Source: Forbes
“I don’t need any donations from anybody — it feels good. I don’t need donors,” Donald Trump said when he launched his 2016 presidential campaign, during which he spent $66 million of his own money.
But the fact is that Trump still relied on donors in 2016, just not to the same extent as today. So far in this year's US election, the former president has not paid a penny from his own wallet, while other billionaires have poured millions of dollars into groups supporting him.
The 10 billionaires who have contributed the most to the presidential race are all longtime supporters of the former president and have donated a total of $123 million to pro-Trump groups, according to new filings with the Federal Election Commission.
That doesn't sound like a small amount, but these people are worth more than $55 billion, giving them the financial muscle to keep the campaign going. In the next five months, as Americans decide for the third time whether to put Trump in the White House, they are expected to write more big checks.
Here are the top 10 billionaires who donated the most to Trump:
01 Timothy Mellon
Total donations to Trump's team this election: $76.5 million
Net worth: Over $1 billion
Timothy Mellon is a descendant of the Mellon family, whose estimated $14 billion fortune dates back to the Gilded Age (1870-1898) in American history.
Mellon donated $20 million to a Trump campaign in 2020, and the day after a New York jury convicted the former US president of 34 felony counts, Mellon donated $50 million to a Trump-supporting super PAC, which attracted widespread attention. Mellon founded a computer programming company in the 1960s, then began acquiring railroads and forming a railroad company, which he sold for $600 million in 2020. He also spent more than $1 million trying to find the wreckage of Amelia Earhart's plane, one of the first female pilots to set a record for flight distance in the 1930s.
02Linda McMahon (Vince McMahon’s wife)
Total donations to Trump's team this election: $11.1 million
Net worth: $2.9 billion
Photo credit: CHIP SOMODEVILLA/GETTY IMAGES
McMahon served as director of the U.S. Small Business Administration during Trump's first term in the White House, leaving the post before the 2020 U.S. election to become co-chair of Trump's main super PAC.
Her husband, Vince, turned a regional wrestling league into the multibillion-dollar World Wrestling Entertainment empire (WWE), but resigned as executive chairman of WWE's parent company in January amid sexual assault allegations. Today, Linda McMahon, who unsuccessfully ran for the Connecticut Senate in 2010 and 2012, is the president of the pro-Trump nonprofit America First Policy Institute (Fox Business Network host Larry Kudlow serves as vice chairman). She also serves on the board of directors of Trump Media and Technology Group.
03 Kelcy Warren
Total donations to Trump's team this election: $5.8 million
Net worth: $6.3 billion
Photo credit: John L. Monem/AP
Warren is the executive chairman of Energy Transfer, which owns the Dakota Access Pipeline. Trump helped promote the construction of the pipeline after taking office in 2017, and the pipeline was put into use and began to transport oil in the same year. As early as 2016, as a loyal follower of Trump, Warren donated $100,000 to support Trump's campaign. So far, Warren has generously donated more than $11 million to Trump's re-election, and has donated nearly $6 million to the team supporting Trump this year alone.
04 Diane Hendricks
Total donations to Trump's team this election: $5.5 million
Net worth: $20.9 billion
Photo credit: GABRIELA HASBUN FOR FORBES
When former Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker dropped out of the presidential race in 2015, Trump didn’t take it too seriously, and he told his former campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, “See if you can get his ticket, Corey.”
Eventually, though, Trump caught the eye of Diane Hendrix, Walker’s most important supporter and the richest self-made woman in the U.S. Hendrix served as vice chair of Trump’s 2016 fundraising committee and donated more than $6 million to the 2020 election, and has already donated $5.5 million to this year’s campaign. Hendrix, a former Playboy bunny, co-founded ABC Supply with her late husband, Ken, and built it into a $20 billion building materials giant.
05Timothy Dunn
Total donations to Trump's team this election: $5 million
Net worth: $2.2 billion
Photo credit: Guerin Blask Fior Forbes
Dunn, who made his fortune founding a private oil well company called CrownQuest in West Texas, has been donating to Trump since the start of 2020, but he has become more generous this cycle. In December, Dunn donated $5 million to Trump's largest super PAC. He has also given $2.5 million to other Republican candidates' PACs, including those supporting Indiana Rep. Jim Banks and Florida Sen. Rick Scott.
06 Elizabeth Uihlein
Total donations to Trump's team this election: $5 million
Net worth: $6.6 billion
07Richard Uihlein
Total donations to Trump's team this election: $5 million
Net worth: $6.6 billion
Photo credit: PAUL MORIGI/GETTY IMAGES
The Uileins founded Uline, a packaging materials company, in their basement in Wisconsin in 1980. Today, the company has annual sales of $6.1 billion, and the couple is worth a combined $13.2 billion.
Their wealth has become a significant source of funding for Republican campaigns over the past few campaigns—Richard alone donated $84 million to the Republican Party in the 2022 midterm elections. They have always been Trump supporters to some extent, donating more than $500,000 to a pro-Trump group in 2016 and more than $1 million in 2020. However, during the 2016 primary, Richard also donated $2 million to an anti-Trump group. Last year, the two donated another $3 million to a super PAC supporting Trump challenger Ron DeSantis. However, the Uileins are now fully on Trump's side: last month, they each donated $5 million to Trump's main super PAC.
08 Phil Ruffin
Total donations to Trump's team this election: $3.3 million
Net worth: $2.6 billion
Photo credit: Tim Pannell for Forbes
Few billionaires have a closer relationship with Trump than Ruffin, as he and the former U.S. president co-own the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas.
During the 2016 US election, Trump and Ruffin used the Las Vegas hotel as collateral for a $30 million loan after failing to secure funding from Deutsche Bank. In the following six weeks, Trump poured another $12 million of his own money into the campaign. Fortunately, this amount is just a drop in the bucket for Ruffin, whose business empire includes two major casinos on the Vegas Strip, Treasure Island and Circus Circus casinos, and a net worth of $2.6 billion. In addition, he and his wife Oleksandra got married at Trump's Mar-a-Lago, with Trump serving as best man. His donations to pro-Trump groups in the 2024 election have already exceeded the total of his donations in the previous two elections.
09 Geoffrey Palmer
Total donations to Trump's team this election: $3 million
Net worth: $3.1 billion
Photo credit: Stephenie Keenan/Getty Images
Palmer, who owns 11,000 apartments, is one of the largest landlords in Los Angeles, but he has also been involved in politics. His company was fined in the 1990s for helping California campaign funds launder money to circumvent donation limits. However, with election rules no longer so strict, Palmer can now donate as much as he wants to the US election. In 2016, he donated $6.3 million to Trump's super PAC, and another $10.5 million in 2020. So far this year, he has donated $3 million.
10. Robert "Woody " Johnson
Total donations to Trump's campaign this election: $2.7 million
Net worth: $3.2 billion
Photo credit: MAX MUMBY/INDIGO/GETTY IMAGES
The New York Jets owner is the heir to the Johnson & Johnson fortune and a former Trump ambassador to the United Kingdom.
According to reports, one of the tasks Trump gave him at the time was to ensure that the British Open was held at Trump Turnberry, Trump's golf resort. This historic golf course was purchased by Trump two and a half years before he took office. Although Johnson failed to secure the right to host the British Open for Trump Turnberry, according to CNBC, he has always been loyal to Trump and has also won over wealthy Republicans who left Trump after the "Capitol Hill riots" on January 6. During this campaign, Johnson donated $1.9 million to groups supporting Trump, and his wife Suzanne also donated more than $800,000.
