Melania Trump

First Lady Melania Trump has cut ties with dear friend and unpaid advisor Stephanie Winston Wolkoff following a New York Times report that her firm received a $26M payment for planning the festivities surrounding president Trump's inauguration.

Wolkoff told the NYT her firm, WIS Media Partners, spent the bulk of the outlays received from the 58th Presidential Inaugural Committee on subcontractors.

It retained $1.62M, which was divided among 15 staff members, for consulting and creative services,

Stephanie Grisham, Melania Trump's spokesperson, said Wolkoff's "gratuitous services contract" has been severed. She had worked as a "special government employee" handling special projects.

Wolkoff has extensive experience in planning society galas in New York, including the Costume Institute Gala at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

She called coverage of her work for the inauguration "completely unfair."