--- title: Melania Trump: White House Movie Theater Open to Public Tour description: Melania Trump announced that the White House in-home movie theater will now be open to public tours of the East Wing. canonical: https://time.com/4777676/melania-trump-white-house-movie-theater-public-tours/ author: Cady Lang article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-05-12T19:02:39.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:43:36.991Z og:title: White House Movie Theater Is Now Open to Public Tours og:description: For the first time og:url: https://time.com/4777676/melania-trump-white-house-movie-theater-public-tours/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltec111abcc0d461d2/6988cd1dcf40a8e343c47a9b/melania-trump-white-house-movie-theater-public-tours.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2000 og:image:height: 1125 og:image:alt: US-JORDAN-DIPLOMACY-EDUCATION og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: White House Movie Theater Is Now Open to Public Tours twitter:description: For the first time twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltec111abcc0d461d2/6988cd1dcf40a8e343c47a9b/melania-trump-white-house-movie-theater-public-tours.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Melania Trump Says White House Movie Theater Will Now Be Open to Public Tours For First Time > Sponsored content. 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Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-brief-2026q3/newsletters?i=4aafd7b3-670b-42bf-b0f3-352ae053ba6d&cr=time-nl-brief-2026q3-v1)  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang May 12, 2017 7:02 PM UTC  US First Lady Melania Trump talks with students during a visit with Jordan's Queen Rania to the Excel Academy Public Charter School in Washington, DC, April 5, 2017\. / AFP PHOTO / SAUL LOEB (Photo credit should read SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images) US First Lady Melania Trump talks with students during a visit with Jordan's Queen Rania to the Excel Academy Public Charter School in Washington, DC, April 5, 2017\. / AFP PHOTO / SAUL LOEB (Photo credit should read SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images) SAUL LOEB—AFP/Getty Images  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang May 12, 2017 7:02 PM UTC The [White House movie theater](http://time.com/4716583/herbert-hoover-white-house-movies/) is now open to public tours for the first time. According to [a statement from the White House](https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/05/12/white-house-movie-theater-opened-east-wing-tours-first-time-history) on Friday, the decision came from [First Lady Melania Trump](http://time.com/melania-trump-inauguration-model-first-lady/) and will begin immediately. Now, visitors to the White House who take the self-guided tour of the East Wing will now be able to see the movie theater. In 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt converted the East Terrace cloakroom into a movie theater; later, under the Reagan administration, there was a major remodeling that included 51 seats in tiered rows. In addition to the White House’s statement, the First Lady also tweeted about the new addition to the public tours. > [](https://twitter.com/FLOTUS/status/863056800228286464) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4777676/melania-trump-white-house-movie-theater-public-tours/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4777676/melania-trump-white-house-movie-theater-public-tours/"},"headline":"Melania Trump Says White House Movie Theater Will Now Be Open to Public Tours For First Time","datePublished":"2017-05-12T19:02:39.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:43:36.991Z","description":"Starting on Friday","url":"https://time.com/4777676/melania-trump-white-house-movie-theater-public-tours/","keywords":["Newsfeed","viral","White House","Bizarre","Melania Trump"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltec111abcc0d461d2/6988cd1dcf40a8e343c47a9b/melania-trump-white-house-movie-theater-public-tours.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Cady Lang","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/cady-lang/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltec111abcc0d461d2/6988cd1dcf40a8e343c47a9b/melania-trump-white-house-movie-theater-public-tours.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"US-JORDAN-DIPLOMACY-EDUCATION","caption":"US-JORDAN-DIPLOMACY-EDUCATION","creditText":"SAUL LOEB—AFP/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4777676/melania-trump-white-house-movie-theater-public-tours/","name":"Melania Trump Says White House Movie Theater Will Now Be Open to Public Tours For First Time"}}]}] ```