“I don’t need anyone’s money, that’s OK,” Donald Trump said when he launched his 2016 presidential campaign, which cost him personally $66 million. “I’m not using the donors.”
In fact, in 2016 it did depend on donors, but not nearly as much as today. So far, the former president has not contributed a cent to his campaign, while other billionaires have invested millions in groups that support him (and, in some cases, other candidates as well).
The top 10 billionaire donors are all longtime supporters of the former president, and have already donated $123 million to groups supporting Trump this cycle, according to the most recent filings with the Federal Election Commission. It may seem like a lot of money, but these people have a combined net worth of more than $55 billion, leaving them with plenty of firepower left. Let’s hope for more big checks in the next five months, as the United States decides, for the third time, whether to put Trump in the White House.
1. TIMOTHY MELLON
Donations to Trump groups: 76.5 million dollars | Net worth: more than 1 billion dollars
Timothy Mellon, a scion of the Mellon family whose roughly $14 billion fortune dates back to the Gilded Age, drew attention by investing $50 million in a pro-Trump super-PAC the day after a New York jury condemn the former president on 34 serious charges. Mellon, who donated $20 million to another Trump group in 2020, launched a computer programming company in the 1960s and then began buying railroads to form a company, which he sold in 2022 for $600 million. He has also spent more than a million dollars trying to find the wreckage of Amelia Earhart’s plane.
2. LINDA MCMAHON (WIFE OF VINCE MCMAHON)
Donations to Trump groups: 11.1 million dollars | Net worth: $2.9 billion
McMahon, whose husband Vince turned a regional wrestling league into the multibillion-dollar World Wrestling Entertainment empire, served as head of the Small Business Administration during Trump’s first term in the White House. She left her position to co-chair Trump’s main super-PAC ahead of the 2020 election. Her husband, Vince, resigned as CEO of WWE’s parent company in January amid allegations of inappropriate sexual conduct. Today, Linda McMahon, who ran unsuccessfully for the Senate in Connecticut in 2010 and 2012, chairs the pro-Trump nonprofit America First Policy Institute (Fox Business host Larry Kudlow is vice president). She also serves on the board of directors of Trump Media and Technology Group.
3. KELCY WARREN
Donations to Trump groups: 5.8 million dollars | Net worth: 6.3 billion dollars
Warren is the CEO of Energy Transfer, the company that owns the Dakota Access pipeline, which Trump helped expedite after taking office in 2017. Oil began flowing later that year, and Warren, who donated $100,000 to support the Trump campaign in 2016, has remained loyal to the former president. He donated more than $11 million to support his re-election, and has already given out nearly $6 million to pro-Trump groups this year.
4. DIANE HENDRICKS
Donations to Trump groups: 5.5 million dollars | Net worth: $20.9 billion
Donald Trump didn’t think much of it when former Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker dropped out of the presidential race in 2015. “See if you can get his vote, Corey,” Trump mockingly told his former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski at the time. . The real estate mogul ended up attracting Walker’s most important backer, Diane Hendricks, the richest self-made woman in America. Hendricks served as vice chair of one of Trump’s fundraising committees in 2016, she donated more than $6 million during the 2020 cycle and has already donated $5.5 million in this round. Hendricks, a former Playboy Playmate, co-founded ABC Supply with her late husband Ken, later building it into a $20 billion building materials giant.
5. TIMOTHY DUNN
Donations to Trump groups: 5 million dollars | Net worth: 2.2 billion dollars
Dunn struck it rich in the oil fields of West Texas, where he founded a private well-exploiting company called CrownQuest. He began donating to Trump in 2020, but increased his donations this cycle. In December, Dunn donated $5 million to Trump’s largest political action committee. Dunn has donated another $2.5 million to other Republican committees, including those supporting Indiana Rep. Jim Banks and Florida Sen. Rick Scott.
6. ELIZABETH UIHLEIN
Donations to Trump groups: 5 million dollars | Net worth: 6.6 billion dollars
7. RICHARD UIHLEIN
Donations to Trump groups: 5 million dollars | Net worth: 6.6 billion dollars
Elizabeth and Richard Uihlein founded Wisconsin-based packaging materials company Uline in the basement of their home in 1980. Today, the company turns over $6.1 billion a year and the couple has a combined net worth of $13.2 billion. . Their fortune has become a key source of cash for Republican campaigns in recent cycles: Richard invested $84 million in the 2022 midterms alone. They have supported Trump fairly consistently: they gave more than $500,000 to a pro-Trump group in 2016 and more than a million in 2020. However, Richard also gave $2 million to a group opposing Trump during the 2016 primaries, and last year the couple donated $3 million to a super-PAC that supported Trump’s rival, Ron DeSantis. However, the Uihleins are now fully on the Trump bandwagon: Last month they wrote checks for $5 million each to Trump’s main super-PAC.
8. PHIL RUFFIN
Donations to Trump groups: 3.3 million dollars | Net worth: 2.6 billion dollars
Few billionaires are closer to Trump than Ruffin, who co-owns the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas with the former president. After Trump failed to get more money from Deutsche Bank during his 2016 campaign, Trump and Ruffin took out a $30 million loan with the Las Vegas hotel as collateral. Over the next six weeks, Trump pumped $12 million of his own money into his campaign. It’s all a rounding error for Ruffin, whose $2.6 billion empire also includes the Treasure Island and Circus Circus casinos, mainstays of the Las Vegas Strip. Ruffin, who married his wife Oleksandra at Mar-a-Lago, with Trump as best man, has already donated more to pro-Trump groups in the 2024 cycle than in the last two elections combined.
9. GEOFFREY PALMER
Donations to Trump groups: 3 million dollars | Net worth: 3.1 billion dollars
Palmer, one of the largest homeowners in Los Angeles, with more than 11,000 apartments in his portfolio, has long been involved in politics. His firm was fined in the 1990s for laundering California campaign funds to avoid contribution caps. However, electoral rules are not as strict as before, and Palmer can now invest as much as he wants in federal elections. He contributed $6.3 million to Trump’s super-PACs in 2016 and $10.5 million in 2020. He has already given $3 million in 2024.
10. ROBERT “WOODY” JOHNSON
Donations to Trump groups: 2.7 million dollars | Net worth: 3.2 billion dollars
The New York Jets owner, an heir to health care giant Johnson & Johnson, served as Trump’s ambassador to the U.K. One of the tasks Trump reportedly assigned him was securing the British Open for Trump Turnberry, a historic golf course the former president purchased two and a half years before taking office. Johnson never appealed to the Open, but he has remained loyal to Trump, courting deep-pocketed Republicans who turned their backs on him after the Jan. 6 riot, according to CNBC. Johnson has donated $1.9 million to pro-Trump groups this cycle, and his wife Suzanne has contributed more than $800,000.
Zach Everson and Phoebe Liu contributed to this report.
This article was originally published by Forbes US.
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