There is nothing illegal about this, apparently, but Trump SuperPAC Make America Great Again, Again (which ceased operations and transferred its remaining funds to Make America Great Again, Inc.), paid Melania Trump $155,000 in late 2021 for a speaking engagement.

It hid the payments to Mrs. Trump as two separate payments to a corporation, which then transferred the money to Melania Trump. The payments came to light this year in a federal filing for Trump’s campaign yesterday.

Breaking News: A super PAC aligned with Donald Trump paid Melania Trump $155,000 in late 2021, an unusual payment not disclosed in the group’s initial reports. https://t.co/cWIEuuGzY9

— The New York Times (@nytimes) July 13, 2023

This is probably not what donors to the group would have expected would be done with their contributions. I don’t know about you, but I would neither expect a billionaire to be seeking donations to fund his lifestyle nor would I expect the wife of a candidate to charge $155,000 to give a speech to supporters of her husband.

But that’s just me, I guess. I wouldn’t buy NFTs of the candidate appearing as a superhero either, but somebody did.

I hope they didn’t pay $155,000 for any of them. I don’t think that is a price the resale market can bear.

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 came to light only in a filing by Mr. Trump on Thursday.

The money was listed as pay for a “speaking engagement” by Ms. Trump in the new filing, a personal financial disclosure by Mr. Trump. 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.

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 Dec. 2 and Dec. 3, 2021; in the new disclosure, Mr. Trump reported that Ms. Trump was paid $155,000 on Dec. 2, 2021.

People tend to fall into two categories when it comes to opinions about Trump: 1) those who hate him with the heat of 10,000 suns, and 2) those who love him like they loved their first crush, or I loved Phoebe Cates in her prime.

A few of us fall in the middle, like me. I think Trump is crass, unpleasant, a jerk, and a megalomaniac; I also think he was an above-average President until 2020 and infinitely better than Joe Biden, who is a certifiable danger to the country as both a walking corpse with his finger on the button and as a tool of the radical Left.

People in the first group–those who HATE Trump, will simply see confirmation that Trump is an awful, grasping human being. People in the second group will invent an excuse for why this is perfectly acceptable behavior. And people like me will secretly agree with the first group about what this shows, but be compelled to defend Trump because his election in 2024 is far better than Joe Biden retaking the White House, or most of the Democrat alternatives.

Kamala Harris? Yikes! Gavin Newsom? Probably worse, because he is smoother and more evil. Harris is simply stupid.

It pisses me off that I have had to spend years defending Trump’s character, which I find appalling, in order to defend his policies, which are mostly pretty good (until COVID). If I had to choose between Trump and George W., whom I defended and voted for, I would choose Trump on policy grounds without a moment’s thought.

But Trump’s behavior is gross.

$155,000 in speaking fees to Melania? From Trump donor funds? That is gross. Doesn’t Trump have enough money without running a scam like this?

Why would anybody defend this, at least behind closed doors? What possible justification is there?

I see none. You?