This article is part of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/upstream" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Upstream</a>, The Daily Wire’s new home for culture and lifestyle. Real human insight and human stories — from our featured writers to you.
***
I was visiting Canada’s East Coast last week and happened to tour the Fortress of Louisbourg, the largest reconstructed historic fort in North America. At one point, a reenactor explained that the French were so keen on keeping their colony dependent that nearly everything there had to be shipped in from France: basic supplies, stone, stonemasons, and even firewood. (For added comic effect, we were literally standing next to a forest.) It was a small but salient detail, underscoring the perennial absurdity of government planning from past to present and the colonial condescension that would eventually help fuel the American Revolution.
That same tension runs through “Revolutionary America,” Hillsdale College’s first feature-length documentary. Directed by Ian Anthony Reid and narrated by Tom Selleck, the film traces the struggle for independence from the French and Indian War through the Revolution and into the constitutional settlement that followed. Its central question is not merely how the Americans won independence, but why ordinary men risked their lives, fortunes, families, reputations, and futures for what must have seemed, at the time, like political fantasy.
The film begins with the French and Indian War, framing the event as the turning point that reshaped both North America and the relationship between Britain and its colonies. By the war’s end, Britain’s American territories were roughly the size of the Roman Empire at its peak. It was at this moment, the documentary suggests, that the British Empire truly became the Empire.
Yet imperial grandeur came with imperial expenses, and the Crown soon began imposing draconian taxes on the colonies to compensate for its spending — a veritable inspiration for New York’s <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/mamdani-wants-to-decide-who-deserves-to-keep-their-property">current mayor</a>. The issue, as the film wisely emphasizes, was not simply money. Taxes are not merely about money; they reveal a theory of government: who has authority, who owes obedience, and who gets to decide the terms of civic life.
This is where “Revolutionary America” is strongest. It shows how the Tea Act and Coercive Acts (among others) were part of a broader imperial posture. As Daily Wire host Michael Knowles observes in the film, Britain treated the colonies like children and resented their success while lavishly profiting from them — like child stars whose parents appoint themselves managers and siphon off the proceeds.
The colonists’ grievance was therefore not reducible to a tepid tax revolt. They were objecting to a form of rule that denied them the rights and responsibilities they believed were endowed by a higher power. The English monarch believed the inverse: that this same higher power had ordained him with the authority to dictate those rights. Hillsdale understands the Revolution as a moral argument foremost, rooted in the conservative preservation of inherited liberties rather than the radical, abstract restructuring of society that later doomed the French model.
Among Hillsdale’s triumphs is the selected cast. Tom Selleck’s earnest narration carries a warm and disarming authority that effortlessly conveys his passion for the period and his esteem for its heroes. The commentators are effective as well, especially Hillsdale professor Wilfred McClay, whose amicable and endearing speaking style is as effective as any advertisement for the college.
The documentary also cleverly layers commentary with letters, speeches, maps, landscapes, paintings, sketches, and architectural footage. The camera deftly moves through them, isolating details and drawing the viewer into the scene with the careful theatricality of one of those immersive Van Gogh exhibitions. The result is visually richer than one might expect from an educational documentary working within what was likely a modest budget.
Ryan Moore’s musical score also gives the film great momentum, from pulsating snare drums placing you squarely amid the chaos of a raging battlefield, to lush, pastoral string arrangements carrying you through the sweeping landscape of the era.
The film’s strongest section comes at Valley Forge, the defining crucible of the American Revolution. Reid combines snowy landscapes, period sketches, animated letters, and intimate narration to evoke the misery of the winter of 1777 to 1778. Letters from soldiers, including Timothy Pickering writing to his wife about the lack of shoes and clothing amid the freezing privation, convey both the hardship and endurance required to wage war against the superpower of their time.
Here, too, the film foregrounds the Christian dimension of the Revolution. The Americans’ determination was driven by the conviction that their rights were not indulgences from the Crown, but truths ordained by a higher power. “We are on a mission from God,” as the Blues Brothers would later proclaim. George Washington and his compatriots believed their rights came from God as firmly as the English monarch believed his right to rule did. Only one vision of authority could prevail.
That is the deeper argument of “Revolutionary America.” Rights do not come from government and therefore cannot rightly be taken away by government. Watching the documentary, I was reminded of what Abraham Lincoln meant at Gettysburg when he described the United States as a government “of the people, by the people, for the people”: The American Revolution was not about changing management but asserting that legitimate government derives from the consent of the governed.
The final stretch moves toward the Constitution and the crucial work of preserving what the Revolution began. Asked whether the convention had produced a monarchy or a republic, Benjamin Franklin famously quipped: “A republic, if you can keep it.” And that is the documentary’s lingering lesson. The Constitution is, in a sense, only a piece of paper. It cannot preserve itself. “We the people” must keep the republic.
***
Harry Khachatrian (<a href="https://x.com/harry1t6">@Harry1T6</a>) is a film critic for the Washington Examiner. He is a software engineer, holds a master’s degree from the University of Toronto, and writes about wine at<a href="https://www.betweenbottles.com/"> BetweenBottles.com</a>.

The Death of General Warren at the Battle of Bunker Hill, June 17, 1775 by John Trumbull

This Movie Tells The Story Today’s Schools Won’t

America 250

American Revolution

Documentaries

History

Movies

Upstream

We&#8217;re living in the middle of a gigantic online op.
It is an op designed to suck young men dry and leave them broken and stupid. It makes their lives actively worse. That op is called the manosphere, and it&#8217;s time to wake up to their matrix of evil.
Men without proper guideposts and durable moral institutions are being ushered into a world of stupidity and immorality by grifters and liars who traffic in lies, spiritual emptiness, and outright grift, who tell them they can be rich, famous, and have hot women hanging on their every word, lavishing their attention on you, demanding nothing from you in return.
All you have to do to get all of this is give the manosphere your money, your brain, and your soul.
All these folks are running the same scheme. Here&#8217;s how it works.
First, they tell young men that they are failing at life. Second, they tell the young men the reason they are failing at life is not because of anything they&#8217;re doing, per se, but because of the matrix, a system of power that&#8217;s out to get them. That system is what is depriving them of women, of money, of social mobility.
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/bss-ep-2391-sub?elementPosition=4&amp;row=6&amp;rowHeadline=Latest+Episodes&amp;rowType=Horizontal+Show+Episodes+Carousel"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-large wp-image-974957" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1024x171.webp" alt="DailyWire+" width="1024" height="171" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1024x171.webp 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-300x50.webp 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-768x128.webp 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1536x256.webp 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-2048x341.webp 2048w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></a>
Third, these men act transgressively and provocatively. They violate all social stigmas and then magically seem to achieve all of the things the matrix has placed off limits to young men. Fourth, they inform these young men that they, too, can have all of these wonderful things: the hot women and the nice cars and the big houses — if only they join a fake university or some B.S. stock trading app, or donate money to the Kick stream.
Finally, they tell young men that anyone who says differently is part of the matrix.
If any of this sounds familiar, that&#8217;s because it&#8217;s basically cult recruitment tactics, just made viral online. Cults typically target people who are suffering from a life crisis. They target the vulnerable, and then they love bomb those people, saying, “You&#8217;re with us. We understand you.”
They offer the most obvious critiques of the world: the unfairness of life, the impossibility of overcoming challenges. And then they say, “You know, the way out of that is the cult.”
Cults encourage recruits to cut out all contrary information, and cults tell these people that people who oppose the cults are actually members of some nefarious outside force. They contend that if you join the cult, you are saved or enlightened or awake, and everyone else is a suppressive evildoer.
This stuff is seductive — and dangerous, because it also tells young men things that are not true, such as “women are disgusting and perverse,” but also simultaneously that women are “shamelessly available and completely pliant” if you just crack the code.
It says you can achieve wealth and fame, not over time by building a business, but instantaneously, this moment, simply by seeing through the matrix and eschewing the 9-to-5 hard job in favor of a get-rich-quick scam.
And, if you fail, it&#8217;s because of the matrix. You just need to give them more money.
That matrix, by the way, is just code for the Jews. Tapping into the antisemitism allows them to seem both transgressive and also illuminating. Which is why we have tons of clips of these “manosphere” influencers singing Ye&#8217;s “Heil Hitler” just a couple of months ago.
None of this is new.
You want to know what women want? I speak as a man who&#8217;s been married for nearly 20 years and has four children with a fifth on the way.
Women want men who actually love and protect and cherish and defend them.
It&#8217;s not all that difficult, by the way. That is the definition of manhood. The definition of true manhood is to love, protect, cherish, defend, and provide for your wife and for your family.
That definition of what a man should be is also a great definition of how to be a happy human being.
You know what women don&#8217;t want?
Scumbags who tell them to clean up their rooms while maintaining a harem.
That&#8217;s intellectual pornography for morons.

Two men are shaking hands at the outdoor gym, brotherhood and respect concept

Intellectual Pornography For Morons

Ben Shapiro

Cult

male

Marriage

Netflix

Social Media

TikTok

I have released enough documentaries over the years to recognize an emerging pattern in terms of how the Left will respond. There are really only two options: Either they&#8217;ll ignore my documentary entirely (which is how most of the media responded to &#8220;<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/videos/am-i-racist?elementPosition=0&amp;row=13&amp;rowHeadline=Comedy+%26+Entertainment&amp;rowType=Portrait+Show+Carousel">Am I Racist?,</a>&#8221; even though it was the top documentary of the decade). Or, in the alternative, they&#8217;ll publish extremely low-effort, highly dishonest articles, where they review some imaginary version of my documentary, put words into my mouth, and take every important scene out of context.
That was the case with &#8220;<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/videos/what-is-a-woman?elementPosition=1&amp;row=13&amp;rowHeadline=Comedy+%26+Entertainment&amp;rowType=Portrait+Show+Carousel">What is a Woman?</a>,&#8221; when outlet after outlet accused me of being a &#8220;transphobe&#8221; who engaged in &#8220;hate speech&#8221; — even though 99% of the movie involved me asking basic, straightforward questions to self-described experts in gender ideology. And the other 1% was me asking why those experts were running away from me instead of answering my simple and straightforward questions.
So based on these experiences, when I released the first episode of my newest series at the Daily Wire, which is called &#8220;<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/show/real-history-with-matt-walsh?elementPosition=2&amp;row=6&amp;rowHeadline=Featured&amp;rowType=Portrait+Show+Carousel">Real History</a>,&#8221; I was expecting either a total media blackout, or a flood of desperate hit pieces. After all, &#8220;Real History&#8221; is a direct challenge to some of the most important tenets of modern Leftism. 
But interestingly enough, &#8220;Real History&#8221; has not been met with a total media blackout. Nor has it been bombarded with a series of incredibly dumb and lazy smears. Instead, aside from a small number of YouTube videos from historians — which have mostly been positive, and very thorough — the only mainstream response to &#8220;Real History&#8221; has come from The Atlantic magazine, which considers itself to be the bastion of Left-wing intellectual thought.
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-1735-aoc-utterly-humiliates-herself-on-the-world-stage?elementPosition=1&amp;row=6&amp;rowHeadline=Latest+Episodes&amp;rowType=Horizontal+Show+Episodes+Carousel"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-large wp-image-976065 aligncenter" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/Matt-watch-now-1-1024x171.jpg" alt="DailyWire+" width="1024" height="171" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/Matt-watch-now-1-1024x171.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/Matt-watch-now-1-300x50.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/Matt-watch-now-1-768x128.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/Matt-watch-now-1-1536x256.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/Matt-watch-now-1.jpg 1800w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></a>
And right away, that got my attention. It&#8217;s not that The Atlantic is a trustworthy outlet. It&#8217;s obviously not. In fact, they&#8217;ve created numerous high-level hoaxes in just the past couple of years, solely to influence elections. But at the same time, if The Atlantic — and only The Atlantic — is coming after you, then it means you&#8217;ve done something unique. It means that you&#8217;ve rattled the people who, in elite circles of the Democrat Party, are taken very seriously. Now, why might &#8220;Real History&#8221; have done that?
To answer that question, let&#8217;s see what <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/02/slavery-matt-walsh-1619-project/685982/">The Atlantic says</a>, specifically.
<blockquote>Matt Walsh would like you to know you’ve been lied to. Last month, the right-wing provocateur appeared on Megyn Kelly’s show to discuss his new video series, Real History With Matt Walsh. &#8230; In Walsh’s account, the left believes that “America was built on slavery, and it has no right to exist, and every white American carries, somehow, that legacy, that guilt in their blood”; therefore progressives feel they have the “moral justification to just do whatever they want” to white people. Walsh intends to stop this. So in Real History, he relentlessly downplays the brutality of slavery in the United States. Sanitizing slavery has become a core objective of the reactionary right under Donald Trump—a malignant response to the progressive left’s oversimplification of American history for their own present-day ends. But the truest understanding of slavery doesn’t serve any political faction. Rather, it acknowledges the horrors of racial oppression while still allowing us to see beyond them. &#8230; Walsh also notes that the descendants of Africans trafficked to what became the United States are now in better socioeconomic shape than those whose ancestors remained in the Old World or were transported to Latin America or the Caribbean. He draws an odious conclusion from this—American slavery wasn’t that bad—yet the point is not entirely incorrect. Other far more serious thinkers have made versions of it too.</blockquote>
There&#8217;s the sneering that you might expect from The Atlantic. They want you to know that there are &#8220;far more serious thinkers&#8221; than I am. But for all their preening and all their arrogance, it&#8217;s clear that the author of this piece, Thomas Chatterton Williams, has not even watched <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/rhs-260118?elementPosition=0&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+Show+Episodes+Carousel">Episode 1,</a> &#8220;The Real History of Slavery.&#8221; He couldn&#8217;t be bothered to spend the hour to actually watch the show.
And I can make that claim with confidence, because there is absolutely nothing in the episode — or any episode of the series — that &#8220;relentlessly downplays the brutality of slavery in the United States.&#8221; Instead, the episode is a roughly hour-long look at what slavery entailed, all over the world. And yes, as a matter of historical fact, Africans and the Barbary Pirates and the Ottomans generally treated their slaves far, far worse than Americans and American colonists. Americans weren&#8217;t known for floating canoes in the blood of their slaves, for example. Nor were Americans known for sailing thousands of miles away in order to snatch men, women and children from their homes, throw them onto boats, and sexually assault them. That&#8217;s not &#8220;downplaying&#8221; anything. It&#8217;s the truth. And &#8220;serious thinkers&#8221; — to use The Atlantic&#8217;s terminology — care about the truth, above all else.
But The Atlantic doesn&#8217;t care about the truth. That&#8217;s why, in 2019, they published an article <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/12/historians-clash-1619-project/604093/">entitled</a>, &#8220;The Fight Over the 1619 Project Is Not About the Facts.&#8221;
What&#8217;s remarkable about this headline is that, indeed, the fight over the 1619 Project was about the facts. All of the history was completely wrong — including their claim that Americans fought the Revolutionary War to preserve slavery. But The Atlantic ran cover for the 1619 Project at the time, because it served the narrative of the Democrat Party. It advanced racial grievances, which they saw — correctly, for a time — as a pathway to power.
The point of &#8220;Real History,&#8221; on the other hand, is not to advance the interests of the &#8220;MAGA movement,&#8221; or anyone else. The point is to communicate historically accurate information that&#8217;s deliberately hidden from us, at every stage in our lives. Schools don&#8217;t talk about it. The media doesn&#8217;t talk about it. Movies don&#8217;t talk about it. Telling the truth is not &#8220;downplaying&#8221; anything. By contrast, it&#8217;s the fake intellectuals in the Left, people like the writers at The Atlantic, who have been downplaying the reality of the African and Ottoman slave trades for generations.
<iframe loading="lazy" title="Real History with Matt Walsh | Official Trailer" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/PQu1n_OC1eE?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
But according to The Atlantic, so-called &#8220;MAGA revisionists,&#8221; along with the Trump administration, are the problem here. 
So let&#8217;s read on from <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/02/slavery-matt-walsh-1619-project/685982/">their review</a> of &#8220;Real History.&#8221;
<blockquote>Back in March, [Trump] strong-armed a host of institutions by issuing an executive order called “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History,” which directs federally funded museums, monuments, and parks to remove materials that promote “corrosive ideology.” Last month, the park service obliged, eliminating an outdoor exhibit at Independence National Historical Park, in Philadelphia, where George Washington’s house once stood. The exhibit honored nine slaves who toiled at the residence &#8230; Trump and his allies seem unwilling to tolerate virtually any acknowledgment that America subjugated Black people. Rather than making a dispassionate case against the idea that the country was founded to enslave Africans, MAGA is taking down plaques commemorating basic facts, such as Washington’s slaveholding. In Real History, Walsh turns the clock back further still.</blockquote>
Notice the sleight of hand here. 
They&#8217;re strongly implying that the Trump administration ordered the park service to remove an exhibit about the fact that George Washington owned slaves. But that&#8217;s actually not true. If you read the Executive Order, it orders the parks service to remove anything promoting a &#8220;corrosive ideology&#8221; that demonizes Americans. And as The Washington Post reported, the parks service interpreted that Executive Order as broadly as possible. It&#8217;s a form of &#8220;malicious compliance.&#8221; 
The Post <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2025/09/15/national-parks-slavery-information-removal/">reported:</a>
<blockquote>the removals were in line with President Donald Trump’s March executive order directing the Interior Department to eliminate information that reflects a “corrosive ideology” that disparages historic Americans. National Park Service officials are broadly interpreting that directive to apply to information on racism, sexism, slavery, gay rights or persecution of Indigenous people.</blockquote>
See how that works?
The Trump administration issues an order, telling agencies to stop advancing an anti-white, anti-American agenda. Democrats then remove displays of slavery. And then Democrats say, &#8220;Hey, you made us remove displays of slavery!&#8221;
And by the way, it&#8217;s especially ironic that they lump &#8220;Real History&#8221; in with this. Again, if this guy had watched the show — which he clearly hasn&#8217;t — he&#8217;d know that we talk, at some length, about Washington&#8217;s slaves. And in particular, we talk about his white indentured servants, who ran away around the time of the start of the Revolutionary War. Washington put out advertisements, seeking the return of these white runaways. And there were many more white runaways than black runaways at Washington&#8217;s estate. But no one at The Atlantic wants to talk about this, because it complicates their narrative that only blacks were victimized by slavery in America. So they hide the truth, and then they accuse us of being the liars.
What&#8217;s funny about all of this is that, back in 2019, The Atlantic put out an article stating that &#8220;reparations&#8221; could mean &#8220;telling the truth&#8221; about uncomfortable historical facts. So in that sense, you&#8217;d think they&#8217;d be happy about Real History. You&#8217;d think they&#8217;d consider it a form of reparations. Apparently not. 
In reality, The Atlantic, like so many other bastions of Left-wing &#8220;intellectualism,&#8221; is collapsing in on itself. Their ideology is incoherent. They have no idea what they stand for, or how to construct even the most basic argument about anything they believe in.
This is a big, big problem for the Left in general.

The Atlantic Attacks My Documentary, Says I’m ‘Downplaying’ Slavery

The Atlantic Attacks My Documentary, Says I'm ‘Downplaying’ Slavery

1619 Project

American History

Opinion

Slavery

The Atlantic

Hollywood is still in denial that &#8220;Melania,&#8221; a documentary about first lady Melania Trump and wife of President Donald Trump, is outperforming expectations, floating conspiracy theories that include claims the film&#8217;s positive audience reviews are fake. But the owner of Rotten Tomatoes says those glowing fan responses are 100% real.
“There has been no bot manipulation on the audience reviews for the ‘Melania’ documentary,” Versant, the parent company of the popular review aggregator, said in a <a href="https://variety.com/2026/film/news/melania-rotten-tomatoes-audience-score-bots-1236654401/">statement</a> to Variety. “Reviews displayed on the Popcornmeter are VERIFIED reviews, meaning it has been verified that users have bought a ticket to the film.”
“Melania” currently has one of the largest disparities between critics’ and audience scores on the site, with reviewers <a href="https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/melania" target="_blank" rel="noopener">giving the film</a> a 7% rating and moviegoers giving it a 99% rating. About 75% of the audience was women aged 55 and older. 
Avowed leftist late-night host Jimmy Kimmel is one of Hollywood’s most perplexed, as he mentioned during his monologue on Wednesday. 
“As of tonight, Melania has a score of 5% on Rotten Tomatoes from the critics. That is very low. To put that in perspective, that is 1% lower than ‘Gigli.’ The audience score for ‘Melania’ is 99% positive, which is 1% higher than ‘The Godfather.’ And I’m sure Donald J. Corleone had nothing to do with that at all,” he said. 
“We need to get to the bottom of this,” Kimmel went on. “Send in Tulsi Gabbard and the FBI! Seize the ticket machines, the popcorn buckets, the box office receipts, at every multiplex in America!”
Movie industry insiders projected an abysmal opening weekend for “Melania,” but were quickly proven wrong when it raked in around $7 million.
At the premiere in Washington, D.C. last week, Melania told reporters that success, to her, didn’t depend on box office numbers.
“I’m very proud of the film, so people may like it, may [not] like it, and that’s their choice,” the first lady told CNN.
“We achieved what we want to achieve,” Melania later added. “For myself, it’s already successful. I’m very proud of what we did.”
“Melania” is directed by Brett Ratner, who is best known for the “Rush Hour” franchise. The documentary provides a glimpse into Melania&#8217;s behind-the-scenes world during the 20 days leading up to her husband&#8217;s second inauguration.
The verified reviewers on Rotten Tomatoes had plenty of positive things to say. 
“An inside look at inaugural preparations, done in style,” one verified reviewer wrote. “Also getting to know our First Lady in a more personal way. The lady who is smart, elegant, stylish, beautiful &amp; someone who loves this country &amp; appreciates all that it offers.”
“Wow. Thought I may like it for the fashion take on it. But it was so much more. Absolutely loved it. Regardless if you like her or not- this documentary was really, really good,” another moviegoer agreed.

Melania

Rotten Tomatoes Confirms ‘Melania’ 99% Audience Score Is Real, Not Bots

Box Office

Entertainment

Hollywood

Melania Trump

U.S.

Film critics <a href="https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/becoming_2020_2/reviews/top-critics">raved</a> over &#8220;Becoming,&#8221; the fawning 2020 documentary about former First Lady Michelle Obama, produced by Michelle Obama.
<blockquote>The Detroit News: It&#8217;s a warm latte, delivered to you in your favorite mug.
NPR: Even with its flaws, Becoming is a compelling documentary, offering a carefully revealing look at a whip smart, ferociously practical woman trying to understand how her historic time in the White House changed herself, her family and the nation. </blockquote>
Now, see if you can detect a <a href="https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/melania/reviews/top-critics">slight tonal shift</a> in reviews for “Melania,” the new documentary capturing First Lady Melania Trump, who also produced the film, as she moves back into 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW.
<blockquote>Globe and Mail: Ratner has accidentally delivered the ultimate chronicle of 21st-century excess and greed, a world of casual yet immense cruelty covered in flop sweat and gold glitter.
Variety: A documentary that never comes to life. It’s a “portrait” of the First Lady of the United States, but it’s so orchestrated and airbrushed and stage-managed that it barely rises to the level of a shameless infomercial.</blockquote>
Several reviews compared the film to Nazi propaganda. One critic gave “Melania” a “rotten” score at Rotten Tomatoes while admitting <a href="https://www.hollywoodintoto.com/melania-reviews-critic-didnt-watch/">he never actually saw the film</a>. (That review was quickly removed from the critical aggregator site)
<div id="attachment_1040041" style="width: 394px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1040041" class="size-large wp-image-1040041" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/Melania-poster-384x576.jpg" alt="Amazon MGM Studios. Muse Films. New Element Media. RatPac Entertainment." width="384" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/Melania-poster-384x576.jpg 384w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/Melania-poster-200x300.jpg 200w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/Melania-poster-768x1152.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/Melania-poster.jpg 999w" sizes=" (max-width: 384px) 100vw, 384px" />Amazon MGM Studios.</div>
The Guardian’s review compared the movie to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2026/jan/30/melania-review-trump-film-is-a-gilded-trash-remake-of-the-zone-of-interest">2024’s “The Zone of Interest.”</a> That well-received drama depicted a Nazi family living next door to a concentration camp.
The reviewer didn’t stop there, mocking FLOTUS’s face and voice, a no-no in critical circles. Review the film, not the physical attributes of the people on screen. When a Variety scribe suggested actress Carey Mulligan wasn’t pretty enough to play the femme fatale in 2020’s “Promising Young Woman,” the outlet <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2021/jan/28/variety-apology-carey-mulligan-film-critics">uttered an apology</a> directly to the actress.
For some reason, that unwritten rule didn’t apply to “Melania.” Nor should FLOTUS expect an apology any time soon.
The chasm between movie critics and general audiences over “Melania” may be the new, startling benchmark. Rotten Tomatoes lists the film as having a 7% “Rotten” score from movie scribes and <a href="https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/melania">a 99 percent “fresh”</a> rating from the public at large.
Those blistering critiques, delivered by a film body that leans overwhelmingly to the Left, were just part of the media’s war on “Melania.”
The said war began before “Melania” hit American theaters on January 30. Outlet after outlet preened over reports of <a href="https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/movies/articles/melania-trump-promotes-film-amid-210206431.html">poor pre-release ticket sales</a>. So did <a href="https://www.aol.com/lifestyle/stephen-colbert-roasts-melania-documentary-144531012.html">Stephen Colbert of “The Late Show” fame.</a>
Empty theaters, reporters cried, suggested “Melania” would underperform even modest expectations. It did the opposite, earning north of $7 million in its opening frame. Recent documentaries made far, far less.
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">“Mr. Nobody Against Putin” &#8211; $19K to date in U.S.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">“Orwell: 2+2=5” &#8211; $355K in U.S.</li>
</ul>
For context, most documentaries are lucky to earn $1 million in theaters. “Melania,” media voices argued, might not make it to the $3 million mark. And, with a gaudy $40 million price tag courtesy of Jeff Bezos’ Amazon, that’s a debacle.
Except “Melania” delivered the biggest <a href="https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/insight/melania-opens-with-decade-best-documentary-debut/gm-8AE15378FA?gemSnapshotKey=8AE15378FA-snapshot-4&amp;ocid=AARDHP">documentary debut in a decade</a>. The film <a href="https://www.breitbart.com/entertainment/2026/02/05/nolte-exclusive-melania-gains-more-box-office-steam-with-wednesdays-1-25-million-haul/">has kept earning since then</a>. 
<div id="attachment_1040047" style="width: 632px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1040047" class="size-large wp-image-1040047" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/The-Donald-and-Mel-622x576.jpg" alt="Amazon MGM Studios. Muse Films. New Element Media. RatPac Entertainment." width="622" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/The-Donald-and-Mel-622x576.jpg 622w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/The-Donald-and-Mel-300x278.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/The-Donald-and-Mel-768x712.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/The-Donald-and-Mel.jpg 1379w" sizes=" (max-width: 622px) 100vw, 622px" />Amazon MGM Studios.</div>
USA Today argued it’s <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/columnist/2026/01/30/melania-movie-amazon-documentary-trump/88415378007/">“patriotic” to slam “Melania</a>.”
To be the subject of a documentary, one would think you’d have to accomplish something beyond being a complicit grifter in two of the most cruel, dishonest, and dangerous presidential terms in American history.
Indiewire said the film’s box office success <a href="https://www.indiewire.com/features/commentary/melania-box-office-documentary-filmmakers-worried-1235177403/">is terrible news for the documentary genre</a>.  Suddenly, a rising tide doesn’t lift all boats.
It’s a scary time for documentarians. Will they have to start working with the likes of Brett Ratner to make infomercials that please Donald Trump to pay the bills? The success of “Melania” suggests they might.
Meanwhile, a news media landscape that routinely decries review bombing – the practice of slagging a film or TV show sight unseen due to a variety of pre-release complaints, like overt wokeness – suddenly <a href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2026/01/melania-documentary-reviews-deleted-letterboxd/">cheered on review bombing of “Melania.”</a>
NPR needed something negative to share about the film. So it dug into the demographic breakdown of movie patrons and determined a large number of <a href="https://www.npr.org/2026/02/02/nx-s1-5693775/melania-documentary-box-office-audience">older white women</a> lined up to see “Melania.”
How often do media outlets report on the demographics of a given film? Hint: Not very often. NPR likely sought to portray the film’s fan base as overwhelmingly white (with a touch of supremacy?)
A few outlets have thrown all credibility to the wind to savage “Melania.” The far-Left Daily Beast took the crown here. The site has repeatedly called the film a “<a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-desperately-tries-to-juice-melania-doc-after-box-office-flop/">flop,”</a> although it’s on pace to pass 2024’s “<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/videos/am-i-racist?elementPosition=1&amp;row=1&amp;rowHeadline=Shows+and+Movies&amp;rowType=Portrait+Show+Carousel">Am I Racist?</a>” as the most successful documentary of the last decade.
<div id="attachment_819849" style="width: 1034px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/videos/am-i-racist?elementPosition=1&amp;row=1&amp;rowHeadline=Shows+and+Movies&amp;rowType=Portrait+Show+Carousel"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-819849" class="size-large wp-image-819849" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/10/00_AIR_16x9_Streaming_V02-1024x576.jpg" alt="Am I Racist?" width="1024" height="576" /></a>DailyWire+</div>
“Melania” expands its release pattern in its second weekend, upping the theatrical count to 2,000 screens. Even if the film underperforms from here, the theatrical release has done its job.
Amazon likely viewed the film all along as a Prime Video draw, first and foremost. The documentary will draw attention and eyeballs to the streaming service, giving it a competitive title in a cutthroat streaming landscape. The film’s theatrical bow is an extended promotion for its final, digital destination.
Why all the unprofessional hate? The <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/politics-news/melania-trump-brett-ratner-documentary-interview-1236489826/">First Lady may have said it best</a> at the premiere of her own movie.
“Superior storytelling drives culture and in turn moves markets.”
Legacy Media outlets fear a conservative encroachment on their turf most of all.
* * *
Christian Toto is an award-winning journalist, movie critic, and editor of <a href="https://www.hollywoodintoto.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">HollywoodInToto.com</a>. He previously served as associate editor with Breitbart News’ Big Hollywood. Follow him at <a href="https://www.hollywoodintoto.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">HollywoodInToto.com</a>.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Amazon MGM’s “Melania” World Premiere

The Left-Wing Media Is Losing Its Mind Over ‘Melania’

The Left-Wing Media Is Losing Its Mind Over 'Melania'

Amazon

Film

Leftists

Legacy Media

Michelle Obama

Rotten Tomatoes

Movie industry insiders projected an abysmal opening weekend for “Melania,” a film about the first lady, but were quickly proven wrong when it was projected to rake in at least $8 million, if not more.
While liberals gloated over screenshots of supposedly empty theaters, the movie has outperformed expectations, especially in the South and South-central part of the country, per <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/box-office-melania-opening-weekend-1236490092/">The Hollywood Reporter</a>. About three quarters of the audience was women aged 55 and older. 
The outlet noted that Amazon MGM paid $40 million for licensing rights and spent an estimated $35 million on marketing. At the premiere in Washington, D.C., on Thursday night, Melania told the press that success to her didn’t depend on box office numbers anyway.
“I’m very proud of the film, so people may like it, may [not] like it, and that’s their choice,” the first lady told CNN outside the premiere.
“We achieved what we want to achieve,” Melania later added. “For myself, it’s already successful. I’m very proud of what we did.”
<iframe loading="lazy" title="MELANIA | Official Trailer" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/dxXJAqOU00g?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
As predicted, legacy media critics absolutely trashed the film, giving it an overall rating of 11% on Rotten Tomatoes &#8212; but that’s a vast departure from what audiences are saying. With a Rotten Tomatoes audience score of 99% and a Cinemascore of &#8220;A,&#8221; many viewers praised the glimpse into the behind-the-scenes world of Melania in the 20 days leading up to her husband Donald Trump’s second inauguration.
“An inside look at inaugural preparations, done in style,” one verified reviewer wrote. “Also getting to know our First Lady in a more personal way. The lady who is smart, elegant, stylish, beautiful &amp; someone who loves this country &amp; appreciates all that it offers.”
“Wow. Thought I may like it for the fashion take on it. But it was so much more. Absolutely loved it. Regardless if you like her or not- this documentary was really, really good,” another moviegoer agreed.
“Melania” is directed by Brett Ratner, who is best known for the “Rush Hour” franchise.
The first lady previously mentioned the inspiration for the documentary while accepting Fox Nation’s “Patriot of the Year” award.
“A first of its kind, capturing the 20 days of my life before the inauguration, 20 intense days of transformation from private citizen to first lady, balancing my business, my philanthropy, fostering the future, building my East Wing team and the White House staff, and, of course, caring for my family,” she said at the time.
“Melania” began screening in theaters nationwide on Friday.

Box Office Triumph: ‘Melania’ Doc Smashes Predictions, Heads To $8M+ Opening Weekend

Box Office Triumph: 'Melania' Doc Smashes Predictions, Heads To $8M+ Opening Weekend

The first lady debuted her new autobiographical film, “Melania,” at the Trump-Kennedy Center on Thursday night, saying she already considers it a success regardless of critical reception or box office performance.
“I’m very proud of the film so people may like it, may don’t like it, and that’s their choice,” Melania Trump told <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2026/01/29/politics/melania-trump-documentary-premiere-red-carpet">CNN</a> outside the premiere. “We achieved what we want to achieve,” Melania added later. “For myself, it’s already successful. I’m very proud of what we did.”
President Donald Trump also attended the premiere, walking a red carpet that was black to match the film’s black-and-white aesthetic. 
“She’s very smart, very measured — sometimes, when I’m not so measured, she measures you,” Trump said to one reporter about his wife of more than 20 years. 
“I think they knew she was smart, but perhaps, maybe they’ll get her to see something that elevates her above just the word ‘smart,’” the president said at another point, as the Washington Post <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/style/power/2026/01/29/melania-trump-documentary-premiere-kennedy-center/">reported</a>. “She’s got a lot of high quality.”
“It really brings back a glamour that you just don’t see anymore,” he told the outlet. “Our country could use a little bit of that.”
<iframe loading="lazy" title="MELANIA | Official Trailer" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/dxXJAqOU00g?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
The media were not invited to view the film, but several government officials in attendance had glowing things to say about the first lady. 
“She’s one of the most gracious people,” House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) said of Melania.
“She’s not the caricature that we’ve been fed,” Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. agreed.
Melania signed a multimillion-dollar deal with Amazon MGM Studios and served as executive producer on the project. Filming began in December 2024 and documents the 20 days leading up to her return to the White House.
“Melania” is directed by Brett Ratner, who is best known for the “Rush Hour” franchise.
The first lady previously mentioned the inspiration for the documentary while accepting Fox Nation’s “Patriot of the Year” award.
“A first of its kind, capturing the 20 days of my life before the inauguration, 20 intense days of transformation from private citizen to first lady, balancing my business, my philanthropy, fostering the future, building my East Wing team and the White House staff, and, of course, caring for my family,” she <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/melania-documentary-trailer-promises-inside-look-at-the-first-ladys-return-to-the-white-house">said</a> at the time.
“Melania” began screening in theaters nationwide on Friday.

First Lady Says ‘Melania’ Documentary Is ‘Already Successful’

First Lady Says 'Melania' Documentary Is 'Already A Success' 

Donald Trump

Marina Zenovich, the director of the upcoming documentary “I’m Chevy Chase, and You’re Not,” said she felt relieved when the actor made a snarky remark early in filming.
Zenovich <a href="https://variety.com/2025/tv/news/im-chevy-chase-youre-not-cnn-doc-snl-community-1236618483/">told</a> Variety that she wanted to explore Chase’s <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/is-chevy-chase-really-that-terrible-either-way-he-doesnt-care">notoriously bad reputation</a> in Hollywood, noting that multiple colleagues have gone on record describing him as mean and hard to work with. She said an early exchange with Chase gave her the opening she was looking for.
At the very beginning of the documentary, Zenovich can be heard off-camera telling Chase, “I’m just trying to figure you out.”
“No sh**. It’s not going to be easy for you,” he replied.
“Why is it not going to be easy?” Zenovich asked.
“You’re not bright enough. How’s that?” Chase said, then smiled. 
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“I’d never done an interview where someone was so rude to me,” Zenovich told Variety, saying she was relieved he behaved that way. “But I was so worried going into that first interview with him about how I was going to say to him, like, ‘Everyone thinks you’re an a**hole.’ I thought if I did, he would throw me out of his house. So the minute he said that to me, I had a way in.”
<iframe loading="lazy" title="Comedy Icon Unfiltered | “I’m Chevy Chase And You’re Not” Official Trailer | CNN" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/vIHEjXEI-l0?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
“I wanted to figure out who was the real person behind the conflicted, guarded and somewhat fragile man we see on camera,” the director continued. “What was behind the surface of his slightly intimidating superstar bravado? Was there any self-awareness there? Having interviewed Chevy at length, I have to say that yes, it’s all there – and a whole lot of pain and heartache too.”
While many of Chase’s co-stars refused to be interviewed for the documentary, including almost everyone involved in the NBC sitcom “Community,” several shared insights. Zenovich spoke with the actor’s friends and family, as well as celebrities including Mike Ovitz, Dan Aykroyd, Beverly D’Angelo, Goldie Hawn, Lorne Michaels, Ryan Reynolds, and Martin Short.
The documentary airs on CNN on January 1. It explores Chase&#8217;s career, beginning with his breakout role on “Saturday Night Live” and on through three failed marriages and drug addiction.

Chevy Chase

‘You’re Not Bright Enough’: Chevy Chase’s Snark Sets Tone For New Documentary

Celebrities

A trailer for the upcoming documentary film “Melania,” based on the first lady, debuted today. The movie is scheduled for release in theaters on January 30.
The teaser highlights several behind-the-scenes moments in the days leading up to President Trump’s inauguration. “Here we go again,” Melania says in the opening moments of the trailer as she walks into the US Capitol on Inauguration Day.
At another point, the first lady answers the phone and says, “Hi, Mr. President. Congratulations,” as she looks out at the Manhattan skyline.
President Trump can be heard asking, “Did you watch it?”
“I did not. Yeah. I will see it on the news,” Melania replies. The trailer then cuts to a January photo shoot at the White House.
The short trailer also includes brief clips of the Trumps with White House staff, snapshots from Mar-a-Lago and Trump Tower, and the first lady laying a white lily by a tombstone.
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In another scene, Melania listens to her husband practicing a speech and interjects with an additional remark. When President Trump describes himself as a “peacemaker,” she chimes in saying, “Peacemaker and unifier.”
<iframe loading="lazy" title="MELANIA | Official Trailer" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/dxXJAqOU00g?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Melania signed a multi-million-dollar deal with Amazon MGM Studios and is an executive producer of the project. It began filming in December 2024 and documents the 20 days around her return to the White House.
“Melania” is directed by Brett Ratner, who is best known for the “Rush Hour” franchise. 
The first lady previously <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2025/12/17/politics/melania-trump-documentary-trailer">mentioned</a> the inspiration for the documentary while accepting Fox Nation’s “Patriot of the Year” award.
“A first of its kind, capturing the 20 days of my life before the inauguration, 20 intense days of transformation from private citizen to first lady, balancing my business, my philanthropy, fostering the future, building my East Wing team and the White House staff, and, of course, caring for my family,” she said at the time.

‘Melania’ Documentary Trailer Promises Inside Look At The First Lady’s Return To The White House

'Melania' Documentary Trailer Released: 'Here We Go Again'

2025 Atlantic Festival

Exposing Every Lie In The New Anti-American Documentary From Ken Burns

Diversity

Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI)

Film Reviews

Founding Fathers

George Washington

Matt Walsh

Woke Culture

Many detransitioners who speak out receive death threats. I know, because my son, Simon, is a gender apostate, and people call for his death all the time.
Gender ideologues become terrified when people like Simon prove there is life after trans identification. It turns out delusions can pass; people and families can heal. I knew this, which is why I stood up and spoke out when my son was in the throes of trans identification. When his doctor, right in front of my son, asked me, &#8220;Do you want a living daughter or a dead son?”, I told him it was the most shocking display of malpractice I had ever seen.
In college, my son’s classmates called for his death, yet they were allowed to remain on campus. My son was the one they wouldn&#8217;t allow to speak. He just wanted to tell people he had stopped believing he was trans, but the dean bellowed that he would never be allowed to speak on campus. They tried to get him expelled, his classmates screamed at him in the street, and he received threatening emails.
The gender ideologues want families like ours silenced. I&#8217;ve had a mob of trans activists scream at me, in my face, saying that I was evil and did conversion therapy on my son. I was surprised to feel calm — I knew there was nothing I had ever done in my life that was more right than helping my son find the way out of this delusion.
I loved my son then — as I love my son now — enough to tell him the truth. He was born a boy, he is a man now, and he has been male every day in between. For a while, he was angry I didn&#8217;t see it his way, but now he is thankful I held to the truth.
Puberty is hard for most kids, but it seems especially traumatic for autistic kids. When Simon was young, he would cry when anything changed — even when a restaurant or a gas station closed. When his voice began changing, he bawled abjectly — his own body had betrayed him from the inside.
Likewise, trying to find acceptance among peers is a challenge for all teenagers; try it when you can&#8217;t read nonverbal social cues or interpret your own feelings. As a child, a preteen, or a teenager, my son never knew when somebody was going to bully him. In the case of boys, he was surprised every time he was punched or threatened; in the case of girls, he was surprised to be the target of vicious rumors or a group shunning. He didn&#8217;t know how to handle it, and I couldn&#8217;t teach him. I didn&#8217;t know how to teach social skills to a kid I didn&#8217;t even know was autistic.
All of this contributed to Simon’s trans identification. My son was 14 years old when he called his mother and me into the dining room and played us a song on the piano about how he thought he was a girl inside. It was clear he didn&#8217;t want to be himself at that point. He was experiencing real distress, but he had been taught an escape rather than a solution.
I wanted to get him help for his discomfort, his sadness, his worry. It&#8217;s hard to get mental health support for a kid. Once a kid says he&#8217;s trans, though, it becomes almost impossible. You enter an upside-down world, where they believe parents hate their children, and the child tells the doctor the diagnosis. If you&#8217;re a parent who wants a therapist to help your autistic teen learn about how to perceive social and internal cues, that can all be derailed when he says he&#8217;s trans. They may want to wash their hands of him and send him to the gender center (where all patients are trans as a matter of policy). They may demand you get on board the trans train — or else.
This could be a kid who can&#8217;t tell whether he&#8217;s hungry or he&#8217;s angry. He needs help to distinguish those feelings. But if he says he feels like a woman, a therapist can&#8217;t even ask him what he means by that. Activists have gotten laws passed that can take a therapist&#8217;s license away if he doesn&#8217;t agree kids are trans whenever they say so. And if you, as a parent, aren’t careful, they could even take your kid away from you.
<iframe loading="lazy" title="Identity Crisis: Defying the Transgender Lobby to Save His Son" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Nk6GxP1jR-E?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Trans-identifying boys have cheerleaders everywhere. It&#8217;s not just the therapists, or the girls who will take your boy shopping and buy him women&#8217;s clothes. There are the school groups like GSA, which used to stand for &#8220;Gay-Straight Alliance,&#8221; but now stands for &#8220;Gender and Sexuality Alliance.&#8221; These groups preach the religion of gender. Our kids are taught about gender identities in health class as if they&#8217;re as real as chromosomes or conception. Online, kids can meet people of all ages with sometimes prurient enthusiasm for their gender identification. What&#8217;s one father against all of that?
One father can be a start. I taught my son that lots of people believing an idea doesn&#8217;t make it true, it just makes it popular. Reality is what&#8217;s still there when you stop believing in it. Right now, trans ideology is popular. But sex is real, and it&#8217;s still going to be here when the trans fad passes or your kid overcomes his delusions. If you succeed in holding the line against medicalization, he may be healthy and whole when that happens.
Parents have so many roles. Sometimes you&#8217;re a guide, walking in front of your children and showing them the way. Sometimes you teach, sometimes comfort, sometimes inspire. Sometimes a father is just a lighthouse keeper, maintaining a beacon so they can find their way back.
My son found his way back from his delusion. I don&#8217;t know all the reasons why, but I know he couldn&#8217;t have done it if I had let my light go out.
* * *
Gareth Amaya Price is the father of <a href="https://www.iwfeatures.com/documentary/how-this-desister-broke-free-from-the-transgender-contagion/">Simon Amaya Price</a>, a desister. Gareth Amaya Price was featured in a <a href="https://www.iwfeatures.com/documentary/how-this-desister-broke-free-from-the-transgender-contagion/">new two-part documentary</a> produced by <a href="https://www.iwfeatures.com/">IW Features</a>, Independent Women’s grassroots storytelling and original journalism arm, as part of its “<a href="https://www.iwfeatures.com/our-stories/reclaiming-biological-reality-stories/">Identity Crisis: Real Stories About Escaping Gender Ideology”</a> series.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
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IW doc

My Son Thought He Was A Girl. He’s Now A Detransitioner.

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Boston Children's Hospital

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The Daily Wire is releasing an important new documentary today. In association with Our Rescue, “<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/videos/hiding-in-plain-sight-america-s-trafficking-epidemic">Hiding in Plain Sight</a>” takes you inside the shocking world of digital predators who use everyday apps to hunt, groom, and traffic children from their own bedrooms — at a scale law enforcement has never seen before.
Few people know that better than Derek Benner, CEO of <a href="http://www.ourrescue.org">Our Rescue</a>. Benner helped lead the creation of the DHS Center for Countering Human Trafficking, the nation’s first unified task force dedicated to ending modern slavery.
As Benner points out, the crisis is closer than we think. — The Daily Wire
* * *
One of the most common questions I get as the CEO of Our Rescue is: “Does child exploitation and sex trafficking really happen here?” 
I often reply, if you ask any law enforcement officer working sex trafficking and child exploitation cases, they’ll tell you the same thing: “The biggest mistake people make is thinking this crime doesn’t happen at home, in our communities, in the United States. It does. And it’s everywhere.”
Worldwide, there are nearly 50 million people trapped in modern slavery, according to the International Labor Organization. In 2024, the Global Tips Report showed that the number of children being trafficked had increased 31% in 2022 compared to 2019, with a 38% rise recorded for girls. Before I joined Our Rescue, I spent my career at Homeland Security Investigations — leading complex efforts to combat human trafficking and child exploitation and spearheading the creation of the DHS Center for Countering Human Trafficking, the first unified, inter-agency coordination center dedicated to combating trafficking in all forms. And I can tell you, everyday law enforcement officers uncover cases of children and adults being groomed, recruited, coerced, or even sold in our own communities. The victims are not just statistics; they are neighbors, classmates, and children whose lives are being stolen in plain sight.
But beyond these trafficking cases, another fast-growing threat is here in the U.S. — the online sexual exploitation of children. Technology has opened new frontiers for predators and organized criminal groups, making it easier than ever to target American kids in their own homes.
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The scale of child sexual exploitation in the United States is staggering. In 2024 alone, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) CyberTipline received over 20.5 million reports of suspected child sexual exploitation. These reports included more than 62.9 million files of Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM). This is not just a statistic; it represents real images, videos, and other materials depicting children enduring unimaginable harm.
Mike Prado, who heads the Cyber Crimes Center (C3) at Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), put it plainly: “This is no longer just about lone offenders. Today, organized criminal groups overseas are running sextortion schemes that deliberately target American children for profit.” Operations out of places like West Africa have pushed kids in America into such despair that some have taken their own lives within hours of first contact. That is the new face of exploitation. And it’s happening in U.S. households. Every. Single. Day.
The game has changed. “Now these offenders have access to the same technology that the government has,” Prado told me. “They don’t have to go to MIT. They don’t have to have a computer science degree to figure this stuff out.”
Two decades ago, law enforcement relied on basic email for victim identification. Smartphones weren’t widely available, the darknet was barely in use, and exploiting technology required computer science expertise. Today, both predators and our children can figure out these tools with ease. Technology is everywhere, and every device a child receives, whether for school or learning, can become a portal into the darker areas of the internet. According to a 2019 Kaspersky study, 84% of parents worldwide are worried about their children’s online safety. Yet also according to the study, on average, parents only spend a total of 46 minutes talking to their children about online security throughout their entire childhood. Ignoring that is a luxury we can’t afford anymore.
While law enforcement and government investment in combating exploitation have increased over the years, there is still much more to do to stay ahead of increasingly sophisticated offenders.
The core challenge is sheer scale. Every success is quickly met with new cases, and for every criminal network taken down overseas, another takes its place. It is the demand for Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) in the U.S. that keeps this cycle in motion.
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In 2024, reports involving generative artificial intelligence (AI) increased by 1,325%, highlighting how technology is being weaponized against our children. Additionally, reports of online enticement, including sextortion, rose by 192%, with nearly 100 reports of financial sextortion per day. Since 2021, NCMEC has been aware of at least 36 teenage boys who have taken their lives due to this crime.
The problem is not just the number of cases but the sophistication of the predators and the overwhelming volume of reports. In 2024, NCMEC assisted law enforcement with 29,568 cases of missing children and helped bring 91% of them home. However, the risks, especially online, are becoming more complex and widespread.
But I believe that partnerships are the key to changing the tide in this fight. Just this year, the inaugural Interstate Justice Coalition surge operation (coordinated between Our Rescue, We Fight Monsters, and Skull Games Solutions and in partnership with local law enforcement agencies) spanned across Mississippi, Tennessee, Texas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas, resulting in the identification of 32 trafficking victims, the safe recovery of 26 survivors, and the arrest of 15 traffickers.
It’s work like this — collaboration between law enforcement, nonprofits, communities, and individuals is what ultimately keeps children safe. Fighting sex trafficking and child exploitation isn’t only about arrests: It’s also about prevention and education, because the best defense is an informed community. I invite you to learn more about how you can <a href="https://ourrescue.org/join-the-fight">Join the Fight</a> against sex trafficking and child exploitation.
We must stop living like it is someone else’s problem. It’s not. It’s here, and it’s exploding at a rate our communities are not prepared to handle.
No one can fight it alone. But together we can save lives and dismantle networks that exploit and harm children.
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Derek Benner is proud to serve as the CEO of Our Rescue. Formerly the Chief Mission Officer, overseeing international and domestic Operations and Survivor Care teams, he brings expertise gained from a 30-year career in federal law enforcement that includes leading Homeland Security Investigations within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Derek led the creation of the DHS Center for Countering Human Trafficking, the first unified, inter-component coordination center for countering human trafficking.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
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