Former president and current presidential candidate Donald Trump’s most recent financial disclosure form shows an unusual set of transactions: a super PAC linked to him made several payments totaling $155,000 payment to his wife, Melania Trump, in December 2021.
The disclosure form listed the December 2nd, 2021 payment to Melania as compensation for a speaking engagement at a Mar-a-Lago fundraiser. The money came from the Make America Great Again, political action committee. That PAC was the main super PAC connected to Trump’s political operation until last year.
The now-defunct political committee did not specifically disclose the money to Melania, but instead disguised it as multiple payments to Melania’s representatives at Designer’s Management Agency.
In effect, Trump’s biggest supporters essentially paid his wife to participate in an event…in the Trumps’ own home.
According to the Federal Election Commission filing, the committee labeled the sum as having been made paid “event planning and consulting”.
The $155,000 paid to the former First Lady, who has not thus far been active in her husband’s campaign and has raised concerns as a conflict of interest, were first reported by The New York Times.
CREW has tracked more than 3,700 conflicts of interest when it comes to the Trump family.
