Who is Lara Trump’s collaborator, Madeline Jaymes? An investigation.
If you want to launch a music career, send your uncle to Mar-a-Lago.
The Internet was briefly abuzz this week over the latest release from everyone’s favorite daughter-in-law and Republican National Committee co-chair, Lara Trump.
I’m not here to dunk on the song itself, though I am fascinated by some of these lyrics1.
“You're climbing up the ladder/And the screams getting louder"
Grim imagery. Is that a common experience among firefighters? That is the chorus of the song, by the way. Not that catchy if you ask me.
"No, this can't be your job / You gotta have it in you"
Okay, but it is their job? Unless Lara and her collaborator — an obscure Florida-based indie artist named Madeline Jaymes — are suggesting that volunteer firefighters are somehow more selfless or virtuous than paid ones. After all, a second Trump term would definitely make the professional lives of first responders worse, so perhaps the honorific of “Hero” is reserved only for those who put such egoistic returns as “pensions” or “workplace protections” aside and rush willingly, magnanimously, into the flames. But I doubt it’s that deep.
As Tomás Mier noted for Rolling Stone, this isn’t Lara Trump’s first foray into the music industry. She made discordant waves last fall when she mangled a cover of Tom Petty’s “I Won’t Back Down” on Sky News Australia. It’s safe to say she’s not very good.
But Mier gives props to Madeline Jaymes, Trump’s collaborator on “Hero,” who is decent enough at singing and even more decent enough at sharing the stage:
“I am excited to see what comes next for Lara in the music world,” Jaymes wrote on Instagram, sharing a clip of the music video. (Jaymes might be the only one.) “She has monumentally impacted my presence as a young artist in this competitive and ever-evolving environment.”
I guess it’s true that Lara Trump has “monumentally impacted” Jaymes’s presence, in that if it weren’t for this horrible music video, nobody would know who Madeline Jaymes was. But even now, less than a week after “Hero” went viral, Jaymes still has fewer than 1,500 followers on Instagram. In that sense, Lara hasn’t really impacted her presence at all.
But here’s my question: How did these two kindred spirits come together to try to take the music world by storm? Who is Madeline Jaymes, anyway, and why would Lara Trump pay her any attention?
Madeline Jaymes: A “rising star” nobody has heard of
It seems that Madeline Jaymes is making quite a name for herself lately, at least in her hometown’s weekly newspaper. On July 7, 2024 — roughly six weeks before the expected release of “Hero” — the Palm Beach edition of Florida Weekly published a fawning profile of Jaymes, who, the profile notes, “just graduated cum laude from Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton.”
But Madeline Jaymes is not your typical college grad. “Her Tik- Tok (sic) account has over 651,000 likes”! Not followers, mind you — just likes. And either way she’s quite busy. She plans on “reaching my audience with a ‘micro album’” — less ambitious artists might call that an “E.P.” — and has released three singles, including a song called “Bitter Sweet,” a collaboration with the South Florida–based record label 1217 Entertainment.
So where does Lara Trump come in?
Jayme’s second single, “Hero,” honors heroes and their bravery. It includes a special feature with Lara Trump, wife of Donald Trump’s son Eric.
TIL a “special feature” is when your collaborator co-releases your song under their own name. The music scene truly is an ever-evolving environment!
Regarding our dynamic duo, here Jaymes delivers an origin story in her own words:
“Lara heard the song “Hero” at Circle House Studios while I was there recording. She connected with me, and we collaborated on the song and now have become good friends,” says Jaymes. “It will be a lot of fun to create the video. I love to be in the city, and being there with Lara will be very impactful!”
I, too, love to be in the city, doing impactful things with my good friends.
That tale is straightforward enough, but I’m still curious whether these two knew each other beforehand. Was Lara Trump really present at the “Hero” recording in Miami merely by chance? Was there really no connection before this fateful encounter?
As I yearn for more answers, the Florida Weekly profile eventually links to Jaymes’s website, which doesn’t offer much clarity:
Madeline is currently working on her album, writing and singing at 1217 Entertainment he is fully daily.
I see. Considering how much Jaymes he is fully daily at the studio, I think we should look into this 1217 Entertainment.
1217 Entertainment
As we learned earlier, Madeline Jaymes released a single in February called “Bitter Sweet.” The music video for that (also not very good) song includes this title card for her “record label”:
As far as I can tell, 1217 Entertainment hasn’t made a huge splash on the music industry. In fact, its most prominent Google result is a business filing that says it was established as an LLC in February of this year — the same month it released “Bitter Sweet.” Hitting the ground running!
According to this filing, 1217 is located in Boca Raton — home of Jaymes’ alma mater — and its “guiding force” is a Mr. “Vanmiddlesworth, Kevin from Boca Raton FL, holding the position of Manager.”
The most prominent Google result for “kevin vanmiddlesworth” is this page about Platinum Group Security, a security company also based in Boca Raton. Kevin, too, attended Florida Atlantic University, and his duties as Founder and CEO include “meeting clients on a regular basis.” Tough work if you can get it.
Now, I don’t know whether this is the same Vanmiddlesworth, Kevin who holds the position of Manager at 1217 Entertainment. However, a man bearing his striking resemblance does match the account (@kvan1217) tagged in this Instagram post by Madeline Jaymes, which also includes a tag for @1217entofficial.
For further clues into the relationship between 1217’s founder and Madeline Jaymes, I found this 2022 obituary for one Mark Van Middlesworth, of Port St. Lucie, Florida — a short trip up I-95 from Boca Raton. I don’t mean to bring the late Van Elder Middlesworth into Lara Trump’s machinations, but this published obituary provides us with one key piece of information:
He is survived by his daughter Kellie Van Middlesworth Keitel and husband James, son Kevin Mark Van Middlesworth and wife Sarah all of Boca Raton.
And also:
He leaves behind four grandchildren, [including] Madeline and Chloe Keitel.
So it appears that Kevin Van Middlesworth, founder of 1217 Entertainment, has a niece named Madeline. It’s certainly possible — even likely, in my opinion — that this niece is our Madeline Jaymes.
But what, if anything, is her connection to Lara Trump?
Before I go on, I should note the most obvious connection here: the Trump orbit is a treacherous field of grifters and charlatans, so it’s not all that surprising that a young musician would feel eager to latch onto Lara’s meager fame in a symbiotic star-course to launch her career and monetize a YouTube video.
Still, what’s in it for Lara?
The Trump Connection: Enter Scott Storch
That @1217entofficial account tagged in Madeline Jaymes’s post features several photos of 1217 clients, whom, it’s fair to assume, the Manager of 1217 Entertainment meets on a regular basis.
One such client: financially and posturally bankrupt music producer Scott Storch.
If this Instagram account is any indication, Storch is practically the Resident Artist of the 1217 Entertainment studios, so he must be fairly close with Mr. Manager. Maybe they knew each other from a previous event — like this one in 2022, when, according to an exclusive report from right-wing news outlet ShockYa News, Storch performed at South Florida’s historic Mar-a-Lago Club:
President Trump was one of the biggest fans of Storch’s performance during the fundraiser, which supported [far-right conspiracy theorist and former Trump administration official John] Gibbs’ campaign against Congressmen Peter Meijer in Michigan’s 3rd District2.
Well. There it is.
To be fair, I can’t find anything that places Lara Trump at the 2022 fundraiser, but it doesn’t matter. There’s a thin thread of circumstantial evidence, so that’s enough for my amateur investigation.
Based on what we’ve gathered, I think we can safely deduce the following: Madeline Jaymes is the niece of a prominent South Florida businessman who recently founded a record label whose only release is a single by Jaymes and which is somehow affiliated with Scott Storch, who has performed at Mar-a-Lago to the delight of Donald Trump and, presumably, other luminaries of the Trump Organization and/or RNC.
If, as Jaymes says, Lara Trump didn’t meet the young artist until the day she heard the recording for “Hero” at Circle House Studios, then they must have quickly realized they had a lot more in common than their fledgling music careers.
Some speculation: Perhaps Kevin Van Middlesworth and Lara Trump met at the Storch concert and identified a common cause. After all, Kevin’s niece was set to graduate from FAU with no job lined up, and the security business is no vocation for an English major graduating cum laude. Say if Maddie were to start her music career, would Lara be gracious enough to lend her golden name — and her flaxen auto-tune — to one of her tracks? Of course, Kevin couldn’t just give his niece the money to produce it, but he could get a local lawyer to help him incorporate a record label to write off any expenses, and hey, maybe he could even get Storch and his fellow broke producers to come hang out at the rented studio.
So what does it all mean?
I don’t know. Maybe it’s not important who Madeline Jaymes is. All I know for certain is that the MAGA grifter apparatus is on full display here. My friend Chris pointed out that Madeline Jaymes is basically Wendy Kerby, the cute but personality-less songstress from On Cinema whom Tim plucks from obscurity and promotes as a bright young star but eventually discards after she rejects his sexual advances.
In jumpstarting her music career, Madeline Jaymes shot for the moon by teaming up with Lara Trump on a terrible song with absolutely no cultural value whatsoever. In lieu of any discernible talent or good ideas, all she needed was a big name. Eric Trump lent his to Lara, who lent hers to Madeline, whose real name isn’t even Jaymes. I have more sympathy for the fictional Wendy Kerby.
In the end, Madeline’s goal was to use the Trump name to go viral, and she got her wish. But, as always seems to happen with these Trumpian Bargains, all she got out of it, ultimately, was to be a side character in someone else’s show:
The video for “Hero” debuted last week, but the song has been on audio platforms since May. On Apple Music the composer and co-lyricist is listed as “Jean Gary St. Jurin.” I couldn’t find much about who this is, other than an Instagram account I’m pretty sure is his — but I’m leaving him out of this. My guess is he is just another dreamer caught up in the dubious enterprise of 1217 Entertainment.
Gibbs did end up ousting Meijer in the primary, though he lost the general election to Democrat Hillary Scholten by nearly 13 points, flipping the district and losing the seat for Republicans potentially forever. Even with someone like Lara Trump at the helm, these people aren’t very smart.