
Source: Forbes
“I don’t need anyone’s donation – it feels good. I don’t need donors,” Donald Trump said in opening his 2016 presidential campaign., he paid $66 million.
But in fact, Trump relied on donors in 2016, but the degree is not as deep as today.In this year’s U.S. election, the former president hasn’t paid a penny from his wallet so far, while other billionaires have invested millions of dollars in groups that support him.
According to the latest documents submitted by the Federal Election Commission,The ten billionaires who donated the most in this presidential campaign are long-time supporters of the former president, who have donated a total of $123 million to groups that support Trump.
This doesn’t sound like a small amount, but the combined net worth of these people exceeds $55 billion, allowing them to continue to exert their “money ability” in the following elections.In the following five months, as Americans decided for the third time whether to allow Trump to enter the White House, they were expected to write more large checks.
Here are the ten billionaires who donated the most to Trump:
01 Timothy Mellon(Timothy Mellon)
Total donations to Trump’s team in this election: $76.5 million
Lotto: more than US$1 billion
Timothy Mellon is a descendant of the Mellon family, whose wealth is about $14 billion back to the Gilded Age in American history (1870-1898).
As early as 2020, Mellon donated $20 million to a Trump campaign, and the day after a New York jury found the former U.S. president guilty of 34 felony charges, Mellon even gave aThe Super Political Action Commission (PAC) that supports Trump has contributed $50 million, a move that has attracted widespread attention.Mellon started a computer programming company in the 1960s, then began to acquire railroads, set up railroads, and sold the company for $600 million in 2020.In addition, he spent more than $1 million to find the wreckage of Amelia Earhart, the first female pilot who set a flight distance record in the 1930s.
02Linda McMahon(Linda McMahon, Wife of Vince McMahon)
Total donations to Trump’s team in this election: $11.1 million
Lotto: US$2.9 billion
Image source: CHIP SOMODEVILLA/GETTY IMAGES
During Trump’s first White House entrance, McMahon served as director of the US Small Business Administration, and later resigned before the 2020 U.S. election and became the co-chair of Trump’s main super political action committee.
Her husband Vince turned a regional wrestling league into a multibillion-dollar world-class wrestling entertainment empire (WWE) but resigned as executive chairman of WWE’s parent company in January due to sexual assault allegationsposition.Now, Linda McMahon, who failed to run for the Connecticut Senate in 2010 and 2012, has become the chairman of the America First Policy Institute, a pro-Trump nonprofit organization (Fox Business)Channel host Larry Kudlow serves as vice chairman).At the same time, she is also a member of the board of directors of Trump Media and Technology Group.
03 Koltz Warren(Kelcy Warren)
Total donations to Trump’s team in this election: $5.8 million
Net worth: US$6.3 billion
Image source: JOHN L. MONE/AP
Warren is the executive chairman of Energy Transfer, which owns the Dakota Access Pipeline, which Trump helped advance after taking office in 2017. The pipeline was put into use in the same year and began to transport oil..Back in 2016, as a loyal follower of Trump, Warren donated $100,000 to support Trump’s campaign.To date, Warren has generously donated more than $11 million for Trump’s re-election, and has donated nearly $6 million to the team that supports Trump this year alone.
04 Diane Hendrix(Diane Hendricks)
Total donations to Trump’s team in this election: $5.5 million
Net worth: US$20.9 billion
Image source: GABRIELA HASBUN FOR FORBES
In 2015, when the current US Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin withdrew from the presidential campaign, Trump did not care much.He also said disdainfully with his former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski: “Cori, see if you can get his vote.”
But in the end, Trump attracted the attention of Walker’s most important supporter, the richest self-made woman in the United States – Diane Hendrix.Hendrix, who served as vice chairman of Trump’s 2016 fund-and-member committee, donated more than $6 million in the 2020 elections and has also donated $5.5 million in this year’s campaign.Hendrix, a former Bunny Playboy, co-founded ABC Supply, a building materials company with her late husband Ken, and turned it into a $20 billion building materials giant.
05Timothy Dunn(Timothy Dunn)
Total donations to Trump’s team in this election: $5 million
Net worth: US$2.2 billion
Image source: GUERIN BLASK FIOR FORBES
Dunn founded a private oil well company called CrownQuest in western Texas and made a fortune.He has been donating to Trump since 2020, but he has become even more generous in this campaign.Last December, Dunn donated $5 million to Trump’s largest super political action committee.In addition, he donated $2.5 million to action committees for other Republican candidates, including support for Indiana Rep. Jim Banks and Florida Sen. Rick ScottScott’s Action Committee.
06Elizabeth Uylien(Elizabeth Uihlein)
Total donations to Trump’s team in this election: $5 million
Net worth: US$6.6 billion
07Richard Uylien(Richard Uihlein)
Total donations to Trump’s team in this election: $5 million
Net worth: US$6.6 billion
Image source: PAUL MORIGI/GETTY IMAGES
In 1980, the Uylein couple founded Uline, a packaging material company in their Wisconsin basement.Today, the company’s annual sales have reached $6.1 billion, and the couple’s combined net worth is $13.2 billion.
Their wealth has become an important source of funding for Republican campaigns over the past few rounds of campaigns – Richard alone has funded the Republican Party $84 million in the 2022 midterm elections.To some extent, they have always been Trump supporters, donating more than $500,000 to a group that supports Trump in 2016 and more than $1 million in 2020.However, during the 2016 primary, Richard also donated $2 million to a group that opposed Trump.Last year, the two donated another $3 million to a super PAC that supports Trump challenger Ron DeSantis.However, the Uylien couple are now completely on Trump’s side: last month, they each donated $5 million to Trump’s main super political action committee.
08Phil Rafen(Phil Ruffin)
Total donations to Trump’s team in this election: $3.3 million
Net worth: US$2.6 billion
Image source: TIM PANNELL FOR FORBES
Few billionaires can have a closer relationship with Trump than Raffin, who, after all, owns the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas with the former US president.
During the 2016 U.S. election, Trump and Raffin secured a $30 million loan with the Las Vegas hotel as collateral because he failed to obtain financial support from Deutsche Bank..In the next six weeks, Trump took out $12 million from his funds and injected them into the campaign.Fortunately for Raffin, the money was just a drop in the bucket, because his business empire included the two major casinos on the Vegas Strip – Treasure Island and Circus CasinoCircus casinos, with a net worth of up to $2.6 billion.In addition, his wife, Oleksandra, was also a wedding at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago, where Trump also served as his best man.His donations to pro-Trump groups in the 2024 election have exceeded the combined donations in the previous two elections.
09Jeffrey Palmer(Geoffrey Palmer)
Total donations to Trump’s team in this election: $3 million
Net worth: US$3.1 billion
Image source: STEFANIE KEENAN/GETTY IMAGES
Palmer, who owns 11,000 apartments, is one of Los Angeles’ largest landlords, but he has also been devoted to politics.His company was fined in the 1990s for helping California campaign funds launder money to circumvent donation caps.However, today when the election rules are no longer so strict, Palmer can donate as much as he wants to the US election.In 2016, he donated $6.3 million to Trump’s Super Political Action Committee, another $10.5 million in 2020, and has donated $3 million so far this year.
10.Robert Wood Johnson(Robert “Woody” Johnson)
Total donations to Trump’s team in this election: $2.7 million
Net worth: US$3.2 billion
Image source: MAX MUMBY/INDIGO/GETTY IMAGES
The New York Jets boss is the heir to medical giant Johnson & Johnson and has served as Trump’s ambassador to the UK.
One of the tasks Trump gave him at the time was to ensure that the British Open was held at Trump Turnberry, the historic golf course that Trump took office.Purchased in the first two and a half years.Although Johnson failed to win the right to host the British Golf Open for Trump Turnberry, according to CNBC, he has always been loyal to Trump and has won over those who have left Trump after the “Capital Hill riots” on January 6Going to the Polygold Republican.During the campaign, Johnson donated $1.9 million to groups that support Trump, and his wife Suzanne also donated more than $800,000.