A MAGA super-PAC gave Melania Trump an 'unusual' $155,000 payment for a 2021 'speaking engagement': report

14 July 2023

When Donald Trump was serving as president, then-First Lady Melania Trump didn't go out of her way to be in the spotlight. She kept a relatively low profile compared to many first ladies of the past — from Michelle Obama to Nancy Reagan to Betty Ford to Eleanor Roosevelt — and she was very selective about who she granted interviews to.

Nonetheless, Melania Trump, now 53, has made select speeches since leaving the White House. According to New York Times reporters Shane Goldmacher and Maggie Haberman, a Donald Trump-associated super-PAC called Make America Great Again, Again paid her $155,000 for one of those speeches in late 2021.

"The money was listed as pay for a 'speaking engagement' by Ms. Trump in the new filing, a personal financial disclosure by Mr. Trump," Goldmacher and Haberman explain in a report published on July 14. "The $155,000 payment was made in December 2021 by Make America Great Again, Again, which at the time, was Mr. Trump's leading super PAC. Ms. Trump's name, however, did not appear on the super-PAC's list of expenditures, which were made public last year. "

The reporters add, "Instead, the super PAC's report showed two payments, for $125,000 and $30,000, to 'Designer's Management Agency,' which lists Ms. Trump as a client on its website. The payments were made on December 2 and December 3, 2021; in the new disclosure, Mr. Trump reported that Ms. Trump was paid $155,000 on December 2, 2021."

Goldmacher and Haberman note that the $155,000 payment is "unusual" because it is "rare for the spouse of a potential presidential candidate to be paid directly by a campaign or an outside group affiliated with the candidate."

"This is not the first time a political committee connected to Mr. Trump has made a payment related to his wife," according to the Times reporters. "Ms. Trump's stylist was paid $132,000 in 2022 by Save America, a political action committee that became the vehicle to park tens of millions of dollars raised by Mr. Trump in the weeks after the 2020 election. As he made false claims of widespread election fraud, he received small-dollar contributions from supporters who wanted to help him fight to stay in office."

Read the New York Times' full report at this link (subscription required).

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