In a highly unusual move, Trump’s Save America PAC is picking up the $650,000 tab for the portraits of Donald Trump and his third wife Melania that will hang in the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery, the Washington Post reports, though the museum insists it had private donors lined up to fund the project.

It’s the first time in memory that anyone other than individual donors funded a president’s portrait at the gallery, as the museum typically approached its benefactors and friends of the subject to fund previous works; in order to preserve a sense of separation from the sitter, the museum seeks funds from people outside of the family and not connected to the Trump businesses.  Donors cannot influence the selection of the artists, and the museum negotiates the terms of the donation directly with the donor. Smithsonian officials said they had one unnamed donor who has already given $100,000, raising the available purse to three-quarters of a million.  When asked for a list of potential donors, Trump’s post-White House executive assistant gave the museum a list of people she said would be happy to fund the full amount, something the museum staff didn’t want them to do:  the museum negotiates donations.  How it got from dozens of potential donors giving the full amount to the Super PAC paying for the vast majority of it is not clear.

Museum rules prohibit the unveiling of the portraits or the artists chosen to paint them if the subject continues to run for office, so the artists will not be announced until after the 2024 election.  And should the Orange blowhard win, the portrait won’t be unveiled until he’s out of office again or dead.