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Door staff@engadget.com (Lawrence Bonk) - 15 Oct 2026
The Washington Post has obtained a list of all of the major donors to President Trump's ballroom project thingamajig. The big reveal? The tech, telecom and crypto industries are the primary benefactors here, donating over $183 million for the audacious ballroom that nobody wants or asked for.
The biggest donors are NVIDIA and Apple, who each committed $25 million. The same goes for billionaire Charles Ergen, the co-founder of Dish Network. NVIDIA and Dish have both benefited significantly from Trump policies during this second term. As for Apple, it has been scrambling to curry favor with Trump so as to avoid some of those endless tariffs.
Exclusive: A list reveals all the major donors to President Trump's White House ballroom, including previously undisclosed contributors who have benefited from regulatory decisions, government contracts and, in one case, a pardon for a family member. https://t.co/y3ivMy1NKk
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) October 15, 2026
Nearly every other major tech company has also donated millions each to the project, including Microsoft, Meta, Palantir, Google, Amazon and Cisco, among others. This isn't exactly surprising, given that most of these companies were also heavily involved with funding the president's inauguration in 2025.
Republican megadonor Sheldon Adelson also gave $25 million and companies like Blackrock, Lockheed Martin, Gemini and Coinbase gave millions. There's also $77 million in funds unaccounted for, as ballroom donations aren't subject to public disclosure or campaign finance rules. It could be anyone or any entity from anywhere. This money is funneled to a "nonprofit" that the president directly controls, just how the constitution envisioned it.
Absent from this list of donors? President Trump. He has repeatedly vowed to help pay for the project, once saying "it's being paid for a hundred percent by me and some friends of mine." There's no money trail here with his name on it.
However, we'll be spending some of our cents to turn the now-demolished East Wing into a gaudy ballroom for the world's richest people to dance inside of. The Washington Post has also found American taxpayers could end up paying for around half of this thing when all is said and done. This is especially worrisome, given that the expected budget for the ballroom recently shot up to $600 million.
This being a Trump project, there are even more troubling potential connections between the President and some of these donors. Joseph Popolo Jr. donated $1 million to the ballroom just after being chosen as the ambassador to the Netherlands. He did not report this donation. Trump cabinet member Kelly Loeffler and her husband promised $5 million. Brandon Lutnick gave stock worth more than $2.5 million. That's the son of Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.
Finally, there's Isabela Herrera, who donated $2.5 million. This is the daughter of international banker Herrera Velutini, who was indicted by the Justice Department on bribery charges and pleaded guilty. His daughter made the first payment installment of $835,000 in October, 2025 and her father was pardoned by the president in January.
White House spokesperson Davis Ingle expressed frustration that this list of donors was published and vowed that the administration will "relentlessly pursue those responsible for this cowardly leak while continuing to protect all those who give." He also said that reporters are just looking for "fake conflicts of interest."
The biggest donors are NVIDIA and Apple, who each committed $25 million. The same goes for billionaire Charles Ergen, the co-founder of Dish Network. NVIDIA and Dish have both benefited significantly from Trump policies during this second term. As for Apple, it has been scrambling to curry favor with Trump so as to avoid some of those endless tariffs.
Exclusive: A list reveals all the major donors to President Trump's White House ballroom, including previously undisclosed contributors who have benefited from regulatory decisions, government contracts and, in one case, a pardon for a family member. https://t.co/y3ivMy1NKk
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) October 15, 2026
Nearly every other major tech company has also donated millions each to the project, including Microsoft, Meta, Palantir, Google, Amazon and Cisco, among others. This isn't exactly surprising, given that most of these companies were also heavily involved with funding the president's inauguration in 2025.
Republican megadonor Sheldon Adelson also gave $25 million and companies like Blackrock, Lockheed Martin, Gemini and Coinbase gave millions. There's also $77 million in funds unaccounted for, as ballroom donations aren't subject to public disclosure or campaign finance rules. It could be anyone or any entity from anywhere. This money is funneled to a "nonprofit" that the president directly controls, just how the constitution envisioned it.
Absent from this list of donors? President Trump. He has repeatedly vowed to help pay for the project, once saying "it's being paid for a hundred percent by me and some friends of mine." There's no money trail here with his name on it.
However, we'll be spending some of our cents to turn the now-demolished East Wing into a gaudy ballroom for the world's richest people to dance inside of. The Washington Post has also found American taxpayers could end up paying for around half of this thing when all is said and done. This is especially worrisome, given that the expected budget for the ballroom recently shot up to $600 million.
This being a Trump project, there are even more troubling potential connections between the President and some of these donors. Joseph Popolo Jr. donated $1 million to the ballroom just after being chosen as the ambassador to the Netherlands. He did not report this donation. Trump cabinet member Kelly Loeffler and her husband promised $5 million. Brandon Lutnick gave stock worth more than $2.5 million. That's the son of Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.
Finally, there's Isabela Herrera, who donated $2.5 million. This is the daughter of international banker Herrera Velutini, who was indicted by the Justice Department on bribery charges and pleaded guilty. His daughter made the first payment installment of $835,000 in October, 2025 and her father was pardoned by the president in January.
White House spokesperson Davis Ingle expressed frustration that this list of donors was published and vowed that the administration will "relentlessly pursue those responsible for this cowardly leak while continuing to protect all those who give." He also said that reporters are just looking for "fake conflicts of interest."