Dozens of executives and corporations have donated to fund the development of President Trump’s $300 million ballroom, as a lot of them eye favorable coverage, decreased scrutiny or approval for main offers from the White Home.
Donors to the ballroom — which is able to take the place of the White Home’s East Wing — embody Huge Tech firms, protection contractors and different massive companies. The White Home has not disclosed how a lot cash every firm donated. Mr. Trump has stated development might be funded via personal donations and his personal cash — not taxpayer funds.
Chatting with reporters Friday night time as he was departing for an Asia journey, Mr. Trump stated that “greater than $350 million” had been raised to this point.
CBS Information reviewed an inventory of 37 donors offered by the White Home, which included tech companies like Google and Amazon and crypto firms like Ripple and Coinbase. Others that contributed to the venture embody Nvidia, Susquehanna Worldwide Group and ExtremityCare, in accordance with sources aware of the matter. The president hosted a dinner final week thanking donors, though not everybody invited to the dinner contributed.
Requested for touch upon whether or not these donations current any conflicts, White Home Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt wrote in an announcement to CBS Information: “The identical critics who’re wrongly claiming there are conflicts of pursuits, would complain if taxpayers had been footing the invoice.”
“The donors for the White Home ballroom venture signify a big selection of nice American firms and beneficiant people, all of whom are contributing to make the Folks’s Home higher for generations to come back,” she added.
Here is a more in-depth have a look at what a few of the donors and dinner friends stand to achieve from federal coverage or have already acquired from the administration.
Huge Tech and telecom
Tech giants Google, Palantir, Amazon and Microsoft, in addition to mobile phone provider T-Cell, had been among the many donors listed by the White Home.
YouTube, owned by Google, agreed to pay $22 million towards the ballroom venture as a part of a authorized settlement in a case Mr. Trump introduced in opposition to the corporate for quickly eradicating him from the platform after the 2021 Capitol riot.
Software program firm Palantir has been awarded greater than $800 million throughout a number of authorities contracts in fiscal yr 2025, greater than in any prior yr, in accordance with federal contract knowledge. The Trump administration has additionally made Palantir a key participant in managing and consolidating knowledge about People between federal companies, The New York Occasions reported.
Amazon and Microsoft even have every acquired a whole lot of tens of millions in authorities contracts, federal knowledge present.
T-Cell might stand to learn from a Trump Group-linked cell phone and cell service firm, one thing Home Democrats have expressed conflict-of-interest considerations over. The corporate is not run by the Trump Group, however is licensing the president’s title. The Trump Cell community says it’s run on Liberty Cell Wi-fi, a cellular digital community operator that rents bandwidth from main carriers like T-Cell.
In an announcement to CBS Information, a T-Cell spokesperson stated the corporate donated to the Belief for the Nationwide Mall, which is dealing with ballroom donations, however has “no position in the usage of these funds or choices associated to the development of the ballroom.” The spokesperson didn’t touch upon the Trump-linked cell service firm.
Representatives from Nvidia, one of many world’s main builders of superior microchips, had been amongst dozens of donors invited to Mr. Trump’s thank-you dinner, in accordance with a visitor checklist obtained by CBS Information.
The Trump administration granted Nvidia export licenses to ship sure chips to China in change for 15% of the revenues, because the firm’s CEO presses for higher entry to the Chinese language market. Nvidia can be ready for the administration’s full approval to ship a whole lot of hundreds of its synthetic intelligence chips to the United Arab Emirates yearly, although the administration gave the corporate permission to export to American companies working within the Gulf nation earlier this month, in accordance with Bloomberg.
Jeff Yass, who cofounded the buying and selling agency Susquehanna Worldwide Group and invested in TikTok, was additionally on the visitor checklist. Yass has given greater than $16 million to tremendous PAC MAGA Inc. this yr. In his first time period, Mr. Trump sought to ban TikTok, however he reversed course this yr, signing an order final month to maintain TikTok working within the U.S. with a slate of American traders. In the meantime, Yass’s wealth has surged by billions of {dollars} this yr, in accordance with estimates by Bloomberg and Forbes.
Cryptocurrency
A number of the greatest names in crypto additionally made donations to Mr. Trump’s ballroom, in accordance with the White Home’s checklist of donors. The Trump administration has vowed to make the U.S. the “crypto capital of the world,” because the president’s household has made billions on their very own crypto ventures.
An organization spokesman confirmed Coinbase, the most important U.S. cryptocurrency change, made a donation. The corporate is in search of Securities and Change Fee approval to provide blockchain-based shares. It additionally faces an SEC investigation began underneath former President Joe Biden into whether or not it misstated its person numbers in previous monetary disclosures, The New York Occasions reported. Earlier this yr, the SEC withdrew a separate lawsuit in opposition to Coinbase, shortly after the corporate donated $1 million to Mr. Trump’s inauguration.
Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, twin brothers who personal crypto change Gemini, additionally helped pay for the occasion area. In February, the SEC closed a long-running investigation into their crypto change, Cameron Winklevoss introduced on X, after the Winklevoss twins donated greater than $2 million to MAGA Inc. one month prior. In July, the brothers efficiently lobbied Mr. Trump to withdraw his unique nominee to run the Commodity Futures Buying and selling Fee, which regulates crypto, in accordance with Politico.
The crypto firm Ripple additionally donated. Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse has brazenly expressed his assist for the present administration’s cryptocurrency insurance policies, and Mr. Trump has promoted its coin, XRP, as one of many cash {that a} deliberate U.S. government-controlled crypto reserve ought to embody.
Protection and federal contractors
Lockheed Martin donated over $10 million to Mr. Trump’s ballroom, in accordance with firm sources. The protection contractor is usually awarded tens of billions yearly in federal contracts.
Booz Allen Hamilton additionally made a donation to the president’s occasion area. The consulting agency sometimes generates 98% of its annual income from contracts with the U.S. authorities, nevertheless it has suffered from the Trump administration’s crackdown on federal spending. Its authorities contracts shrunk by 20% within the fiscal yr 2025, and its inventory value has plunged 46% since Mr. Trump’s reelection.
Media
Comcast has expressed curiosity in buying Warner Bros. Discovery, Bloomberg reported, however its merger would face federal scrutiny. The Division of Justice blocked a Comcast-Time Warner Cable merger in 2015, as a result of it could have made the conglomerate an “unavoidable gatekeeper” for Web-based companies. Comcast would not traditionally have the favor of the president; in April on Reality Social, Mr. Trump referred to as Comcast, which owns NBC and is spinning off MSNBC, a “shame to the integrity of broadcasting.”
Medical
Biotech firm ExtremityCare’s CEOs had been on the thank-you dinner visitor checklist. The corporate, which makes pricey human cell and tissue medical merchandise, beforehand donated $5 million to MAGA Inc. Quickly after the donation, the Trump administration moved to delay a Biden administration plan to restrict Medicare’s protection of the corporate’s “pores and skin substitute” bandages.
CBS Information has requested remark from the businesses listed on this story.
