Eureka! Halfway through a screening of Melania at an 8:10 PM show the weekend it came out in Salt Lake City, I was at a theater where I was not the only viewer (though the theater was, charitably, more than half empty) I wrote in my notebook: “This whole thing is Melania becoming the hat man.”1 (#footnote-1)

Indeed it was. I hadn’t taken any Benadryl, either. If you’re not familiar with the back story: The Melania documentary is really the documentary of the various looks Melania wanted to convey with her clothing. “Melania’s ball dress looks like a redaction with a sharpie marker” is an observation I recorded in my notebook. They put it in the Smithsonian (https://www.kvue.com/article/syndication/associatedpress/melania-trump-donates-her-white-and-black-trimmed-inaugural-ball-gown-to-the-smithsonian/616-d8c08d3d-c14d-4ffe-910e-0dcddd52dcb2) last month. • • It’s a good movie to watch if you’re interested in doing Kremlinology of the Trump administration. Tim Cook sits right next to Melania for part of the film. The Apple computers the First Lady uses are as naked a product placement as the Apple computers used in the first Mission Impossible film. The Hunt for Tom Clancy is made possible through the generosity of readers like you. Sign up to be a paid subscriber today.

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