The donor list includes several billionaires who have looked to curry favor with the Trump administration.
Dozens of companies and individual billionaires are lining up to pay for President Donald Trump’s 90,000-square-foot White House ballroom, the administration revealed Thursday.
The donors include tech giants whose leaders have dined with Trump during his second administration, including Amazon, Apple, Google and Meta Platforms. Also heavily represented on the list were key players in the crypto industry, including Coinbase, Ripple, Tether and the influential Winklevoss twins, who have emerged as fierce allies of the president in recent months. Rounding out the list are tobacco companies Altria Group and Reynolds American, an oil magnate, and others who are subject to government regulations.
Among the Cabinet, donors include billionaire Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, listed as “The Lutnick Family.” Small Business Administrator Kelly Loeffler and her husband, Wall Street billionaire Jeff Sprecher, donated. Also on the list is Benjamin Leon Jr., who Trump has nominated to serve as ambassador to Spain.
It’s not known the amount each donor is contributing.
Trump has said that his latest construction project, set to hold 999 people, won’t use taxpayer money. His latest estimates put the project at $300 million, up from a previous estimation of $200 million weeks before.
Trump has long argued the White House needs more square footage to hold guests for formal ceremonies. For large events, administrations led by both parties either crammed everyone in the East Room, which holds a capacity of 200, or set up tents on the South Lawn.
Construction crews began demolishing the East Wing this week to make room for the new ballroom, which the White House has said will be completed “long” before Trump leaves office in 2029.
The plans show the ballroom as having tall windows, white walls and grand arches, similar to Trump’s usual style.
Several billionaires included on the list dined with the president at the White House last week. They include Blackstone CEO Stephen Schwarzman, oil magnate Harold Hamm, Israeli-American investor Isaac Perlmutter, private equity investor Konstantin Sokolov and Edward Glazer, who owns the British soccer team Manchester United.
The list also includes Stefan Brodie, a biotech entrepreneur who along with his brother was convicted of violating American sanctions on Cuba in 2002. Former President Joe Biden denied both Brodie’s and his brother’s request for a pardon in 2023.
Several of the donors stand to benefit directly from currying favor with the Trump administration. Cuban-American sugar baron José Fanjul and his wife, Emilia Fanjul, for example, reportedly helped sway Trump to push Coca-Cola to use cane sugar in its signature soda beverage.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt declined to say how much money Trump has personally committed to the project at a Thursday press briefing, but said the administration would share a dollar figure at an unspecified later point.
She also clarified that renovations to the Presidential Emergency Operations Center below the East Wing would also be funded privately and that the Office of the First Lady would continue to be housed in the East Wing following the renovation.
“This is going to be a magnificent addition to the White House for many years to come, and it’s not costing the taxpayers anything,” Leavitt said.
The full donor list is as follows:
Altria Group Inc.
Amazon
Apple
Booz Allen Hamilton Inc.
Caterpillar Inc.
Coinbase
Comcast Corporation
J. Pepe and Emilia Fanjul
Hard Rock International
Google
HP Inc.
Lockheed Martin
Meta Platforms
Micron Technology
Microsoft
NextEra Energy Inc.
Palantir Technologies Inc.
Ripple
Reynolds American
T-Mobile
Tether America
Union Pacific Railroad
Adelson Family Foundation
Stefan E. Brodie
Betty Wold Johnson Foundation
Charles and Marissa Cascarilla
Edward and Shari Glazer
Harold Hamm
Benjamin Leon Jr.
The Lutnick Family
The Laura & Isaac Perlmutter Foundation
Stephen A. Schwarzman
Konstantin Sokolov
Kelly Loeffler and Jeff Sprecher
Paolo Tiramani
Cameron Winklevoss
Tyler Winklevoss