While some Minnesota cities are turning over their new Local Affordable Housing Aid to their counties, one south metro city is working to keep its funds — and its residents — at home.

The city of Burnsville is using $1.5 million in LAHA funding to develop affordable housing programs that are specifically catered to the community’s needs, said Travis Bistodeau, deputy community development director for the city.

Created in 2023 by the Minnesota Legislature and funded by a 0.25% metro area sales tax, LAHA helps local governments develop and preserve affordable housing and help those experiencing homelessness, according to the Minnesota Department of Revenue.

LAHA funds are distributed based on the city’s share of cost-burdened households, Bistodeau said. Burnsville, which has a relatively high number of cost-burdened households, received about $405,000 of LAHA funding in 2024. In 2025, Burnsville received $1.1 million, the most of any city in Dakota County. Final amounts have not been announced for 2026, but Bistodeau said the city expects to receive about $1 million annually for the foreseeable future.

“Most Dakota County cities have made a decision to pass a portion or all of their LAHA dollars over to Dakota County for spending,” Bistodeau said.

Eagan, for example, committed $175,000 of the roughly $346,600 it received in 2024 LAHA funding to Dakota County, said Sara Horwath, director of communications and engagement for Eagan, in an email.

The county collected about $1.3 million in 2024 LAHA funds from Apple Valley, Eagan, Farmington, Hastings, Inver Grove Heights, Lakeville, Mendota Heights, Rosemount and South St. Paul, said Sara Swenson, director of administration and communications for the county’s Community Development Agency, in an email. Those funds will be used for county-wide home improvement loans and radon mitigation grants, Swenson said.

Burnsville, however, has taken a different approach.

“We have essentially programmed 100% of our dollars specific to Burnsville’s unique needs,” Bistodeau said.

The first of the city’s four programs is already up and running and the other three are expected to launch later this year.

Low-interest improvement loans

The city’s first LAHA-funded housing assistance program, which launched in September, offers two types of low-interest home improvement loans for families earning 80% or less of the area’s median income (for a one-person household, that’s $72,950; a two-person household is $83,400; a three-person household is $93,800; and a four-person household is $104,200).

The program, which is allocated $400,000 annually, provides low-interest loans for “most permanent interior and exterior improvements, maintenance or remodeling projects,” according to the eligibility requirements. These improvements can include a new roof, replacing siding or replacing mechanical equipment, Bistodeau said.

The Home Improvement Loan, which has a 3% interest rate and terms ranging from 10 to 20 years, is available in amounts from $5,000 to $50,000.

The Senior Deferred Home Improvement Loan, which has a 2% interest rate and a 30-year term, is available in amounts from $5,000 to $15,000. To be eligible for this loan, at least one borrower must be 65 or older.

Since the program’s launch, nine home improvement loan applications have been submitted, Bistodeau said.

Down payment assistance

The down payment assistance program will help families that earn 80% AMI or less get into their own home, Bistodeau said, adding that you do not have to be a first-time homebuyer to qualify.

This program, which has been allocated $200,000 annually, is intended to fund half of a traditional 20% down payment, Bistodeau said. For example, if a house is priced at $100,000, the city would put up $10,000 of the $20,000 down payment.

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The maximum home sale price under this program is $410,000, Bistodeau said, which was set to keep up with inflation. At the end of 2025, the median sale price of a home in Burnsville sat at $385,000, according to Redfin.

“The beauty of this is the loan is 100% forgivable if the family chooses to stay in the home for 30 years,” Bistodeau said. Should the homeowners choose to sell before then, the loan balance would be due.

Besides being fully forgivable after 30 years, no interest is charged to the borrower and all payments are deferred, so repayment is made in full only upon ownership change prior to 30 years.

“The (program’s) purpose is to open up homeownership opportunities in Burnsville for those who otherwise might not be able to make the leap from renting to owning,” Bistodeau said. “It also encourages neighborhood stability by encouraging folks to stay in their home, invest in their neighborhood and stay in our city long term.”

Rehab blighted homes

Burnsville city staff are working on a partnership with Habitat for Humanity to rehabilitate blighted homes in the city.

The idea behind the program, which will be funded to the tune of $500,000 annually, is to have Habitat for Humanity purchase vacant or blighted single-family homes, rehabilitate them to minimum standards and then sell the homes at an affordable rate to homebuyers earning 80% or less of the AMI, Bistodeau said.

“Habitat would come in, use our construction and volunteers to make improvements to a home and then make them available to homebuyers who are at 80% AMI or below,” said Beth Pfeifer, vice president of real estate development for Habitat for Humanity.

“We are super excited about this,” Pfeifer said, adding that the Burnsville program will be patterned after similar programs in Roseville and Edina.

Rehabilitating a house can take on many different forms, Pfeifer said, like replacing aging kitchen appliances, lead and asbestos abatement, radon mitigation or adding on a bedroom. “It depends on the house, which is a great thing about the project,” she said.

In some cases, they may consider adding solar panels, she said. “We really want to make sure that a home is affordable not only in terms of the mortgage, but in terms of utility costs and expenses that go into maintaining homeownership,” Pfeifer said.

“It’s a really great way for cities to take their current housing stock that might be in need of a little TLC and ensure that those homes stay affordable,” Pfeifer said.

As it’s currently sketched out, the city would help Habitat cover the upfront cost of a home, but the home would never be owned by the city. Once the home is rehabilitated, Habitat would sell it at an affordable price and the city would be refunded by Habitat.

Once all is said and done, the city’s final contribution would be $100,000 or less, Bistodeau said.

“We will ensure those homes remain affordable through a deed restriction for 30 years,” Pfeifer said.

“If the family who bought the home wants to sell the property before that restriction expires, they pay the city back our $100,000, but if they choose to stay in it, that $100,000 is forgiven,” Bistodeau said.

Details of the program and partnership are still being ironed out as it’s in the beginning stages of development, Bistodeau and Pfeifer both emphasized.

Emergency housing vouchers

The fourth program, an emergency housing voucher, was designed to assist low-income families who have suffered an emergency situation, Bistodeau said.

The program, which has been allocated $40,000 annually, will provide free hotel stays for up to two weeks, Bistodeau said.

The $40,000 figure was chosen through conversations with emergency responders and local school districts, Bistodeau said. “The school districts come across families in the winter who are displaced for a variety of reasons.”

Burnsville Fire Chief BJ Jungmann said he’s encountered individuals, seniors, multi-generational families and families with children experiencing homelessness in the community.

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The vision for this program is that it be used in an emergency or tragedy, Jungmann said, using an apartment fire as an example.

“When multiple families are displaced due to an apartment fire, they don’t always have a place to go,” Jungmann said. “Unfortunately when these things happen, it’s not a quick process to repair a building from something as significant as a fire.”

While it’s not a long-term solution, Bistodeau said, “rather than having nowhere to go, they have a temporary shelter.”

The emergency voucher program is expected to go live sometime this year, Bistodeau said.

Real growth vs. subsidized expansion

In a recent article (“How is St. Paul’s Victoria Crossing mall on Grand Ave. eligible for TIF funding?” Feb. 1) city leaders made the case that we have to choose, as a city, between growing and not growing. This is a fallacy. The real choice is between organic, sustainable growth and artificial, subsidized expansion that erodes our future.

One needs only look at Lowertown to see the sort of development that can be created by attracting developers who were able to increase density and tax base while still embracing the character of the existing buildings. During a period that began with 15 percent prime interest rates, the city managed to attract nearly $1 billion in private investment to that neighborhood with very little use of TIF projects, after 27 years. Most all Lowertown buildings would have been considered “structurally substandard.”

TIF doesn’t “add” to the tax base; it captures new revenue for up to 30 years. By the time these properties contribute to the general fund, their valuation has largely declined. In 2004, three TIF projects pushed downtown vacancy from 5% to 30%. We used tax dollars to overbuild, crashed the market, and are still struggling to recover.

St. Paul shouldn’t use public funds to repeat the mistakes of the past. Real growth shouldn’t require a 30-year subsidy to exist.

John Mannillo, St. Paul

 

Stop with the masks and the whistles

In order to help deescalate the immigration enforcement situation I have the following two suggestions:

To federal law enforcement personnel, please stop wearing face masks. When I see them I think of outlaws from western movies or imperial storm troopers from Star Wars. It is not a good look.

To protesters, please stop extended use of the whistles. I believe the intended use is to notify local residents of enforcement actions but it appears that well after this is accomplished they are still being blown in attempts to annoy law enforcement and resulting in increased chaos.

Maybe a little quid pro quo, if law enforcement is not wearing masks then protesters will not continue whistling indefinitely.

Tyler Beck, Vadnais Heights

 

Stop the elections takeover

During a July 26, 2024, speech at a Turning Point Action meeting, Donald Trump said, “Christians, get out and vote. Just this time. You won’t have to do it anymore, you know what? Four more years, it’ll be fixed, it’ll be fine, you won’t have to vote anymore, my beautiful Christians.”

Efforts by the Republican Party to suppress voting, acquire voter rolls, obtain ballots in Georgia, weaponize the Department of Justice to intimidate U.S. citizens, gerrymander districts in multiple states, implement the federal takeover of state elections, lend credence to Trump’s words. Include Pam Bondi’s ransom to end the ICE/DHS occupation of Minnesota if our state provides voter rolls and Republican goals become clear.

If we cannot stop this agenda, democracy as we know it is dead.

Denny Rue, St. Paul

 

Shoe’s on the other foot

According to a recent report, border czar Tom Homan has “zero tolerance for protestors who assault federal officers or impede the ongoing Twin Cities operation.” This is code for Homan excusing the federal government’s response to mass demonstrations in the Twin Cities. So: protestors are now to stop protesting murder by heavily armed masked squads in unmarked cars? Or standing up to same pepper-spraying and assaulting civilians exercising their constitutional rights often in subzero temperatures? If we go quietly then he’ll end the profiling, detention and deportation of U.S. citizens of color and random stops of motorists? I think he is revictimizing us; we are not assaulting anyone. Shoe’s on the other foot.

Jos F Landsberger, St. Paul

 

Dignity, restraint and love that refuses to lie

From Anchorage, Alaska, I’m writing with a message for Minnesota: Alex Pretti’s parents are not alone.

I honored their request to remember their son truthfully — as a good person — by writing a letter that was published here in Anchorage, and in my hometown paper in northern Wisconsin, the Iron County Miner, near where Alex’s grandparents are buried. I wanted the people of Minnesota to know that their call for truth traveled farther than they may realize.

In an era when grief is often weaponized, these parents modeled something powerful: dignity, restraint and love that refuses to lie. If our country celebrated civic courage the way it celebrates noise, they’d be nominated for every major honor we have for peace, character and public grace.

I also write as a father who lost a son after hard battles in our health-care world during the Donald Trump era. Different story — same heartbreak.

Minnesota, please keep standing for truth and humanity. From across the miles, we stand with you.

Ron Alleva, Anchorage

 

Reminded

The story in a recent edition of the Pioneer Press about the Lutsen Lodge owner suing his insurance company for nonpayment though he was charged with arson reminded me somewhat of the man who was on trial for murdering his parents and asking the judge for leniency because he was an orphan.

Don Jacobson, Shoreview

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If she could go back in time, she never would have married him.

Nou was 15 and living in a refugee camp in Thailand when she was wed to a much older man. She didn’t want to and, with decades of hindsight and regret, she wishes she had pushed back.

Now, she’s 50 and living in St. Paul. She is disabled from what she describes as years of abuse at her husband’s hands and from a suicide attempt in 2003. Her husband died the same day, in what she says was an act of self-defense, and she pleaded no contest to voluntary manslaughter.

Nou uses a walker at her house and a wheelchair when she goes anywhere else, and her family cares for her everyday needs. She believes she wouldn’t survive detention or being deported to the country where she was born, Laos. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)

She served nearly seven years in prison and her green card was taken. U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement issued a removal order to Nou, who asked to be referred to by only her first name due to safety concerns. The order was not carried out and she has to regularly check in with ICE.

Her next appointment with ICE is Tuesday and, given the current surge in immigration enforcement in Minnesota, she fears she will be taken into custody.

Nou cannot get around without a walker or wheelchair, and her family cares for her everyday needs. She believes she wouldn’t survive detention or being deported to the country where she was born, Laos. Due to the persecution of the Hmong people there, she and her family escaped to a refugee camp in Thailand when she was 2 years old.

As the Trump administration touts the “Worst of the Worst” they’ve arrested, Nou’s name and picture could wind up on their list: They’ve included people who’ve been convicted of manslaughter and who have removal orders.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said as of Wednesday that it had arrested more than “4,000 illegal aliens, including violent criminal illegal aliens, since Operation Metro Surge began in Minnesota” in December.

“We will not back down from our mission to remove criminal illegal aliens from American neighborhoods,” DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement.

Amid the harsh stance from the federal government, Nou feels she has to talk about her life, so people can understand the circumstances as she pleads to stay with her relatives in St. Paul, though she doesn’t want to offend her deceased husband’s family.

She’s contacted organizations, looking for legal help, but hadn’t been able to find any as of Friday. Former St. Paul City Council member Dai Thao started a GoFundMe (gofund.me/fd04d955f) for Nou’s legal and medical needs.

“Nou has already survived more than most people should in one lifetime,” Thao wrote on the fundraising page.

Promised a good life in America

The man Nou married was around 40 years old when he visited Thailand from the U.S. He was Hmong and had become a U.S. citizen.

“He told me I was the most beautiful girl,” she said. He promised her a good life, saying she could go to school or they could open a business, she recounted recently. “He begged my mom and dad to allow him to marry me.”

But “I didn’t want to marry him because I was afraid that if I came to the U.S. and my parents were still in Thailand, if he doesn’t love me, I’d have nobody to love and protect me,” she said.

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She said the man paid her mother $2,000 and promised to send $20 a month back to hire someone to do the chores she’d been responsible for, though he ultimately didn’t.

They were culturally married in 1992. She left Thailand in 1993 and moved to California to live with him. Her uncle, who was already in the U.S., sponsored her as a refugee and she obtained a green card in America, according to Nou.

Physical abuse, control over her life

The abuse started in 1994, Nou says, with her husband pulling her hair, pinching her and pouring cold water on her as she tried to sleep.

He would point a gun at her head and order her to have sex with his relatives or truckers parked nearby; she never did, she says, and would cry and beg for him to stop. He often accused her of infidelity, though she said she was faithful to him.

When he visited Laos, Nou said he would have his friends track her movements and record her phone calls. When he returned home, there were many times he’d point his gun at her and threaten her.

“He wanted to murder me so that nobody would know how I died, that it would be a mystery,” Nou said.

Nou said her husband controlled most aspects of her life: She worked, providing in-home support to people who were elderly or disabled, and he took the money from her paychecks. He didn’t allow her to drive for her first seven years in America, and would later take away the car keys after he beat her so she couldn’t escape or get help. And he blocked her from seeking citizenship, including ripping up her paperwork.

“He knew that once I got my citizenship, I would have more rights,” she said.

She briefly took a class to learn English, and the teacher mentioned they could get their pictures taken for free for citizenship documents.

“I sat all day, waiting for that picture. I was able to start the process,” she said, speaking through a Hmong interpreter.

But her husband didn’t want to get legally married and sponsor her to become a citizen because he talked about doing so for another of his wives, Nou said.

He told her to never contact police

On a day Nou returned home late from running errands, she said her husband beat her head so hard that he broke his own knuckle.

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At work, a supervisor and another woman saw bruises on her face and asked if they wanted her to call the police; she said no.

“My husband had always warned me that if I don’t want to make headline news, I should just let our problem be our problem,” Nou said. He told her if she ever called the police, “he was going to kill every cop that came.”

She said she sustained other head injuries from separate incidents, including a time he beat her so badly that she fell and hit her head on a coffee table, causing her to black out.

She can’t hear as well in her left ear as her right one, she said, adding, “I’m not sure how much of it was impacted from the beatings.”

Homicide, attempted suicide

She told him she didn’t want to be married anymore.

“He always mentioned that the reason I can’t leave him was … no matter where I go, he’ll find me,” she said. “If I left quietly, he said he would hire people to kill me.”

She confided in her sister, who lived nearby, about the abuse. But she said her sister told her she couldn’t stay with her because said she and her husband were also afraid of him. Nou went to her uncle, who told her it was the first he knew about it and she should go back home and try to make it work.

When Nou’s husband brought back another wife from Laos, she thought he would leave her alone. But Nou said her husband became more abusive and isolated her more.

In August 2003, “he said he was going to cut me up and flush my flesh down the toilet and then hide my bones,” so no one could find her remains, Nou said. “I was protecting myself. … He was going to kill me that night.”

Police said Nou fatally stabbed her husband at their home and then stabbed herself, according to an article in the Sacramento Bee. Nou was hospitalized in critical condition.

Nou shows her malformed feet at her St. Paul home. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)

She was in a coma for more than two months. She said her husband previously stepped on her back, which damaged the nerves to her legs, and her feet stiffened up when she was in the coma. Her toes remain gnarled and she has a condition called a foot drop.

When she was in the county jail, she developed an infection and her small toe needed to be amputated.

‘Battered women’s syndrome’

At a hearing in 2004, Nou’s public defender told a judge a jury might acquit her as a victim of “battered women’s syndrome,” said a Sacramento Bee article about health care at the county jail.

Nou said recently that she wishes people would have stepped in and called law enforcement when she was being abused.

“If you’re ever in a situation like mine … seek help,” she said.

Nou felt like she had no choice but to enter a plea of no contest because she needed medical attention she wasn’t getting in jail.

She also said she didn’t fully understand the court process — including that she would lose her green card — because she had never been through the legal system and was in so much pain. She thought she would serve her sentence, get out of prison, find a job and try to rebuild her life.

Immigration enforcement was waiting for her when she was released from prison. She was given information about regularly checking in with ICE, and she said she’s done everything that’s been asked of her.

‘I’m scared’

After Nou’s time on parole was over, she moved to Minnesota to live with family.

“My husband has taught me a very hard lesson, and I don’t want to make any more mistakes,” she said, adding that she remains traumatized and it’s difficult for her to sleep without nightmares.

She said she’s no danger to anyone.

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“I can’t even walk,” she said. She stays in bed all day and night because she’s in constant pain and it’s too difficult for her to move around. She has various medications in her room for her arthritis, diabetes and kidney stones, among other conditions. She said she started receiving a small amount of disability benefits relatively recently.

She previously had surgery on her feet and is scheduled for another surgery later in February.

If she’s taken into ICE custody and isn’t able to seek a legal recourse, “for someone like me, if I don’t get that second chance, I would just be dead,” she said.

She has no relatives left in Laos and, if she’s deported, doesn’t know how she would get care.

“I’m scared,” she said. “I can’t sleep, can’t eat.”

For help

Domestic violence help is available in Ramsey County and St. Paul 24 hours a day, seven days a week through the St. Paul & Ramsey County Domestic Abuse Intervention Project by calling 651-645-2824. Throughout Minnesota, the Day One crisis line can be reached around the clock by calling 866-223-1111 or texting 612-399-9995.

The 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline can be reached by calling or texting 988 for free 24/7 support.

LOS ANGELES — I’m hesitant to call “Melania” propaganda because I can’t imagine anyone watching this movie and thinking that Melania Trump comes off well. If this vapid, airless, mindless time-waster had subversive designs of being a satire about the first lady of the United States, there’s not much it would have changed. Yet somehow, “Melania” is exactly the film that the first lady wanted to make — her company was paid $40 million for the rights to this self-greenlit production — and no one around her warned that it was a very expensive bad idea.

“Melania” didn’t screen for critics and, of the dozen people in my AMC theater on opening day last Friday, half of us were journalists paying to play catch-up. Introducing “Melania” at its Kennedy Center premiere the night before, the lead herself insisted that it is not a documentary but a “very deliberate act of authorship inviting you to witness events and emotions through a window of rich imagery.” Mostly, it’s B-roll of Melania stepping in and out of SUVs. My best guess is her pay rate is a million dollars an hour.

The president is effusive the first time that he greets his wife on an airplane tarmac alongside the film crew. “A movie star!” Trump says with a grin. He has a couple reasons to sound happy. For one, he’s getting to actually make public eye contact with his wife. As a bonus, she even offers up her cheek for a peck, which is as affectionate as things get between them.

With the same queenly beneficence she grants her husband, Melania has allowed the long-out-of-work director Brett Ratner (this is his first film since six women accused him of sexual assault in 2017) access to film her in tightly constrained snippets until the day after her return to the White House. It is 2025 and Trump will be sworn back into office as the 47th president of the U.S. in 20 days — or is it 13? One attempts to measure the passage of time in her outfit changes — a white jacket, shiny black leggings, a tight leather pencil skirt — although the exact numbers blur when Melania attempts to count them.

In terse, precise narration that provides most of our chances to hear her voice, Melania says that this will be a movie about “family, business, philanthropy and becoming first lady of the United States, again.” The latter, yes. Otherwise that proves to be a checklist of several things the movie scarcely touches on at all.

An intimate portrait, this is not. There’s no mention of how she and Trump fell in love and no words are exchanged with her stepchildren Ivanka, Tiffany, Eric and Donald Jr., not even to dispel rumors about their frosty relationship. Melania does gaze fondly at her son Barron on a couple of television screens and predicts he will grow up to have “ultimate success.” The only time I remember them speaking is a goodbye as he turns his back to lope down a hallway.

You become well-acquainted with her stiletto Louboutins and her silent, hunky blond bodyguard. We do witness insider White House events, like the five-hour window used to swap out all of Biden’s furniture for Trump’s, a breakneck turnaround accompanied by a panic of violins. As for witnessing emotions, though, Melania’s inexpressive voice-over assures us that her guarded surface contains deep empathy for humankind.

“Everyone should do what we can to protect our individual rights,” Melania says. “No matter where we come from, we are bound by the same humanity.” Indeed, this isn’t a documentary — a black comedy, perhaps? In another scene, Melania silently watches news footage of the 2025 Los Angeles fires alone on a couch while informing us that it’s “impossible to see these images and not be devastated.” Bless her heart, she tries.

The first lady doesn’t mention politics other than to briefly say that it’s a shame so many people seem to wish her husband harm. Otherwise, she shares her precise opinions on every object she drinks from, sits on or wears. The opening finds her futzing over the neckline of her inauguration day blouse before telling the tailors to slice into the fabric with scissors. This outfit will be in a museum someday, she says. She’s not wrong, although the most compelling thing about that moment is witnessing how exceedingly agreeable everyone is in her orbit. One whispers, “I don’t think we can cut it, though,” once she glides out of the room.

“Melania” plays like a sizzle reel for her post-political (post-spousal?) future career in which she may rouse herself to be a guest judge on a reality competition show. She reminds us of her education in architecture and her Slovenia-to-Rome-to-Manhattan modeling path during which she gained confidence approving or disapproving of various fabrics, as well as the pride she took last term in renovating the Rose Garden (now paved) and decorating the East Wing (now demolished). Her dress designer fashions the closest thing the film has to a metaphor for Melania herself: a gown constructed with no visible seams. “A mystery,” he beams.

On camera, Melania barely talks to anyone besides her employees, a few of whom pick up on the Bravo Channel-style of the film and dutifully recite her opinions on her behalf, like when her event planner David Mann shows her the inauguration invitations and compliments them for being printed in “the color red … which you chose.” I experienced a secondhand childhood shiver of being prompted to write a thank-you note. (In fairness, Melania tells people “thank you” often.)

One of her helpers, who moved to the States from Laos at the age of 2, beams that her proximity to the first lady “really is the American dream.” Both women are immigrants, the film notes, although it doesn’t mention the Trump administration’s feelings about that. It’s worth noting that last year, the United States deported several hundred Laotian refugees back to their homeland, many of whom arrived here as toddlers after the Vietnam War. As for Slovenians, it deported three.

Halfway through “Melania’s” 104-minute running time, it occurred to me that it would feel scandalous if Ratner so much as taped her doing something as human and unguarded as eating a bite of food. Melania does, however, approve of Mann’s suggestion that she serve an appetizer of caviar-topped golden eggs. “White and gold is you,” he assures her, although — drama alert — she later admits that her favorite colors are actually white and black.

The other scintillating confession comes in the back of an SUV when Ratner drags it out of Melania that her favorite musician is Michael Jackson. He follows up that revelation by asking her to name her favorite song. “Billie Jean,” she replies. We’ve already heard that hit on the soundtrack, which also features needle drops by the Rolling Stones, Aretha Franklin and Elvis. (They must have gobbled up a portion of the film’s otherwise confounding price tag.) Someone also selected a piece from the score of “Phantom Thread,” the Paul Thomas Anderson drama about an underdog immigrant wife who poisons her much older spouse. Nevertheless, the unseen chauffeur cues “Billie Jean” again on the stereo. Melania lip syncs. It’s the film’s action spectacular. Documentary filmmakers are inquisitive and curious; they prefer real facts to alternative ones. Ratner, of course, earned Hollywood over $2 billion with his blockbusters about gunfire and exploding cars. He’s never made a documentary — and I agree with the first lady that he hasn’t made one now.

Still, I enjoyed several scenes exactly as they were: Melania hurrying to get off the phone with Trump when he starts boasting about his electoral college numbers (“It was a big win,” she assures him, smoothly), Melania nudging her husband to profess that his “proudest legacy will be that of a peacemaker and a unifier,” Trump’s pique that his big day must battle for ratings against the college football championships. “We’ve had this date for hundreds of years,” Trump says with a huff. “They probably did it on purpose.”

As a kicker, “Melania” observes its central couple politely nodding goodnight after they come home from three inauguration balls, making it clear that the couple prefers separate bedrooms. Their marriage remains an enigma. Ratner captures lots of hand-holding, little connection. Reacting to the one-year anniversary of Melania’s mother’s death, her husband tells the camera, “This one had a hard time with that.” He sounds like he’s talking about an assistant challenged to bring him an ice-cold Diet Coke.

I cannot recommend “Melania” as a good movie or even an interesting one. It has the feel of a soothingly looped AI screen saver, a trance-inducing spell where nothing matters so long as your high heels aren’t hurting your feet. Yet against all odds, there is a truth in her SUV-to-tarmac-to-SUV-to-tarmac insularity. Future historians will be glad to have “Melania” as a lens into this moment in time. Like everything she touches, it’s a costly artifact.

‘Melania’

Rated: PG, for some thematic elements

Running time: 1 hour, 44 minutes

Playing: In wide release Friday, Jan. 30

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