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'Melania' tickets are the latest way to bribe Trump



A GOP lawmaker seeking President Donald Trump's endorsement in his Senate
campaign bought out one entire showing of "Melania" at a theater, revealing
that juicing ticket sales for the wretched documentary about Trump’s
wife-in-name-only is a fresh new way to bribe the commander in chief.

Republican Rep. Andy Barr of Kentucky, who is running to replace retiring
Sen. Mitch McConnell, gave away free tickets for a Jan. 30 showing of the film.
The giveaway was promoted as part of his campaign, so he may have used campaign
funds to purchase the tickets.

“Join Team Barr for a SPECIAL event to celebrate #Melania. We will be
offering FREE limited tickets for the premiere of Melania right here in
Kentucky. God bless our great FLOTUS [first lady of the United States],” Barr
wrote in a Facebook post advertising the showing.

Barr is desperate for Trump's endorsement in the Senate race. He is currently
trailing his GOP primary opponent, former Kentucky Attorney General Daniel
Cameron. A Trump endorsement could turn his fortunes around.




 



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So buying out a theater to help juice sales for Trump's wife's documentary
would be a great way to curry favor with the president, who is obsessed with
ratings and has shown that he can be easily bought. See: the $400 million jet
from Qatar, the donations to fund Trump’s ugly ballroom, all of the
pay-for-pardons Trump has handed out to fraudster crooks who have donated to
his political campaigns, and the $500 million investment from from the Emirati
royal family to the Trump family’s crypto company in exchange for their
nation’s access to American chips.



In fact, the “Melania” documentary itself is a bribe from Amazon founder Jeff
Bezos, who reportedly spent $40 million to make the film and another $35
million to promote it, as a way to boost his business empire.

“Jeff Bezos gave Trump $40 million by buying the 'Melania' documentary
through Amazon. Last week, it premiered. Now, Trump's 'Secretary of War' visits
Bezos' Blue Origin, which gets billions in government contracts. Trump gets
paid. Taxpayers get screwed,” Democratic Rep. Greg Casar of Texas wrote in a
post on X.

Back to Barr, however. His “Melania” giveaway to potential voters looks to be
a serious ethical lapse, verging on a crime, as it is against federal law to
buy votes. (Let’s not forget Elon Musk giving away $1 million to get people to
register to vote.)




 



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On top of all the bribery and potential law-breaking, the fact that at least
one Republican bought out a showing's worth of tickets raises questions about
how much of the ticket sales for the “Melania” doc are astroturfed like this.

Reports said the movie sold more than $7 million worth of tickets in its
opening weekend, which many in the mainstream media cheered as a massive feat.
But the large sales were suspect from the start since some online
ticket-booking sites showed barely any tickets had been purchased on its
opening night.

It looks like there were other mass buys of tickets, too. U.S. Ambassador to
Greece Kimberly Guilfoyle, the jilted lover of Donald Trump Jr., hosted the
Greek premiere of the film. And box-office insider Tom Brueggemann wrote on his
Substack that “industry sources say there were signs that blocs of tickets were
purchased for the weekend, then distributed to senior citizen homes, Republican
activitists [sic], [and] other interested parties for free to help boost
audiences.”

First-quarter fundraising reports—which are due to be filed with the Federal
Election Commission on April 15—should shed more light on whether other GOP
lawmakers, candidates, and campaigns bulk-purchased tickets to juice sales.

We will be waiting to pour through them to see just how much of a lie ticket
sales likely were.



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