Melania Trump, Erika Kirk Humiliated: Drag Queens Just Raised $20,000 for ACLU by Cosplaying FLOTUS, TPUSA CEO

Melania Trump and Erika Kirk were lampooned in New York City on 16 April as drag queens in full cosplay raised $20,000 for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) at a raucous fundraiser skewering MAGA politics.

Melania Trump, the First Lady, and Erika Kirk, the Turning Point USA CEO and wife of right‑wing activist Charlie Kirk, have become fixtures of the MAGA universe, often held up by supporters as styled embodiments of the movement's values. Both have also become lightning rods for critics online. The Brooklyn event picked up that thread and pulled hard, turning months of viral mockery into a live, ticketed performance with a pointed political edge.

Drag Queens Turn Melania Trump, Erika Kirk Into ACLU Fundraising Fuel

The show, titled Turning Point US Gay, took place at 3 Dollar Bill, a well‑known queer venue in Brooklyn. A troupe of drag queens leaned into caricature, inhabiting Melania Trump, Erika Kirk and other right‑wing female figures for a night dedicated to fundraising for the ACLU, which campaigns to defend civil liberties under US law.

Organisers said the night pulled in $20,000 for the group.

The casting was intentionally pointed. RuPaul's Drag Race alum Brita Filter appeared as Nicki Minaj, who has become an unlikely MAGA darling in some corners of the internet. Another former Drag Race contestant, Plasma, took on the role of Trump loyalist and former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi.

The message was hard to miss; the drag queens were not simply poking fun at Melania Trump and Erika Kirk, they were staging an entire alternative universe of MAGA womanhood.

The choice of beneficiary added an extra layer. Donald Trump has repeatedly railed against the ACLU, publicly dismissing it and similar organisations as a 'group of beauties' aligned with the 'hard left' and a legal thorn in his side.

Channelling money directly to that same organisation, while dressed as his allies and family's political circle, felt closer to a taunt than a neutral charity drive.

Melania Trump's Giant Hat, Erika Kirk's 'Signature Stare' And Drag Queens' Detail Work

On stage, the drag queens did not just reference Melania Trump, Erika Kirk and the wider MAGA set; they dissected them. One of New York's better‑known performers, Kiki Ball Change, arrived in an exaggerated version of Melania's famously oversized hat, turning a much‑memed fashion choice into a centrepiece gag.

Kiki lip‑synced to an off‑beat audio clip attributed to Melania, in which the First Lady figure chirps questions at Father Christmas.

'Hello Santa and Mrs Claus. How does Santa go down the chimney? How does Santa do it? How does it work?' the voice asks, before moving into stranger territory about whether Santa can see in the dark and if he wears night‑vision goggles that 'make everything green.'

As the questions grew more surreal, the stage background shifted to a darker, more ominous image of Melania, undercutting the audio's sugary tone.

Elsewhere, the queens spread their net wider. One performer sent up South Dakota First Gentleman Bryon Noem's widely mocked cross‑dressing scandal by shoving balloons under their top, wordlessly nodding to the viral photos that haunted Republican circles earlier this year.

Against that backdrop, the ridicule aimed at Melania Trump and Erika Kirk landed as part of a broader queer rebuttal to the culture‑war rhetoric coming from the right.

The segment that perhaps cut closest to the bone, though, was reserved for Erika Kirk. LA‑based drag queen Lauren Banall, who has already built an online following with short satirical Erika Kirk videos, brought that persona to the Brooklyn stage.

Dressed as Erika, Banall walked out to a track titled "We Are Charlie Kirk," a none-too-subtle nod to the Turning Point USA founder.

Her performance layered melodrama and menace. At one point, she pretended to cry as fake flames blasted behind her, then snapped into Erika's stiff, unblinking on‑camera stare.

Later, she danced to The Boy is Mine by Ariana Grande while images of Republican senator JD Vance flashed on a screen.

Throughout the night, the drag queens lip‑synced to real speeches and soundbites from their MAGA counterparts, stitching together a collage of the movement's own language turned back on itself. The women being impersonated were not there to respond, and none has publicly commented on the event so far.

Online, at least part of the audience was enthusiastic. Clips from the show spread quickly on Reddit, where one user summed up the mood in a line that echoed through subsequent reposts, 'This is the queer art we need to protect.'

A group of drag queens found a way to turn Melania Trump, Erika Kirk and other MAGA icons into a night of pointed theatre and, if the numbers are accurate, a lucrative one for a civil liberties group the president has openly loathed.