Politics

The new documentary about First Lady Melania Trump might not win an Oscar at next year's Academy Awards ... but it seems her fans will loyally defend it -- because the Rotten Tomatoes audience score is through the roof.

"Melania" came out in theaters Friday ... and early reviews show as sharp a split as any between the Democrat and Republican parties.

At the time of publishing, critics gave the doc just a 12% on Rotten Tomatoes -- put into context, just 2 of the 17 uploaded critic reviews are positive.

President Trump sicking federal prosecutors on Don Lemon for reporting live from an ICE protest could have massive implications for our democracy ... and the decision to charge the former CNN host with federal crimes is sparking a spirited debate between attorneys Mark Geragos and Harvey Levin.

Mark and Harvey -- hosts of the "2 Angry Men" podcast -- have vastly different views on what played out in Minnesota this month ... when Don reported on an anti-ICE protest that disrupted a church service.

The feds arrested Don and charged him with a couple crimes, alleging he was part of the protest and not just an independent observer reporting on a newsworthy event. Harvey says the charges are bogus and based on lies, and he's taking it as an attack on the free press, which he says is a bad sign for the future of democracy in the United States.

Former CNN host Don Lemon got hit with federal charges for reporting from an ICE protest, but he's getting one-upped by CNN reporter Veronica Miracle ... 'cause she just got hit with tear gas during her wild live shot from an ICE protest.

Check out this footage that just aired on CNN ... Veronica is reporting live from an ICE protest Friday in downtown Los Angeles when all of a sudden the crowd is tear gassed ... and she gets a face full of chemical irritants.

Veronica toughs it out and continues with her report ... and it looks like she also got hit by a non-lethal round of some kind.

Don Lemon says journalists at CNN, CBS and other news organization need to grow a spine and push back against corporate influences that want to skew news coverage to curry favor with President Trump.

A defiant Don made the call to action Friday on his online show ... admitting he was late after having a busy day fighting federal charges for covering a recent protest.

Don thanked all his friends in the media for reaching out and having his back, but he went a step further and said they need to stand up to corporations that are putting their paws on the news and trying to exert influence and bend the knee to Trump.

Jane Fonda says the federal government took down the wrong Don ... calling out Trump's admin for arresting Don Lemon instead of the commander-in-chief.

The legendary actress passionately defended the former CNN anchor outside the federal courthouse where Lemon had a court hearing after his arrest for allegedly breaking up a church service ... and she told assembled protesters not to fall for the government's tricks.

Fonda says Don was just a journalist doing his job ... no more, no less -- and certainly no reason for the feds to lock him up.

The team behind the Melania Trump-focused documentary “Melania” might’ve put some real hard work into the flick ... but it’s getting trashed online by more than a few filmgoers.

The movie’s been review-bombed -- which is when fans share negative reviews for a project in a short amount of time, in case you were wondering -- on movie review platform Letterboxd ... and it holds a score of 1.2 out of 5 stars, despite having only been in theaters for a single day.

Most of the film’s reviews are harsh, and one of the most popular reviews on the movie’s page reads ... “If they showed this on a plane, people would still walk out.”

To be fair, there were a few 5-star reviews for the movie ... a cool 61 out of 3,436.

ICYWW ... the movie, which was directed by Brett Ratner, is centered on the First Lady as she navigates the 20 days leading up to the 2025 Presidential Inauguration -- as well as numerous fittings, apparently. The Kennedy Center premiere on Thursday brought out the likes of Nicki Minaj, Dr. Phil, and Donald Trump himself.

It’s also worth mentioning, Amazon MGM Studios dropped $40 million on the project, and they apparently spent $35 million to promote it, reports The Daily Beast.

Bombshell allegation in the latest Epstein Files document release ... an underage girl claims she was forced to perform oral sex on Donald Trump approximately 35 years ago in New Jersey.

The allegation is from a document in the files that describes a tip that was sent to the feds.

The complaint summary says the feds were told the underage girl was approximately 13-14 years old when the alleged incident occurred, and it says the alleged victim "allegedly bit President Trump while performing oral sex" and was "allegedly hit in the face after she laughed about biting President Trump."

Federal prosecutors are explaining why they have the gall to arrest and charge Don Lemon in connection with his coverage of an ICE protest that disrupted a Minnesota church service ... they claim he wasn't reporting from the sidelines, and was part of the plot to raid the church.

According to the federal indictment, obtained by TMZ, prosecutors allege Don conspired with protestors to "injure, oppress, threaten, and intimidate" clergy, staff, and congregants at Cities Church in Minneapolis.

The feds say Don met up with the protestors before the demonstration and got instructions on where they would be protesting and how the "operation" would go down once at the church.

Prosecutors say Don started livestreaming the morning of the Jan. 18 protest, telling his audience he was in Minnesota with an organization that was gearing up for a "resistance" operation against the federal government's immigration policies.

The feds say Don took steps to "maintain operational secrecy" by not revealing the location of the planned protest to his audience ... and prosecutors say he stepped away from a live mic so he "would not accidentally divulge certain portions of the planning session."

Patrick Bet-David hopped into the "TMZ Live" hot seat over Don Lemon’s arrest Friday -- and it got fiery real quick, with PBD insisting Don blurred lines by mixing with protesters instead of just covering them.

The conservative podcast host and media personality doubled down hard ... even when Harvey Levin and Charles Latibeaudiere pushed back, saying Don got way too close to the protesters and perhaps even joined in their planning.

Patrick warned that Don's actions were a slippery slope -- pointing to footage that he says raises big questions about whether Lemon was observing or participating.

Elon Musk has been swept up in the new batch of Epstein files — with the Tesla CEO firing off a 2013 email to Jeffrey Epstein to make plans to hang out on Epstein island.

In December 2013, Musk sent the email to Epstein telling the late convicted pedophile that he would be in the British Virgin Islands over the holidays and wanted to know if it was a good time to visit the island. Previously, Elon claimed that he refused invitations from Epstein to visit the island, where alleged acts of pedophilia went down.

Two days later, Epstein wrote back to Musk that he could swing by at the start of the new year, adding that there's “always space for you.” Epstein sent a follow-up email Christmas Day, stating he would pick up Musk on January 2 or 3.

How's this for a Friday news dump ... the Department of Justice just released millions of documents from the Jeffrey Epstein Files, plus a couple thousand videos and hundreds of thousands of images.

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche says the DOJ released more than 3 million pages of docs ... in addition to 180,000 images and 2,000 videos.

Unclear what's in the massive document dump ... but TMZ will be poring through them for any and all relevant and juicy nuggets.

It's the first Epstein Files release of the year ... the release of documents had slowed to a trickle ... but now it's an Epstein avalanche.

We've already seen Donald Trump, Bill Clinton, and tons of celebs in the Epstein Files ... and folks are hungry for names, so it will be interesting to see what's in this latest document dump.

Nicki Minaj continued her all-out MAGA tour Thursday night by showing up to the film premiere of "Melania" in Washington, D.C.

The rapper was dressed to the nines as she rubbed elbows with MAGA's biggest names at the Kennedy Center, including President Donald Trump, Melania Trump, Donald Trump Jr., Dr. Phil and many more.

TMZ obtained video of Nicki shaking hands and hobnobbing with the likes of Don Jr., his fiancé, Bettina Anderson and Dr. Phil on an upper tier of one of the theaters. The president was standing nearby chatting with some guy in a suit.

When President Trump invites his underlings to a social event, they show up ... look no further than the premiere of Amazon's new Melania Trump documentary.

The Kennedy Center looked like a Trump cabinet meeting Thursday night ... with a who's-who of Republican elected officials showing up in support of their boss and the First Lady.

Dr. Oz, administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, was in the house with his family. Ditto for Speaker of the House Mike Johnson and his wife, Kelly Lary.

Nicki Minaj fans are taking sides after watching her cozy up to President Trump ... some are sticking by her, and others are dropping her like a bad habit.

The battle of the Barbz played out Thursday on "TMZ Live" when we had a couple supporters join our show and explain why Nicki's embrace of Trump is either a deal-breaker ... or no big deal.

Blair Thompson says he's cutting the cord when it comes to Nicki ... and he tells us why her politics feel like a slap in the face to lots of her longtime supporters who come from diverse backgrounds.

Stacey Abrams may not be a congresswoman anymore, but she's very much locked in ... she told us the bloodshed we've been seeing in Minnesota is a direct result of a "military occupation of American cities," which "cannot stand."

We caught up with the voting-rights activist and former candidate for Georgia governor at LAX yesterday, where she explained ... "We are in the midst of an authoritarian takeover by the Republican party led by Donald Trump."

According to Abrams, "Their intention is to dismantle democracy as we understand it and our responsibility is civil resistance."

Holy open mic, Batman ... the Dark Knight rose up in Santa Clara earlier this week to slam the city council's cooperation with ICE!

A man dressed as the Caped Crusader -- identified as "Batman" on the monitor Tuesday -- swooped down on the podium like Gotham's defender himself ... instantly launching into a tirade which began with an expletive.

In the 3-minute speech, Batman accuses the city council of allowing the federal government to walk all over them ... and, he expresses his concern about hundreds of masked men coming to Santa Clara. As you know, the federal government announced in October ICE agents will be present at Levi's Stadium on Feb. 8, the day of the Super Bowl ... but sources told TMZ Sports today there is no plan for ICE to conduct immigration enforcement at the site, so details remain sketchy.