Washington CNN —
Melania Trump has barely been seen on the campaign trail this year, and during one of the few times she appeared at a political event, she was paid six figures — highly unusual for the spouse of a candidate.
According to former President Donald Trump’s most recent financial disclosure documents, the former first lady spoke at two Log Cabin Republican political fundraisers this year, receiving $237,500 for the April event, which was listed as a “speaking fee.”
According to Trump’s latest disclosure documents, Melania Trump was paid by Log Cabin Republicans for a fundraiser in April, but who actually wrote the check is a mystery. Log Cabin Republicans Chairman Charles Moran told CNN earlier this month that the group did not pay her for speaking, and the disclosure documents did not provide any further information about the source of the payment.
Ahead of another fundraiser in July for a conservative LGBTQ group, a person familiar with the matter said at least one request was made to donors for a similar payment. It’s unclear whether Melania Trump ultimately made the payment. The campaign does not release financial information for that period. A source told CNN that Rick Grenell, a former ambassador to Germany and Trump ally, made the request on Melania Trump’s behalf. Grenell has also helped the former first lady with other business ventures, the person said.
Campaign finance and government ethics experts say paying the spouse of a presidential candidate to attend a campaign fundraising event is unusual, ethically questionable and should at the very least be properly reported on disclosure forms.
“It’s pretty self-serving. From my own general observation, I’m not used to seeing this kind of thing,” said Virginia Cantor, chief ethics counsel at Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics.
Cantor said that if the group had not actually paid Melania Trump, the former president’s financial disclosure documents could violate ethics rules because they should have listed the sponsors who paid her, not just the places where she spoke.
“You can show that the payment was a speaking fee for the Log Cabin Republicans, but you also need to report the source of the payment. Otherwise you can’t assess the conflict of interest and you’re violating the rules,” she said. “It should have been properly reported so that the source of the honorarium income was clearly stated.”
Sources who support Melania Trump attended the Log Cabin Republican events and were unaware that she was being paid for at least one of them, but they support her and say it is her right to decide how to spend her time and to be paid for it. One person close to Melania Trump said she has decided “where I am is my highest and greatest use,” adding that “she is an irreplaceable and eternal asset to Donald Trump.”
A spokesman for Melania Trump declined to comment when asked by CNN.
Records show Melania Trump was paid $250,000 for a Log Cabin Republican event in December 2022, one of three payments of more than $250,000 she received in speaking fees that month, shortly after the former president announced he was seeking reelection, according to Donald Trump’s financial disclosure documents from the previous year. One of the events was in Florida and the other was for Fix California, a California group founded by Grenell. Grenell did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
The former first lady also received $155,000 from the Trump-aligned super PAC Make America Great Again, Again, following a speech she gave in Palm Beach, Florida, in December 2021 when Trump was a presidential candidate.
She has a history of performing at Log Cabin Republican events and in 2021 was guest of honor at the group’s annual Spirit of Lincoln Gala.
The fundraiser appearances highlight how Melania Trump has been largely absent from the campaign this year, appearing twice at the Log Cabin Republican, appearing with her husband at a Palm Beach fundraiser hosted by billionaire investor John Paulson and making a brief appearance at the Republican National Convention, but not speaking as she did in 2016. There is no indication that she was paid for her appearances at Paulson’s fundraisers.
“She’s been so removed from this campaign, so absent that it seems to me like she’s saying, ‘If I’m going to put in the time, I’m going to get paid,'” said Stephanie Grisham, a former White House press secretary to Trump and a close aide to First Lady Melania Trump who became a critic of the former president. “Even when we were in the White House, she was always very concerned about people making money for her, because she thought it was money that should be made by her.”
Grisham said that when Melania was staying at the White House in 2018, she instructed staff to instruct gift shops near the White House not to sell Melania memorabilia, such as bobblehead dolls, without permission.
“She was furious. She was frustrated that people were taking advantage of her to make money,” Grisham said.
According to Donald Trump’s financial disclosures, the former first lady made more than $330,000 in the past year from licensing deals to sell non-transferable digital trading cards (NFTs), as well as jewelry and other collectibles on her website.
Additionally, the former first lady is releasing a memoir next month and embarking on a promotional tour separate from the campaign. In a series of short videos to promote her book about X, she makes rare statements about the assassination attempt on her husband in Butler, Pennsylvania, the 2020 election results and her career as a nude model.
“I cannot help but wonder why law enforcement did not arrest the shooter before he spoke,” she said in one of the videos, referring to the shooter who was apprehended by Secret Service after shooting and wounding Trump at a July 13 rally.
Melania Trump is not the only member of the Trump family to receive payment for being in the political spotlight. Kimberly Guilfoyle received $60,000 in speaking fees for introducing her fiancée, Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr., at the “Stop the Steal” rally on January 6, 2021, ahead of the riots at the U.S. Capitol. Her speech lasted less than three minutes.
It is not uncommon for former government officials to receive speaking or appearance fees at events other than political fundraisers.
Former President Bill Clinton and former first lady Hillary Clinton made more than $153 million from paid speaking engagements between 2001 and when the former secretary of state launched her presidential campaign in 2016. Former President Barack Obama drew criticism from members of his own party at the time after he reportedly made $400,000 for a single speech at a Wall Street health conference in 2017. And Joe and Jill Biden made a combined $15.6 million, mostly from books and speaking engagements, in the two years between leaving his position as vice president and launching his presidential campaign.
But officials for Jill Biden, Michelle Obama, Hillary Clinton, Laura Bush and Bill Clinton have said they were not paid for fundraising appearances during the campaigns.
The president’s son, Hunter Biden, came under intense scrutiny last spring when his father was running for reelection after he sold artworks for $85,000 each at a Manhattan museum.
By all accounts, this year’s Log Cabin Republicans fundraiser was a success: Grenell posted on X in July that the former first lady “opened up her NYC penthouse tonight to raise money for the group.”
“This is the first campaign event ever held at the Trump House,” he wrote, “and we raised $1.4 million in one night. Our goal is to get 50% of the gay vote for Donald Trump.”
At a Mar-a-Lago event in April where Melania Trump spoke, the group launched its “Path to Victory” program, targeted at voters in battleground states, according to Politico.
CNN’s Fredreka Schouten contributed to this report.
