The White House 'expansion' project led by President Donald Trump has been controversial to say the least, yet at least now we finally know the names behind its growing $300 million budget thanks to a list of ultra-wealthy donors released by the government.
US President Donald Trump has already torn through and ripped apart a number of key federal departments as part of Elon Musk and DOGE's cost-cutting measures earlier this year, but it seems as if he's applied that same practice to the White House itself.
The plan for a brand new ballroom to be installed on White House grounds has been floated around for a little while, and Trump has already made a number of design adjustments to the presidential home in the 10 months that he's been back in office.
However, few people expected the ballroom to encroach on existing White House elements, as construction workers have been tearing apart the historic East Wing in the midst of the government shutdown.
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Popping up in its place soon though will be the aforementioned 90,000 square-foot ballroom, which initially began with a $200 million budget but has since increased to $300 million.
One saving grace is that this isn't being paid for by the taxpayer – at least not directly – as every single dollar is coming from ultra-rich private donors, including some 'forcibly' after Trump emerged victorious in a lawsuit.
Now, the White House has officially revealed a list of all 37 wealthy donors that are paying for the new ballroom, and it has many of the most powerful names in the country that have also aligned themselves closely with Trump after his election victory.
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The list itself is split between corporate donors and those contributing privately or part of a family group, so first here are all of the companies that have offered up funds for the ballroom, as reported by Fortune:
- Meta Platforms
- Apple
- Amazon
- Lockheed Martin
- Microsoft
- Comcast
- Altria
- Coinbase
- Palantir Technologies
- T-Mobile
- Ripple
- Hard Rock International
- Tether America
- Union Pacific Railroad
- Micron Technology
- Caterpillar
- Booz Allen Hamilton
- HP
- NextEra Energy
- Reynolds American
Many of these names might not shock you, as they've been closely associated with Trump across the last year and have broadly benefitted from the policies that he has enacted in his second term as president.
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Apple, Google, Meta, and Microsoft, for example, have all seen a major boost thanks to Trump's artificial intelligence focus, and Coinbase as the leading cryptocurrency platform has also grown a lot thanks to the president's emphasis on legitimizing crypto, including the introduction of his own Stablecoin.
Intriguingly there is no presence here for Musk or any of his companies, which might surprise some considering recent attempts for the two to make up after their public falling out on social media in June.
Completing the list, here are all of the private and family-based donors who have contributed to the ballroom's funds:
- The Adelson Family Foundation
- Stefan E. Brodie
- Betty Wold Johnson Foundation
- Charles and Marissa Cascarilla
- Edward and Shari Glazer
- Harold Hamm
- Benjamín Leon Jr.
- The Lutnick Family
- The Laura and Isaac Perlmutter Foundation
- Stephen A. Schwarzman
- Konstantin Sokolov
- Kelly Loeffler and Jeff Sprecher
- Paolo Tiramani
- Cameron Winklevoss
- Tyler Winklevoss
- J. Pepe and Emilia Fanjul
You might be less familiar with many of these names, but most are already some of Trump and the Republican Party's biggest donors and others, such as Scharzman and Hamm, have served as advisors and intermediaries during Trump's time in office.
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Additionally, you might also recognize the names of Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, who not only played a key role in Mark Zuckerberg's decision to start Facebook but are also the world's first Bitcoin billionaires, who perhaps had a spare few million lying around after the crypto coin's value boom across the last 12 months.