bribery and flattery then you'll find this administration much easier to work with. Getting your way is a simpler path.

> But bribery is legal now.

Only because no one can prosecute it without retaliation from petulant man-children.

> bribery is legal now

It’s not. And it will probably be investigated by a future administration when we do a Nuremberg-style review of this term.

There's enough to allow their followers to pretend it's all on the level, and for people who aren't paying much attention to ignore it. A direct bribe would make that quite a bit harder.

Even if it was, there are other ways to go. The emoluments clause would be my guess. This term is the auction off America plan. Go read the NPR article on the gutting of nuclear safety rules. https://www.npr.org/2026/01/28/g-s1-107650/up-first-newslett... Who needs easy access to nuclear reactors? Tech billionaires possibly... Would you want to live next to a Grok data center? Iterate quickly and fail fast is not really compatible with nuclear reactor design. At least rocket debris a relatively short window of danger.

Big difference is being out of office. I expect Trump to get a ton of money after leaving office, because people like proximity to fame, but I don't like the stench when he's in office and has direct political influence.

That said, Trump also investigated Obama for the Netflix deal. Will he investigate Melania now?

Michelle's Becoming sold 14 million copies. I don't see any recent figures for Barack's A Promised Land, but the initial 3.3 million print run sold within a month, and there is another volume in progress.

Do you really not see the difference here? It's amazing how hard people will try to bOtH sIdEs this administration.

1) Obama was not in office when this advance was given. What favors could Penguin Random House have been trying to bribe him for?

2) The Obamas were paid a $65M advance on their books, which while a huge sum it was actually seen as a reasonable investment at the time given the expected popularity of those books[1]. Both books were insane hits and sold like crazy. "A Promised Land" sold ~900k copies _on the first day_[2]. They almost certainly earned out on advance and are probably continuing to rake in more from sales.

3) This Melania movie is widely expected to have very poor sales. While making unpopular movies isn't in itself a crime, the amount paid in royalties to her does not look to any reasonable person like a sound investment. At least, not if you expect your return to be in ticket sales or streaming fees.

[1] https://www.vox.com/culture/2017/3/2/14779892/barack-michell... [2] https://thehill.com/blogs/in-the-know/in-the-know/526599-bar...

???

There is a universe where Amazon can be both incompetent and corrupt, and we're living in it.

Speaking of the Supreme Court, Justice Robert’s wife earned $10 million as a “consultant.” The compensation made her one of the highest-paid legal recruiters. That's another "Melania movie".

https://www.abajournal.com/news/article/wife-of-chief-justic...

Nah. You really think they are powerless?

Most of HN seems to be more than OK with it judging by the flagging and your downvotes.

You've conveniently ignored not just one but two prior posts referencing it.

https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/01/27/ceo-captured https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/01/27/mg-cook-melania

The difference here is Melania Trump currently represents the Office of the First Lady of the United States, an official government position in the White House.

When Obama, Harry & Megan made their documentaries, they were private citizens.