Reclusive megadonor Timothy Mellon supplied to assist pay U.S. troops in the course of the shutdown. So, who’s he?

Final week, President Trump introduced an nameless “patriot” had given a donation of $130 million  — cash the president mentioned was for use to assist pay troops in the course of the authorities shutdown. 

There are questions in regards to the legality of a donation of this kind (the Anti-Deficiency Act prohibits federal companies from exceeding congressional appropriations or accepting voluntary providers). Over the weekend, The New York Instances recognized the nameless donor as Timothy Mellon, a reclusive railroad magnate and inheritor to the Gilded Age Mellon household fortune. 

Mellon, 83, emerged as one of many high Republican donors solely previously few years, giving far much less within the many years earlier than 2017.

Anna Massoglia, a marketing campaign finance researcher, instructed CBS Information, “Timothy Mellon was a comparatively unknown political donor however his contributions have surged in recent times, placing him within the very high ranks of political contributors.” 

Early in his grownup life, he held liberal views on race, the issue of earnings inequality and the setting. As Mellon’s enterprise profession developed, he started to precise a powerful antipathy for what he seen as intrusive authorities laws on enterprise. One turning level appears to be when he ran afoul of environmental regulators in Connecticut within the late Nineties over an airport he purchased. 

He is written a memoir and penned some opinion items that supply some perception into his political opinions. Mellon wrote {that a} favourite quote of his got here from Winston Churchill: “Present me a younger Conservative and I will present you somebody with no coronary heart. Present me an outdated Liberal and I will present you somebody with no brains.”

Mellon didn’t reply to a request for remark.

Listed here are some numbers related to Mellon:

Not less than $197 million: How a lot Mellon donated to Trump and Republicans within the 2024 election

Mellon could also be an obscure determine to the broader public, however he is well-known in political circles for giving greater than just about another donor to Mr. Trump and different Republican committees in the course of the 2024 election cycle — at the least $197 million, based on Federal Election Fee information. The one one who gave extra was SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk.

He emerged on the political scene as a megadonor comparatively late in life. Over 20 years, from 1996 to 2017, he gave a complete of $350,000 in donations to political candidates. However within the 4 years between January 2020 and June 2024 he gave $227 million to federal candidates and political committees.  

Final 12 months, Mellon made a $50 million donation to a Trump-affiliated tremendous PAC, one of many largest particular person contributions ever made public. That was certainly one of a number of donations to the tremendous PAC in the course of the 2024 election cycle, totaling round $150 million. He additionally contributed $13 million to the Sentinel Motion Fund, an excellent PAC affiliated with the conservative Heritage Basis, which produced Mission 2025, the coverage blueprint the Trump administration has relied on in overhauling the federal authorities.  

$25 million: How a lot Mellon gave to Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s presidential marketing campaign

Mellon additionally gave $25 million to assist Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s 2024 presidential marketing campaign. Some speculated that Mellon was making an attempt to be a spoiler to assist Mr. Trump, whom he was additionally backing financially. 

However final August, he wrote an article within the American Spectator explaining his assist for Kennedy. Mellon, it seems, is a COVID-19 vaccine skeptic. “I couldn’t fathom how a ‘vaccine’ could possibly be foisted on most people with so little (if any) ample testing.” 

He started giving to Kennedy’s Kids’s Well being Protection, which promotes false details about vaccines, and later to the Tremendous PAC supporting Kennedy’s marketing campaign.

$14.1 billion: The Mellon household’s estimated wealth

Timothy Mellon, the grandson of banker and industrialist Andrew Mellon, was estimated by Forbes to be value about $1 billion final 12 months, although he instructed Forbes in an electronic mail on the time that he was not a billionaire, writing, “by no means have been, by no means can be.” The estimated wealth of his household, together with different branches, was estimated in 2024 by Forbes to be $14.1 billion. 

340: The variety of bushes he lower down at a Connecticut airport he purchased

One defining episode for Mellon occurred after he bought an airport in Connecticut within the late Nineties. He lower down 340 bushes, arguing that they posed a hazard to pilots touchdown their planes. However state environmental regulators in the end sued him and gained. He was ordered to pay tens of hundreds of {dollars} in damages.

$53 million: How a lot he donated to construct a border wall in Texas

In 2021, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott introduced Texas would construct its personal border wall and began his personal non-public fund to construct it. He made little progress — the Texas Tribune mentioned his effort had slowed after elevating just a little over $1 million, after which Mellon chipped in $53 million. The non-public and public effort was quietly dropped earlier this 12 months, because the GOP-led legislature defunded building in June, and the crowdfunding hyperlink disappeared in late Might, the Tribune reported. The state constructed about 65 miles of wall out of the 805 miles that Abbott deliberate, and it is riddled with gaps as a result of many landowners don’t want the border wall on their land.