.jpg?trim=0%2C0%2C0%2C0&width=1200&height=800&crop=1200%3A800&ssl=1 "Trump was paid over million by Amazon for Melania documentary")
President Donald Trump received a licensing fee of $10.71 million for Amazon MGM’s Melania documentary, according to his own financial disclosures.
It had previously been reported that Amazon paid around $40m for the Brett Ratner film, including $28m directly to the First Lady.
Amazon MGM went on to spend another $35 million to market the film, which made back about $16.6 million at the box office prior to becoming available to stream on Prime Video.
In May, Jeff Bezos defended his company’s decision, while insisting that his dealings with the president are non-partisan.
“You know that it did very well in theaters. It’s done very well on streaming. People are very curious about Melania, so even though I had nothing to do with it, you know. It appears that the Amazon team made a very wise business decision,” Bezos told CNBC.
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Elsewhere in his recent financial disclosure statement, Trump revealed that he received a $521,161 licensing payment for the First Lady’s memoir from Skyhorse Publishing. He also made around $6 million in net proceeds from “NFTs and other collectibles” associated with his wife.
On Wednesday, Trump claimed he had nothing to do with the billion-dollar windfall reported on his financial disclosures, insisting it all comes from the work of unnamed financial advisers rather than his deliberate efforts to profit from the presidency.
“I’ve made a lot of money before I became president, and they invest my money, and I don’t talk to them. I never – I don’t even speak to them,” Trump said before boarding a brand-new Air Force One for the first time on his way to tour the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library.
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The $400 million Boeing VC-25B aircraft was presented to him in Doha last year, and that gift also stirred concerns about influence-buying.
The president earned more than $1 billion from two cryptocurrency businesses that now outpace what he earns in revenue from his extensive property portfolio.
Trump disclosed over $500 million in earnings from World Liberty Financial crypto venture, including “governance tokens,” according to an Office of Government Ethics filing, while another firm, CIC Digital LLC, brought in more than $600 million from sales of Trump-branded “meme” coins featuring his image.
Both the tokens and the coins have plunged in value since the sales, leaving everyday investors and purchasers in ruin.
The White House has steadfastly denied that Trump has deliberately acted to boost his own financial interests, with deputy press secretary Anna Kelly claiming in a statement that he “only acts in the best interests of the American public” and asserting that the president has “no conflicts of interest.”