Promotional posters for a documentary film about US first lady Melania Trump have been repeatedly vandalised across Los Angeles, prompting the region’s transit authority to reroute some buses carrying the advertisements and raising fresh questions about security and political tensions spilling into public spaces.
The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, known as LA Metro, said it decided to move buses featuring the “Melania” campaign after seeing what it described as a marked escalation in damage to advertising displays at city-run bus shelters. “After seeing significant vandalism at city bus stops on advertising for the Melania movie, Metro proactively reassigned some of the buses containing that advertising to other geographic areas to minimize potential vandalism,” the agency told NBC Los Angeles.
According to photos published by local outlets, some posters have been defaced with crude graffiti, including devil horns, expletives, and a small moustache drawn on the first lady’s face resembling the one worn by Adolf Hitler. Others include text referencing Eva Braun, Hitler’s partner, and allegations linked to the late financier Jeffrey Epstein. Fox 11 Los Angeles reported that some of the posters read, “Melania is in the Epstein files,” while others were painted with a Hitler-style moustache accompanied by the words “Eva Braun”.
LA Metro officials said the bus shelters involved are operated by the City of Los Angeles and are not under Metro’s direct control, but the scale and consistency of the vandalism prompted concern that buses themselves could be targeted. A Metro spokesperson, Patrick Chandler, told the Los Angeles Times the vandalism spree was “extensive and severe,” and said the agency was acting to protect passengers, staff and property by shifting certain buses to areas where officials were “not observing that vandalism”.
In a statement also carried by Fox 11, Metro said the advertising campaign had been running for more than three weeks as part of a four-week buy, and that after incidents in Minneapolis over the weekend it observed “extensive and severe vandalism targeting those same advertisements on city-owned bus stops”. The statement continued: “Given that Metro buses have had significant vandalism and damage during previous periods of heightened public activity, we made the decision in the interest of protecting our riders, employees and assets, and out of an abundance of caution, to shift some of these buses to areas where we were not observing that vandalism.”
The vandalism has coincided with the final marketing push ahead of the documentary’s release. NBC Los Angeles reported that the film, produced by Amazon MGM Studios, was due for release at the end of January, with plans to make it available on Amazon Prime Video after its theatrical run. Reuters reported that the film opens in about 1,700 theatres in the United States and Canada, following a large promotional campaign that included television advertising during NFL playoff games, billboards, and high-profile outdoor displays.
Reuters described “Melania” as a documentary offering rare access to a first lady who has kept a low public profile during her husband’s second term, and said the project documents the 20 days leading up to President Donald Trump’s 2025 inauguration and the family’s return to the White House. The news agency reported that Melania Trump is listed as one of the producers.
The marketing budget and the scale of the release have drawn attention in the film industry. Reuters cited Kristy Guevara-Flanagan, head of documentary film at the University of California Los Angeles, who said: “It’s an extremely high budget for promotion of a documentary.” She added: “It really feels like it’s so much in excess it’s like stuffing it down our throats.”
The film’s Washington premiere, held at the Kennedy Center, was attended by senior members of the Trump administration, Reuters reported. Director Brett Ratner told reporters at the event: “It wasn’t about getting rich.” He added: “I think the Trumps are wealthy and successful enough.” Reuters also reported President Trump’s response when asked whether Amazon’s licensing deal was intended to curry favour: “I’m not involved, and it was done with my wife.” Amazon, for its part, said it licensed the film because it believed viewers would respond to it, with an Amazon spokesperson telling Reuters: “We licensed the film for one reason and one reason only – because we think customers are going to love it.”
In Los Angeles, however, attention has focused less on the documentary’s box-office prospects and more on the speed with which the ads became a flashpoint. The Los Angeles Times reported that the posters were installed at bus stops across the city earlier in January and “soon” began accumulating graffiti, citing photos published by NBC Los Angeles showing devil horns, a Hitler-style moustache, and insults.
Fox 11 reported that the vandalised ads were seen at multiple locations, including bus stops in the San Fernando Valley, and that Metro linked the recent spike in bus stop damage to heightened tensions associated with immigration enforcement and events in Minnesota. The Los Angeles Times similarly reported that Metro officials tied their decision to reroute buses to broader concerns about periods of “heightened public activity” and the risk of damage to buses, citing Chandler’s statement about protecting “riders, employees and assets”.
The incidents have also drawn claims and denials from activist groups. Fox 11 reported that a group called INDECLINE said it took responsibility for a billboard at 9300 Venice Boulevard but stated it was “not behind the bus stop vandalism”. In a statement quoted by Fox 11, the group said it had sought to create “a little marketing buzz ahead of her big premiere”.
On the street, reactions have ranged from condemnation of property damage to blunt political judgements about the first lady’s association with the president. Fox 11 quoted one bus rider drawing a comparison to Hitler’s household, saying: “If you have let’s say Hitler’s wife and they make a movie about her, I don’t think people are going to be happy about her either, even if she didn’t do anything wrong.” Another rider told the station: “She’s related to that guy so, indirectly she getting all the flack.”
Metro said the buses affected were still operating on their normal schedules, while the reassigned vehicles were shifted to reduce the risk of copycat attacks or escalation. Local media reports did not indicate any arrests linked to the graffiti, and it remains unclear whether the defacing of the advertisements is being treated as a coordinated campaign or as opportunistic vandalism spread across multiple neighbourhoods.
The controversy lands at a moment when political imagery and public signage have increasingly become targets in Los Angeles, particularly around polarising national figures. The Los Angeles Times noted that the city has seen repeated vandalism connected to President Trump in the past, citing earlier damage to his Hollywood Walk of Fame star. With “Melania” set to open amid an unusually aggressive promotional effort, the Los Angeles transit disruption underscores how quickly a marketing campaign can become entangled in wider political conflict, and how public infrastructure can become the canvas for that confrontation.