October 23, 2025
We now know who exactly is going to be paying for President Trump’s new $300 million ballroom.
The White House released this list of names. With two very big names missing. I am going to get who is missing from this list in a second. But I want to first talk the people and companies on the list. Because when you look at it looks like a bunch of rich companies and rich people…who cares. Right. At least the we the taxpayers aren’t the ones on the hook for this $300 million project. But there’s another way to look at this list.
And before I share that with you – I want to explain why — generally — public projects are not fully funded by private donations. I’m not saying that it never happens. But it’s super rare…there’s a reason why. The US government, your state government – heck even your local government uses public, taxpayer money to fund projects so that the ownership of that project whether it’s a federal highway, or a public building like your city hall or even a public library belongs to the people, serves the public need and follows a transparent process. And you the public get a say in how that public facility is constructed and operated. That doesn’t happen in private business. And – there’s one more pretty big reason for not using private money to fund public projects. And that is – to avoid even the appearance of a quid-pro-quo…meaning buying favors, or special treatment.
Now – I’m not saying any of that is happening with this new Trump White House ballroom or with any of these specific donors. Time will tell what happens and what they are or are not getting out of their donation. So now that you know why public projects aren’t usually funded by private donations…let’s look at that list again.
Here’s what I showed you at the beginning of this video. Now let’s categorize the list. It can be broken down into tech and media, crypto, big business and known large donors to the Republican party, GOP super pacs and Donald Trump’s campaign. Almost all of these companies and people have some kind of business with the US government or want some business with the US government…heck the most of those tech CEOs were basically in the front row of Trump’s inauguration. They are all now involved in other government projects like President Trump’s AI initiatives but they also want to make sure that federal regulations don’t come down too harshly on the tech industry. That’s not an opinion, that’s a fact based on their sworn testimony in front of congress.
As for the crypto companies – Trump has said he wants to be a crypto president — and crypto industry wants to keep it that way especially after presidents before trump have been pretty skeptical of crypto.
And let’s talk about this section…the business section…we’re talking about major sectors of our economy – which of course the u-s government regulates…like defense, oil, construction, energy, tobacco – they’re all donating to the ballroom. Oh and pretty much all the companies on this list have some kind of major government contract….which I’m sure they all want to keep.
Then of course there are the standard donors to the Republican party and to President Trump’s campaign. Some of these people were appointed by Trump to be ambassadors, and others are currently serving in his administration – like Howard Lutnick who is the commerce secretary who is a billionaire and is the owner of the mega financial services company Cantor Fitzgerald and Kelley Loeffler who is currently serving as Trump’s administrator of the small business administration oh and her husband is the CEO of the parent company of the New York stock exchange. Now – what’s interesting about this section is of donors –is I also put them in other sections of this list because they may be donating to trump’s ballroom under their foundation or family – but in their business capacity they are also heavily involved in tech or business industry.
One person in particular on this list I want to call your attention to is Stefan E. Brodie. He is a biotech entrepreneur who owns a company worth hundreds of millions of dollars. But he also happens to have been convicted of conspiring to trade with Cuba and going around u-s sanctions. That is a federal crime. Mr. Brodie was seeking a pardon from President Biden, but it was never granted.
And…one last thing I want to mention. Let’s go back to the original list. The White House did not disclose how much any of these people or businesses are donating. And I also want to point out the two big names that are absent from this list. One is Elon Musk. The richest man in the world who was a close ally of President Trump is *not* donating. And the other big name that is missing, is the president himself. Even though Trump keeps saying over and over and over that he is paying for this ballroom along with these donors. But his name does not appear on this white house list.
White House ballroom donors:
- Altria Group, Inc.
- Amazon
- Apple
- Booz Allen Hamilton
- Caterpillar, Inc.
- Coinbase
- Comcast Corporation
- J. Pepe and Emilia Fanjul
- Hard Rock International
- HP Inc.
- Lockheed Martin
- Meta Platforms
- Micron Technology
- Microsoft
- NextEra Energy, Inc.
- Palantir Technologies Inc.
- Ripple
- Reynolds American
- T-Mobile
- Tether America
- Union Pacific Railroad
- Adelson Family Foundation
- Stefan E. Brodie
- Betty Wold Johnson Foundation
- Charles and Marissa Cascarilla
- Edward and Shari Glazer
- Harold Hamm
- Benjamin Leon Jr.
- The Lutnick Family
- The Laura & Isaac Perlmutter Foundation
- Stephen A. Schwarzman
- Konstantin Sokolov
- Kelly Loeffler and Jeff Sprecher
- Paolo Tiramani
- Cameron Winklevoss
- Tyler Winklevoss
List Broken Into Categories
TECH
Amazon
Apple
Booz Allen Hamilton
HP Inc.
Meta Platforms
Micron Technology
Microsoft
Palantir Technologies Inc. (founded by peter Thiel)
Charles and Marissa Cascarilla
Paolo Tiramani (billionaire/CEO of Boxabl)
Comcast Corporation
CRYPTO
Coinbase
Ripple
Tether America
Cameron Winklevoss
Tyler Winklevoss
BUSINESS
Caterpillar, Inc. (construction)
J. Pepe and Emilia Fanjul (real estate/sugar)
Hard Rock International (hospitality)
Lockheed Martin (defense)
NextEra Energy, Inc. (energy)
Harold Hamm (oil)
T-Mobile
Union Pacific Railroad
Edward and Shari Glazer (owners of US Auto Trust/US Property Trust)
Benjamin Leon Jr. (health)
The Lutnick Family (finance)
Stephen A. Schwarzman (CEO of Blackstone)
Kelly Loeffler and Jeff Sprecher (CEO of parent company of the New York Stock Exchange)
Altria Group, Inc. (tobacco)
Reynolds American (tobacco)
WEALTHY DONORS
Stefan E. Brodie (guilty of conspiring to trade with Cuba, denied a pardon by Biden)
Adelson Family Foundation (huge donor to Trump’s reelection campaign)
Betty Wold Johnson Foundation (led by Jet’s Owner Robert wood Johnson IV Trump’s former ambassador to the UK, big Trump donor)
Charles and Marissa Cascarilla
Edward and Shari Glazer
Harold Hamm
Benjamin Leon Jr. (nominated to be ambassador to Spain)
The Lutnick Family (Howard Lutnick current Commerce Secretary)
The Laura & Isaac Perlmutter Foundation (Trump donors)
Stephen A. Schwarzman
Konstantin Sokolov (private equity investor)
Kelly Loeffler and Jeff Sprecher (current small business administrator/CEO of parent company of the New York stock exchange)
