**UPDATE** Since originally reporting on this matter, former First Lady Melania Trump has spoken out regarding her Tulips & Topiaries charity event. According to new reporting from The Daily Mail, Melania claims that the event has not been canceled in any way, but rather rescheduled to December 4th, 2022, due to an increase in ticket demands, thanks to the attention brought to the event through the New York Times report outlined below, resulting in the need for a larger venue.
The report also states that Melania’s charity originally didn’t “exist” in the state of Florida, after they failed to register with the state. The organizer of the event claims that he was originally advised that registration was not necessary, but upon learning that information was incorrect, and the state began to investigate, he proceeded to properly register and rectify the issue.
Spokeswoman for the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, which oversees charitable organizations in the state, Erin Moffet, told The Times, “They were not registered as a professional solicitor or a fund-raising consultant, and they are working to rectify that.”
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While no one has come out and plainly said as much (and it’s likely that no one ever will) former First Lady Melania Trump has been coming off as though she’s quite strapped for cash here lately. For quite some time following her husband’s disgraceful departure from the presidency, and hers from the White House, Donald Trump’s 3rd wife seemingly flew under the radar for as long as she could — likely because she was absolutely thrilled to finally be out of her husband’s hellscape of a presidential term.
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However, in recent months, Mel has been making her way back to the socialite scene, but this time, she appears to be in somewhat financial straights. Since her re-emergence into the public eye, Melania’s financial standing has repeatedly been called into question, and for good reason. It seems everything she does these days boils down to a desperate attempt to bring in some cash flow. Here lately, Melania has pulled schitzy stunts ranging from selling an NFT of her eyeball that turned out to be a pretty massive bust, to auctioning off a ton of her personal items.
Of course, Melania softens the blow for herself by shielding all of these cash-grabbing adventures under the guise of charity work — always promising that a “portion” of the proceeds will go to some charity or another, but never seeming to quite specify how much that “portion” is supposed to be.
Already, it’s led a lot of people to wonder if the former First Lady is up to something shady with all of these recent ventures of hers. And now, that concern is about to get a whole lot worse.
According to a new report from the New York Times, Melania’s upcoming meet and greet event she’s got scheduled down in her new Florida home is now under heavy scrutiny and investigation as it seems she is selling tickets for the event with, yet again, a “portion” of the proceeds are supposed to go to a charity — but this time, it doesn’t seem as though the charity she’s allegedly donating to even exists.
Shane Goldmacher and Eric Lipton report for the Times that Melania Trump has a “high tea” event slated for April in Florida and it’s already raising a lot of eyebrows.
“Mrs. Trump is now selling tickets to the April ‘high tea,’ with organizers saying that some of the profits will benefit an initiative of her ‘Be Best’ endeavor called ‘Fostering the Future,’ meant to provide computer-science scholarships to young people who have been in foster care,” the report reads.
As we’ve come to notice with all of her other “charitable” events, the “portion” of the proceeds that are supposed to go to the initiative still remains unclear, and it seems that’s the least of her troubles now, as officials are now heavily scrutinizing the entire “Fostering the Future” charity.
“Florida requires any organization that raises charitable contributions in the state to register. No charity with the name ‘Fostering the Future’ or ‘Be Best’ is registered in Florida,” NYT reports, noting that one official in the state of FL has admitted that they’re officially looking into the situation.
“Asked about the solicitation, officials at the Florida agency that oversees charitable fund-raising said they also could not find evidence of the required state registration and had opened an inquiry as a result,” the report states. Erin M. Moffet, an agency spokeswoman, noted, “the state law requiring charities to register before soliciting money.”
Moffet said, “Consumer Services Division is currently investigating whether this event involves an entity operating in violation of Chapter 496, Florida Statutes.”
The report explains that the event is being organized by Whip Fundraising and notes that a spokesperson for Melania Trump did not respond to questions about the investigation against the event and the former First Lady’s charity.
You can read the full report from the Times here.
Featured image via Political Tribune gallery
