Topline
A revised financial filing released Thursday shows that one of former President Donald Trump’s super-PACs made a $155,000 payment to Melania Trump for a “speaking engagement” despite that payment not being in the PAC’s initial federal reports, the New York Times reported.
Former President Donald Trump and former first lady Melania Trump arrive in the dining room for a … [+]
Key Facts
The $155,000 payment was reportedly made to Melania Trump in December 2021 by Make America Great Again, Again—Trump’s leading super-PAC at the time.
When Make America Great Again, Again made public its list of expenditures before, however, Melania Trump’s name was not on it—rather, there were two separate payments totaling $155,000 made to “Designer’s Management Agency,” which listed her as a client, the Times reported.
The super-PAC at the root of the payment has since disbanded and transferred $8.9 million to a new pro-Trump group.
The Times reported the payments to Melania were not the only new payments in Trump’s recent filing, noting there were other speaking engagements from 2021 to 2022 that were added in Trump’s latest revision: Melania reported a $250,000 payment from the Log Cabin Republicans LGBTQ advocacy group in December 2022 and a $250,000 payment the next day from Fix California, a group founded by longtime Trump ally Richard Grenell.
The updates came in a revision Trump filed to amend his previous financial filings and give more insight into his various sources of income, ranging from speaking events to golf course revenue, the Washington Post reported.
Key Background
This isn’t the first time a Trump-affiliated PAC has been caught spending money on the former president’s wife with campaign money. The former first lady’s stylist was paid $132,000 by one of Trump’s organizations, Save America, for “strategy consulting” in 2022. This past February, Fox News reported Save America made eight payments to Melania’s stylist, Herve Pierre Braillard, throughout 2022, most of which were about $18,000.
Further Reading
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/mollybohannon/2023/07/13/trump-super-pac-paid-melania-trump-155000-in-2021-for-a-speaking-engagement-report-says/