A super PAC aligned with former President Donald J. Trump paid Melania Trump $155,000 in late 2021, an unusual payment that was not visible in the group’s initial federal reports and appeared only in a new filing by Mr. Trump on Thursday.
The money was listed as pay for a “speaking engagement” by Mrs. Trump in the new filing, Mr. Trump’s personal financial disclosure. The $155,000 payment was made in December 2021 by Make America Great Again, Again, which at the time was Mr. Trump’s main super PAC.
Ms. Trump’s name, however, did not appear on the super PAC’s list of expenses that were released last year.
Instead, the super PAC’s report showed two payments, for $125,000 and $30,000, to “Designer’s Management Agency,” which lists Mrs. Trump as a client, according to its website. The payments were made on December 2 and December 3, 2021; in the new disclosure, Mr. Trump reported that Mrs. Trump was paid $155,000 on December 2, 2021.
In the super PAC’s filing, those two payments were labeled “event planning and consulting,” according to Federal Election Commission filings. Federal rules are generally lax when it comes to requiring that the final destination of money be disclosed. Instead, committees must disclose only the first seller paid.
Mr. Trump’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment, and a representative for Mrs. Trump did not immediately respond to an email. Pam Bondi, who then served as president of Make America Great Again, Again, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
That super PAC later folded and in late 2022 transferred $8.9 million to a new, similarly named pro-Trump super PAC, Make America Great Again Inc.
The December 2021 payment to Mrs. Trump coincided with a private fundraising dinner the super PAC held at Mar-a-Lago and which Mr. Trump attended. Seats at the dinner were sold for $125,000 each and $250,000 for a couple.
Trump-aligned groups and candidates have repeatedly held events at his private club in Florida. The Make America Great Again, Again super PAC spent more than $350,000 at Mar-a-Lago in 2021 and 2022.
The payments to Mrs. Trump were not included in the first financial disclosure form covering Mr. Trump’s 2024 candidacy that he filed this spring, but they were among several payments for speaking engagements by Mrs. Trump in 2021 and 2022, which were recently added, together. with other revisions.
Among the other speaking fees Mrs. Trump reported receiving was a $250,000 payment from Log Cabin Republicans in December 2022 and a $250,000 payment the next day from Fix California, a group founded by Richard Grenell, a former senior Trump administration official and close ally. from the president.
This is not the first time a political committee linked to Mr Trump has made a payment related to his wife. Mrs. 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 November 2020 election. Because he made repeated false claims of widespread voter fraud, he received small-dollar contributions from supporters who wanted to help him fight to stay in office.
Save America has paid for some of Mr. Trump’s political activities since he left office, and the group has donated some money to help other candidates. But a significant portion of that money was devoted to paying legal fees for Mr. Trump and some witnesses in cases against him.