Jeff Bezos has a curious management strategy: Declaring that he wasn’t involved with big decisions made by his company, but then also saying they were the right decisions. In a new interview with CNBC’s Squawk Box, the Amazon founder denied that he’s actively trying to placate President Trump with projects like the documentary Melania, a theatrically released tribute to the current First Lady.
“The Melania thing is a falsehood that will not die… We have denied it. Melania’s office has denied it. It’s not true. I had nothing to do with that,” Bezos told interviewer Andrew Ross Sorkin about his involvement with the documentary. He added that Melania was not “a way of buying influence” with the current administration: “It’s just not correct.”
However, he continued, “it appears Melania was a good business decision. You know, 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, it appears that the Amazon team made a very wise business decision.”
Here’s how we’re defining “very well in theaters,” per Bezos: Melania earned $16.5 million worldwide during its theatrical run, which in general is a decent figure for a documentary. However, it doesn’t crack the top 50 highest-grossing documentaries of all time, and Amazon spent $40 million to acquire the film, reportedly sinking an additional $35 million into its promotion as well. (It’s also, um, a very bad movie.)
Bezos also generously declined to take credit for an actual box office success: The sci-fi adventure Project Hail Mary, currently the highest-grossing movie of 2026 that doesn’t star a Yoshi. “I also had nothing to do with Project Hail Mary, which I regret because it’s an incredible success. I wished I had greenlit that.”
In short, he says, “Amazon’s a big company. It makes a lot of decisions.” None of which are his, apparently. Watch the clip of his interview below.
Bezos on the Melania movie: "By the way, it appears it was a good business decision. 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, it appears the Amazon team made a very wise… pic.twitter.com/MeZ8nDc5y6
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) May 20, 2026
