 Welcome to Washington Secrets, your insider guide to the best and worst of the nation's politics. Today we are still defrosting our toes, running the rule over the Melania documentary, and taking you inside Donald Trump's appearance at the Alfalfa Club dinner… The movie theater wasn't empty. One couple was already in the fourth row as Secrets arrived for one of the first screenings of Melania in Washington at the end of last week. A woman with the sort of knitted hat that Melania Trump would never wear was next to arrive. And then, one of the most predictable of things happened. "Fancy running into you here," said the fellow journalist sheepishly as he eyed the back row where Secrets was settling in with a popcorn bucket adorned with the image of the first lady — someone not previously associated with buttery cinema snacks. It was the classic D.C. bubble experience. A major cultural moment arrives with a documentary about the first lady. It is a chance to take the temperature of the nation, see behind the scenes of this most unconventional White House, and find out what voters think. But it turned out the 2:15 p.m. screening at the Regal theater in Gallery Place was largely a chance for journalists to interview each other and then write b****y pieces about empty seats. Which was a shame because the film was by turns mindless and revealing, predictable and arresting. So for every pointless revelation, such as the fact that the first lady has an entire drawer just for sunglasses at Mar-a-Lago, there is another tantalizing detail about her relationship with Donald Trump. For example, the cameras get access to Trump rehearsing his inaugural speech. The once and future first lady suggests adding the word "unifier" at a crucial point. When the president delivers the line, with her suggestion, during the ceremony, he turns and points to her. She acknowledges his acknowledgment before looking directly at the documentary camera. "You see," is what her eyes say. "This is how it works." Was that the secret message of the movie? That's what Secrets was hoping to discuss with fellow patrons of the 2:15 p.m. showing. What did we learn? Will voters view the first lady differently? Did it divide the nation? We'll never know. Instead, Secrets can report what a bunch of journalists concluded. "Vacuous nonsense," was how the journalist from the Guardian in the back row put it. The woman with the knitted hat also turned out not to be a real person. "I'm a journalist like you," said the columnist from the Washington Post, before complaining that everyone she had tried to interview was a journalist too. The woman from the Atlantic made the same complaint in her piece. By my count, four of the eight patrons were there to write about the movie. An earlier showing was even worse, by all accounts. Maureen Dowd, the New York Times columnist, apparently had to fend off questions as she lined up for popcorn. The result was that the Washington press corps, not for the first time, missed the story. The movie took an estimated $7 million during its opening weekend in the United States and Canada, giving it the best start of any documentary in 14 years. So while reviewers were dismissing the movie as fake because of Melania's position as executive producer, real people saw the polish and sheen as part of the attraction. "They are larger than life," Kevin O'Brien told Secrets as he and his wife left the theatre. "It's like watching something make-believe." And maybe that is a feature, not a flaw, of America's aspirational politics. MELANIA TRUMP'S $8 MILLION OPENING BEST DOCUMENTARY DEBUT IN OVER 10 YEARS You are reading Washington Secrets, a guide to power and politics in D.C. and beyond. It is written by Rob Crilly, whom you can reach at secrets@washingtonexaminer DOT COM with your comments, story tips, and suggestions. If a friend sent you this and you'd like to sign up, click here. Why Trump prefers arenas to dinner crowds And so to the Alfalfa Club, which gathered the moneyed elite of Washington society at its annual dinner on Saturday. Donald Trump has stayed away in the past, wary of its status as exactly the sort of establishment fixture that he has treated as grist for his populist mill. Saturday's showing may rather have proved his instincts right. At one point in his speech, he asked his political opponents to stand for a roasting. Jeb Bush duly got to his feet for some jokes about energy levels and so on, Secrets spies tell us. But it was the response to Mitt Romney that derailed the president. The former senator was given a rousing cheer, souring the president's mood. "The speech didn't land well in the room," one attendee said. Which even the president then admitted. Arena crowds are easier than dinner audiences, he mused aloud. (Note to readers. Invitations to Secrets are not a guarantee of favorable coverage. But they might help.) Lunchtime Reading Gavin Newsom opens the oppo book in his new memoir: You can tell when we have arrived in a new political cycle by the slew of memoirs released by likely runners. And so Gavin Newsom is out of the gates with Young Man in a Hurry. Rather than risk it leaking, publishers have handed it to a sympathetic reporter, who glosses over, for example, that extraordinary carpet photoshoot with the woman who is now U.S. ambassador to Greece. Even so, Young Man in a Hurry sounds a lot more interesting than Josh Shapiro's dreary Where We Keep the Light. Why Democrats' upset in a Texas state Senate race is a big deal: "While Trump won the district by about 17 points in 2024, the Democrat held a 14-point lead with nearly all of the vote counted as of Sunday morning. That's a roughly 31-point difference, on the margins, and one of the party's strongest recent special election performances. | 
No comments: