Two top executives received six-figure payments from their pro-Trump nonprofit organization before joining Donald Trump’s second presidential administration earlier this year, according to previously unreported tax filings.
Last year, America First Legal paid current White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller a $75,000 bonus plus a $100,000 “adjustment” payment covering three years of compensation that “the board believed was below market,” per the new tax document, known as a Form 990.
Miller received more than $567,000 in total compensation last year, according to the tax documents.
Between 2023 and 2024, Miller’s total compensation, which includes the bonus and adjustment, more than doubled. In 2023, his total compensation was a little over $266,600, according to a copy of tax documents from ProPublica’s Nonprofit Explorer.
Miller took a steep pay cut — to $195,200 per year, according to a White House salary report filed to Congress in July — when he joined Trump’s administration as deputy chief of staff and Homeland Security adviser in early 2025. Miller also liquidated seven figures worth of personal stock holdings in August, NOTUS previously reported.
Miller plays a key role in overseeing Trump’s domestic agenda and has served as a key architect of the administration’s hard-line immigration policy. He’s been a close ally of the president since he joined Trump’s 2016 White House bid as a top policy adviser.
America First Legal did not respond to questions about the timing of the bonuses or compensation adjustments. Miller did not respond to emailed requests for comment from NOTUS.
“These facts raise questions about whether these payments were a so-called ‘golden parachute,’ meaning bonuses paid on the basis of a person entering government service,” said Brendan Fischer, director of strategic investigations at the nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center, which provided a copy of the tax document to NOTUS.
“Notably, the Biden administration’s ethics pledge generally banned golden parachute payments. President Trump has not adopted these same guidelines; but even under existing law, an official who receives a golden parachute is supposed to recuse themselves for two years from matters involving their former employer,” Fischer added.
According to the White House salary report, America First Legal President Gene Hamilton had also decamped from the nonprofit in recent months and was earning $150,000 per year as special assistant to the president and deputy counsel.
That’s far less than Hamilton was making last year, when he earned $673,00 from America First Legal. That’s more than twice as much as the $333,572 Hamilton made in 2023, according to tax documents. He made $120,000 from “related organizations” both years.
In 2024, Hamilton also received a $125,000 bonus as well as $150,000 for “an adjustment for the past three years of compensation which the board believed was below market,” according to the latest America First Legal tax document.
America First Legal did confirm to NOTUS that Miller and Hamilton both left to join the Trump White House on Jan. 20 and that Hamilton returned from the White House to America First Legal in June.
Hamilton testified before a Senate Judiciary subcommittee in July in his capacity as president of America First Legal.
Miller and Hamilton launched America First Legal shortly after the end of Trump’s first term to challenge liberal ideology and regulations.
America First Legal has since filed more than 100 cases challenging diversity, equity and inclusion policies, supporting immigration law and defending “election integrity,” according to the organization’s website.
America First Legal raked in nearly $31.5 million in 2024, according to the tax documents. That’s up from $9.4 million in 2023 but down from $44.4 million in 2022.
NOTUS previously reported that America First Legal received $21.3 million last year through DonorsTrust.
Fischer described DonorsTrust as “the right’s ‘dark money ATM,’ meaning there were multiple layers disguising where the money ultimately came from.” DonorsTrust President and CEO Lawson Bader previously told NOTUS that while “the vast majority of our grants are made with some disclosure,” the ability to withhold a donor’s identity from the grantee is a feature not a bug of donor-advised fund providers.
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