Former first lady Melania Trump is hosting a fundraiser Saturday for the Log Cabin Republicans, an advocacy group for LGBTQ+ members of the GOP.
The event at Mar-a-Lago, the Palm Beach, Florida, estate that Melania shares with her husband former President Donald Trump, will take place behind closed doors. The fundraiser marks her first major political event of 2024.
According to Charles Moran, president of the Log Cabin Republicans, the event has helped raised over $1 million for the organization since it was announced earlier this month.
“This event did remarkably well in a very short period of time once we announced it,” Moran said in an email to Newsweek. “As you know, Mrs. Trump is very deliberate in the efforts she gets behind, so the attention of this event did help drive swift participation from those wanting to contribute and attend.”
Moran declined to provide additional comments or details about the private fundraiser, but said more information may be released after the event.
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The Log Cabin Republicans group describes itself on its website as the country’s “largest organization representing LGBT conservatives and straight allies who support fairness, freedom, and equality for all Americans.” Melania was awarded the organization’s Spirit of Lincoln award in 2021 at a dinner at Mar-a-Lago.
Meanwhile, the group has reportedly seen an “explosion” in new members.
Richard Grenell, a gay man who previously served as Trump’s ambassador to Germany, is expected to serve as a co-host for Saturday’s event. Grenell told Fox News Digital on Friday that “gays and lesbians are no longer reflexively leftist.”
“They realize they have incredible liberties in America and that they are not opposed,” he said, adding that several local Log Cabin chapters across the nation have seen an “explosion of membership.”
Newsweek reached out to Grenell on Saturday morning via his website.
Trump has sought to portray himself as more moderate on LGBTQ+ issues than some Republicans, at one point holding an upside-down pride flag on the 2016 campaign trail, at times leaving him at odds with the GOP’s most conservative voters. However, he embraced policies during his first term that critics say would chip away at the community’s rights.
While speaking about her planned appearance at the event, Melania told Fox News, “We must unite in our effort to establish a society where equality is the everyday experience of every American.”
She added: “Individual freedom provides a unifying set of principles, and ultimately establishes our American way. Together, we must nourish and safeguard the seeds of liberty…because, when successful, America blossoms into a magnificent place where everyone can practice their beliefs, share new ideas, and express individualism—this is when we are our best.”
Trump, the presumptive 2024 Republican presidential nominee, is on trial in New York City over 34 felony counts for falsifying business records. These are in relation to “hush money” he arranged for his former lawyer Michael Cohen to pay adult film star Stormy Daniels to keep secret an alleged affair she had with Trump in the run-up to the 2016 election.
Trump has pled not guilty to all the charges and has repeatedly said the case is part of a political witch hunt aimed at derailing his bid for another term in the White House. He has admitted reimbursing the $130,000 to Cohen, but denied having the affair with Daniels.
The former first lady has not appeared in court alongside the former president in the first days of the historic trial. She has reportedly called the proceedings into her husband as a “disgrace,” according to The New York Times.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.