Normally, once a president leaves office, donations from private funders are gleefully given to the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery to pay for the commission of an official portrait of the president and former first lady. In former President Donald Trump’s case, he opted to use the money he’d received from his supporters to pay for his portrait and that of Melania Trump.
According to a Federal Election Commission filing, on July 14, Trump’s Save America leadership PAC reported a $650,000 “charitable contribution” to the Smithsonian. The Daily Beast reports confirmation from the museum that the money was used “specifically” to cover the cost of portraits of both Donald and Melania Trump.
A spokesperson for the Smithsonian explained to The Daily Beast that all of the museum’s presidential portraits are paid for from private donations. The $650,000 donation from the Save America PAC is “accompanied by one additional private donation” and that the amount is “considerably less than the amount from his supporters’ contribution from the PAC.”
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Trump raises money from supporters who are convinced that the 2020 presidential election was stolen, that their leader is being targeted by a Democratic conspiracy, and most recently, that the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate was a political move by President Joe Biden.
Save America has spent almost $1 million from MAGA donations on legal fees in July alone, Axios reports. But Trump’s PAC has also paid for such ridiculous items as stying the first lady’s wardrobe—to the tune of $60,000.
“It’s hard to see what commissioning of the portrait has to do with fundraising or advancement of fellow candidates in the Republican Party,” Michael Kang, a law professor at Northwestern University who specializes in campaign finance, told USA Today.
The Daily Beast reports that donating to himself isn’t new for Trump. The ex-president once donated $10,000 from donations to his Trump Foundation to bid on a portrait of himself because no one else had. According to a press release from the New York Attorney General’s office, Donald Trump Jr. reimbursed the charity for the cost of the bid.
Last week, the Trump Organization’s chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg, pleaded guilty to 15 counts of tax fraud. Per his plea deal, he agreed to testify at trial against the very company he’d staunchly refused to testify against.
According to a press release from the District Attorney of New York’s office, Weisselberg was sentenced to five months in jail, to be served on Rikers Island, and five years probation, “contingent on his [Weisselberg’s] testifying truthfully in the upcoming criminal trial of the Trump Organization by providing truthful testimony as to the facts underlying his allocution and plea.”
“Judge Juan Merchan said Weisselberg would be sentenced after the Trump Organization’s trial,” CNN reports.
Trump’s Save America PAC currently has $99.1 million on hand—that’s a lot of lawyers' fees, designer outfits, and portraits to pay for.
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