A Donald Trump supporter with a primetime speaking slot at the Republican national convention, who is billed as a small business owner employing more than 100,000 people, is actually a “multi-level marketer” who does not employ anyone.
Michelle Van Etten was personally invited by the Trump campaign to address the Republican party gathering in Cleveland, Ohio, during a pro-business session on Wednesday evening titled Make America First Again.
The official schedule for the convention states: “Michelle employs over 100,000 people and is a strong supporter of Donald Trump, knowing his policies will support businesses all across America.”
In an interview on Monday, however, Van Etten said the billing was incorrect. “I don’t employ,” she said, adding that she did not know who wrote the text.
Van Etten, 42, works on her own as an independent retailer of products supplied by Youngevity, a “multi-level marketing” corporation based in California. Youngevity says that it sells hundreds of products such as nutritional supplements, jewelry and coffee.
The Daily Beast first reported Van Etten’s link to Youngevity on Monday, noting that some of the firm’s nutritional products are sold by the conspiracy theorist and radio presenter Alex Jones via the InfoWars website.
Through her own limited liability company (LLC) incorporated in Florida, Van Etten currently focuses on selling on Youngevity’s womenswear range designed by Marisa Kenson. Van Etten declined to disclose how much profit she made but said that it was less than $1m a year.
She said on Monday that she was in fact part of a network of 100,000 sellers in the US, Canada, Mexico and other countries, in which distributors work to recruit other distributors. “Nobody works for me, because we are all individual contractors, and we all have our own individual businesses,” she said.
Van Etten said that she collected between 3% and 5% of profits made from sales by other members below her in the Youngevity network, which she likened to franchise arrangements used by several major fast-food corporations.
She said her retail venture had funded several vacations and had enabled her husband to retire from the US navy and home-school their children in order to avoid the Common Core curriculum opposed by many conservatives. “We are living the American dream,” she said.
Van Etten said after meeting Trump at a campaign event in California, she was asked to speak at the convention in a phone call from Jo Ann Poly Calvo, a New York-based events executive currently working for the Trump campaign. “I jumped at the chance,” she said.
It was Trump’s corporate prowess that most attracted Van Etten’s support, she said. “He resonates with me because he’s a businessman,” she said. “We need someone who’s not a bureaucrat.”
A spokesman for Youngevity said on Monday that he was traveling and could not immediately comment. This article will be updated with any response from the company.
