A rumor spread online in late January 2026 that U.S. President Donald Trump made a post on social media announcing that the movie "Melania," a documentary about his wife, would be "mandatory viewing in ALL history courses."
The post spread on Threads, Reddit and Facebook (screenshot). Snopes readers also wrote in to ask for verification of the post and searched the website to determine whether it was legitimate.
(Facebook user Jeremy Justin)
Here's what the alleged post said:
In celebration of my INCREDIBLE WIFE, MELANIE, and her BRAND NEW MOVIE (critics are calling it "VERY IMPORTANT"), I am proud to announce that it will now be considered a FOUNDATIONAL MOMENT IN AMERICAN HISTORY.
Effective immediately, this movie will be MANDATORY VIEWING in ALL history courses. Elementary, high school, college - EVERYONE. People should learn WINNING early.
Any universities that REFUSE to teach this MASTERPIECE will unfortunately see their funding DISAPPEAR. Sad! But rules are rules.
This is about EDUCATION. This is about CULTURE. This is about RESPECT.
Congratulations to MELANIA on this HISTORIC ACHIEVEMENT!!!
Many people are saying it's the greatest film since the invention of film.
While the screenshot circulating online was stylized in the same way as Trump's Truth Social posts, it did not match any posts on the president's actual Truth Social account. The image also had numerous red flags on further inspection that indicated it was digitally edited. As such, we have rated this image as fake.
A reverse image search could not determine the original creator of the post.
A search of Trump's Truth, an archive of the president's Truth Social posts, returned no relevant results for "Melanie," a misspelling of Melania Trump's name in the post circulating online. An additional search using a database of Trump's X and Truth Social posts run by Roll Call, a reputable site covering the U.S. Capitol, also returned no relevant results.
The screenshot circulating online included no timestamp and no icons for likes, reposts (known as "ReTruths" on Truth Social), comments and shares, unlike an actual Truth Social post. The "@realDonaldTrump" handle and profile name also looked blurry in comparison with the clearer text of the fake post, indicating the use of digital editing to add text to a screenshot.
While Trump did not actually post that "Melania" would be mandatory viewing for history students, he did promote the movie as a "MUST WATCH" in a Jan. 26 Truth Social post.
Snopes has previously fact-checked numerous fake Truth Social posts attributed to Trump, including a post appearing to show Trump calling teachers "ugly" and a satirical post in which Trump supposedly called a historic trade agreement reached between the European Union and India a "high school science project."