Who is Timothy Mellon, the billionaire who reportedly donated $130 million to help pay the troops?
The anonymous donor who gave the Department of Defense $130 million to partially cover the salaries of military personnel amid the government shutdown has been identified as billionaire Timothy Mellon, The New York Times reported.
Mellon, an 83-year-old resident of Saratoga, Wyoming, has donated frequently to President Trump and Republican groups in recent years.
Speaking to reporters at the White House on Thursday, Trump, without naming Mellon, described the anonymous donor as a “friend” that he “didn’t really want to acknowledge.”
“This is what I call patriotic,” the president said.
Neither the White House nor the Pentagon publicly acknowledged the Times report that identified Mellon as the anonymous donor. Hill requested comment on the report from the Pentagon, but it was referred to the White House.
Here’s what to know about the billionaire and his reported donation:
History of political donations
According to Federal Election Commission (FEC) filings, Mellon donated nearly $2 million to MAGA Inc., a major political action committee that supports the president, in late April.
He also donated $1 million to the Congressional Leadership Fund, a super PAC dedicated to electing Republicans to Congress, in early March.
According to the Federal Election Commission, Mellon first donated to Trump’s campaign in September 2016, less than two months before he defeated Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in his first run for the White House. He also donated $140 million to MAGA Inc. last year and provided $2,900 to Vice President Vance’s primary Senate run in 2021.
In 2023 and 2024, Mellon donated more than $25 million to the super PAC aligned with the independent presidential campaign of Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. He also donated $2,800 to Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard’s Democratic presidential campaign in 2019.
He comes from a famous family
The son of Paul Mellon and Mary Conover Brown, Mellon is heir to his family fortune. He is the grandson of Thomas Mellon, the founder of Mellon Bank, and the great-grandson of former Chancellor of the Exchequer Andrew Mellon – who faced an impeachment inquiry in 1932 amid allegations of corruption.
As of February 2024, the Mellon family’s net worth is $14.1 billion, according to Forbes.
The Washington Post reported in 2020 that Mellon, in his 2015 autobiography, called the social safety net “Slavery Redux” and said black Americans were “more aggressive” after such programs were expanded in the 1960s and 1970s.
In an interview with The New York Times later that year, Mellon deflected when asked about his financial support for Trump.
“I will contribute to [Trump] or [former President] “Biden or whoever I want. I don’t have to say why,” he told the outlet.
The donation raises legal questions
The $130 million donation, according to Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell, was accepted under the department’s “General Gift Acceptance Authority.”
“The donation was made with the condition that it be used to offset the cost of service member salaries and benefits,” Parnell told The Hill in an emailed statement on Friday.
More than 1.3 million active-duty employees are scheduled to receive their salaries on Friday. Before payday for the troops on October 15, Trump directed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to use $8 billion in Pentagon funds for research, development, test and evaluation to compensate service members.
However, the cost of the mid-month payments was about $6.5 billion. That leaves just $1.5 billion left for Friday’s paychecks, which are expected to cost between $6 billion and $7 billion, Todd Harrison, an American Enterprise Institute fellow, told The Hill earlier this month.
The net donation of $130 million would be approximately $50 per soldier in this pay cycle, based on the October 15 total.
But the donation raises legal questions.
According to the Anti-Deficiency Act, federal agencies are prohibited from “obligating or expending Federal funds in advance or in excess of appropriations, and from accepting voluntary services.” The law requires agency heads to report violations to the president and Congress.
