Trump Ballroom Donors Ignore Senators’ Questions About How Much They Donated

WASHINGTON – When President Donald Trump released a list of private donors By paying for the construction of his 90,000-square-foot, $300 million White House ballroom (and the demolition of the East Wing), he left many questions unanswered.

How much money did these billionaires and corporate CEOs give away? Who approached them about donating in the first place? Do they expect something in return? Are they actively lobbying the White House for other benefits for their companies or themselves?

Was this even a complete list of all the donors behind the ballroom project? (He it was not.)

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), the top Democrat on the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, posed these questions to more than 30 of the known donors funding Trump’s ballroom project in a series of letters sent in late October. He gave them until early November to respond.

The donors’ response letters, obtained by News themezone, are remarkably evasive. The 21 responses (two came from project contractors, the rest from companies that donated) almost universally do not answer Blumenthal’s questions, but instead boast about their philanthropy and love for America.

Blumenthal asked very specific questions, such as: “How much did you contribute to the White House Ballroom project?” and “List all White House staff or other representatives or associates of the Trump Administration or the Trump family with whom you have spoken about the donation.”

Some of the answers were ridiculous. Apple, Amazon and Meta, which are among the big tech companies funding Trump’s project, said their support of the ballroom is just another example of them donating money to a good cause. Neither actually said how much money they donated or who they worked with in Trump’s orbit to make the donations happen.

Meta ironically suggested that he is funding the ballroom project because he cares about preserving the White House grounds, since Trump just razed the entire East Wing to make way for his project. (News themezone obtained copies of the letters on the condition that they not be quoted directly.)

AP

Other donors, such as cryptocurrency companies Coinbase and Ripple and a major government contractor. Booz Allen similarly stated that his donations are motivated by civic pride and a commitment to protecting the White House. Booz Allen, in particular, praised the White House as a symbol of American democracy and said she is proud to help prop up the building, part of which, once again, Trump just completely demolished.

The only company that disclosed its donation in its letter was Google, and it only did so because it was already reported to be donating $22 million as part of a deal the company reached with Trump after it was banned from YouTube, owned by Google parent company Alphabet, after it incited the January 6, 2021 insurrection.

Most of these donors insisted that they follow all laws and do not donate money to the ballroom project in exchange for other Trump benefits.

Some companies, including Comcast and BlackRock, said they blindly donated money to the Trust for the National Mall, the National Park Service’s nonprofit partner that accepts private money for repairs and improvements to national lands and monuments, and had no say in whether their funds went specifically to Trump’s ballroom.

Others, such as Nvidia and the Betty Wold Johnson Foundation, confirmed that they donated to the trust specifically to help Trump’s project.

One company that won’t be contributing money to the White House ballroom is JPMorgan Chase. Its CEO, Jamie Dimon, said last month on CNN that the company has many government contracts inside and outside the US, and that it has to be careful about how its deals are perceived and how a future Justice Department might approach them.

“We’re pretty aware of the risks we take by doing anything that looks like buying favors or anything like that,” Dimon said.

Trump’s ballroom project is unpopular with the public. An ABC News/Washington Post poll in late October found that only 28% of Americans supported construction of the ballroom, while 56% opposed it.