The billionaire Timothy Mellon is such a discreet person that there is only one photo of him in the public space from 1981. Photo: IanDagnall Computing / Alamy / Profimedia
The anonymous donor who offered 130 million dollars to the Pentagon to pay the soldiers during the government shutdown was identified as Timothy Mellon, a billionaire and an important financial supporter of President Donald Trump, according to Fox News television, taken over by News.ro.
Trump announced the donation on Thursday but declined to identify the donor, describing him only as a “patriot” and a friend.
The president again declined to name the person Friday while speaking to the media aboard Air Force One shortly after departing Washington for Asia, calling the donor “a great American citizen” and “an important man.”
“He doesn't want publicity. He prefers not to have his name mentioned, which is quite unusual in the world that I come from and in the world of politics, where he wants his name to be mentioned,” Trump said on Friday.
But two people familiar with the matter told The New York Times that the man is Mellon, a wealthy bank heir and railroad magnate.
It is not clear how the donation will cover the salaries of the troops. The $130 million would equate to about $100 for each member of the military, according to The New York Times.
Supporter of Trump and Kennedy Jr.
Mellon, the grandson of former Treasury Secretary Andrew W. Mellon, is a Trump supporter who has donated tens of millions of dollars to groups supporting the president's 2024 campaign. Last year, he gave $50 million to a pro-Trump super PAC, one of the largest individual contributions ever disclosed, the paper said.
The billionaire was not a prominent Republican donor until Trump's first election, but in recent years he has donated hundreds of millions of dollars to support the president and the Republican Party.
He is also a major supporter of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who also ran for president in 2024, first as a Democrat and later as an independent, before dropping out to support Trump. Mellon donated millions of dollars to Kennedy's presidential campaign and also donated money to the secretary's anti-vaccination nonprofit, Children's Health Defense, according to The New York Times.
Despite his political contributions, Mellon tried to keep a low profile.
In an autobiography published in 2015, Mellon described himself as a former liberal who moved from Connecticut to Wyoming to take advantage of lower taxes and a smaller population.
The Pentagon said it accepted the donation under “general donation acceptance authority.”
“The donation was made on the condition that it be used to offset the costs of salaries and benefits for military service members,” Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement to The New York Times.
But the donation could be a potential violation of the Deficit Act, which prohibits federal agencies from spending amounts that exceed congressional appropriations or accepting volunteer services.
