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Former President Donald Trump’s political action committee has paid the French-born stylist who designed Melania Trump’s inaugural ball gown more than $260,000 for “strategy consulting” since the start of last year, filings with the Federal Election Commission show.
Hervé Pierre Braillard was paid $108,000 by the Save America PAC during the first six months of 2023, receiving the money in increments of $18,000 each month, according to a half-year report filed with the FEC Monday night.
Braillard, who goes by Hervé Pierre professionally, also received $152,500 in 2022, broken down into eight monthly payments of $18,000 between May and December of that year — along with an initial $6,000 payment for April and a $2,500 “year-end bonus.”
The designer, whose clients have also included first ladies Hillary Clinton, Laura Bush and Michelle Obama, helped craft the Slovenia-born Melania’s vanilla-colored gown which she donned on the evening of Jan. 20, 2017. The dress was later donated to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History.
Details about Braillard’s “strategy consulting” were not divulged in the latest FEC report, but the stylist has taken a broad view of his duties in the past.
“My role is to dress the First Lady and advise her – I’m not a stylist; I am an adviser, and she is adamant about that,” Braillard told Vogue in 2017.
Melania Trump has issued statements supporting her husband’s run for a second non-consecutive term, but has largely kept out of public view as the 77-year-old faces a gauntlet of court cases — including a federal indictment for allegedly hoarding classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago resort.
Save America, which is primarily supported by small-dollar donations, began 2022 with a nine-figure war chest that has dwindled to fewer than $4 million in cash on hand as of the end of June, FEC data indicates.
Part of what kept the PAC in the black was a $12.25 million rebate from an initial $60 million transfer to Make America Great Again Inc., a PAC that’s also aligned with Trump’s 2024 bid.
Save America also dished out more than $21 million in the first six months of this year to foot the bill for legal advice for Donald Trump and some of his associates.
Trump’s Save America joint fundraising committee, the Republican frontrunner’s main fundraising vehicle, took in nearly $54 million between Jan. 1 and June 30, but spent more than $20.5 million on “operating expenses and transferred more than $31.4 million to other committees, leaving just $5.7 million in cash on hand.
The official Trump 2024 campaign raised $17.7 million in the first half of 2023, but spent more than half that amount ($9.1 million) on operating expenses. However, the organization had more money to play with, recording more than $22.5 million in cash on hand as of the end of June.
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