Who is Timothy Mellon?: Trump ally who reportedly donated $130m for US troop pay amid shutdown

An anti-tax crusader and billionaire ally of US President Donald Trump has been identified as the anonymous private donor who gave $130 million to the government to pay the US troops amid the government shutdown. According to The New York Times, Timothy Mellon, the heir to the Gilded Age industrialist and former Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon, is the secret donor.

While announcing the funding on Thursday, Trump described Mellon as a “dear friend”, “great American”, and “patriot”. However, his administration kept his name under wraps until two anonymous sources within the government told the NYT about the arrangement. Trump announced the secret, legally controversial donation amid growing clamour about the potential financial hardships caused by the ongoing federal shutdown, which is now in its fourth week.

​​“He doesn’t want publicity,” Trump said on Friday as he headed to Malaysia. “He prefers that his name not be mentioned, which is pretty unusual in the world I come from, and in the world of politics, you want your name mentioned.” Meanwhile, the Pentagon told NYT that the donation was accepted under the “general gift acceptance authority”

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“The donation was made on the condition that it be used to offset the cost of service members’ salaries and benefits,” said Sean Parnell, the Pentagon’s chief spokesperson, in a statement. However, it is pertinent to note that the donation, which equates to about $100 per service member, appears to be a potential violation of the Antideficiency Act. The legislation prohibits agencies from spending funds in advance or in excess of congressional appropriations. It also forbade the federal body from accepting voluntary services, with the exception of emergency cases involving the safety of human life and protection of property.

Mellon’s allegiance to Trump

The 80-year-old billionaire pumped a whopping $165 million to back Trump, Robert F Kennedy and other Republican candidates during the 2024 election cycle. This made him the top donor fueling outside spending groups last year, according to the campaign finance watchdog OpenSecrets.

Melon has also given money to Kennedy’s anti-vaccine group, Children’s Health Defence. The retired railroad magnate lives mostly in Wyoming. He is a relatively new player in campaign financing, donating just $32,000 in the 2016 election cycle when Trump first ran for office.

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This quickly jumped to $10 million in 2016 and $60 million in 2020. In the same year, Mellon gave a rare interview to Bloomberg in which he said he believed Trump had delivered on what he’d said on the stump. Back in 2021, the Texas Tribune reported that Mellon had donated $53 million to Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s fund to build a wall on the state’s border with Mexico.

The reclusive billionaire’s wealth and anti-tax leanings can be traced back to his industrialist grandfather, who made his money in banking and investments in startups before serving as treasury secretary from 1921 to 1932.

It is pertinent to note that the Mellon family continues to remain one of the country’s richest families with a combined net worth of $14 billion in 2024, according to Forbes. Timothy Mellon’s individual wealth is unclear, with reported estimates ranging from $700 million to $4 billion.