The anonymous “friend” of President Donald Trump who donated $130 million earlier this week to help pay U.S. service members during the ongoing government shutdown, has been identified as the wealthy, reclusive Timothy Mellon, the New York Times reported on Saturday, citing two people familiar with the matter.
The White House referred Newsweek to the Pentagon and the Treasury Department; the Pentagon said it had no comment.
Newsweek has reached out to the Department of Treasury and the Mellon Foundation for comment via email on Saturday. Newsweek could not identify a direct contact for Mellon.
Why It Matters
Speculation about the donor’s identity has mounted since the gift was confirmed. The Pentagon told Newsweek on Friday that it accepted the donation, a disclosure that came shortly after the U.S. Senate failed to pass a measure to restore pay for service members and other essential workers.
The government has been shut down since October 1, and Republicans and Democrats have been in a stalemate, trading blame back-and-forth over who caused the shutdown and seeking to garner support for resolutions to re-open the government. The GOP has a majority in the House and Senate but requires Democrat support to reach a deal.
Military pay has been a central issue, with about 1.3 million active-duty service members facing the possibility of missing a paycheck. Military members are supposed to receive accrued pay after the shutdown is over.
The gift has sparked debate over the growing influence of the wealthy in U.S. politics and governance, as well as concerns over possible legal and ethical implications.
What To Know
Mellon, a deep-pocketed Trump donor and descendant of one of America’s wealthiest families, has been identified by the Times as the individual who wrote the check to help cover some pay during the ongoing shutdown.
Trump announced the donation on Thursday night, stating the individual wanted to remain anonymous, but identified him as a “patriot” and a “friend.” The president has been repeatedly asked about the donor’s identity, which Trump has not disclosed and instead referred to him as a “substantial man” who “doesn’t want publicity.”
The contribution covers only a fraction of the billions needed for military payroll. The Pentagon spends around $7.5 billion every two weeks in paychecks to soldiers and reservists, according to federal data reviewed by The Washington Post.
The donation, which breaks in tradition for how the military is usually funded, through Congressional appropriations, faces some legal and ethical challenges.
A spokeswoman for Senator Dick Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, and the top Democrat on the Senate’s defense appropriations subcommittee, raised questions about how this donation “complies with the Anti Deficiency Act.” The Act prohibits federal agencies from using “obligating or expending federal funds in advance or in excess of an appropriation, and from accepting voluntary services.”
Who Is Timothy Mellon?
Mellon, 83, is the grandson of former Treasury Secretary Andrew W. Mellon, and a descendent of Irish immigrant Thomas Mellon. The Mellon family amassed their fortune from real estate, railroad, and banking endeavors. Forbes estimates that the entire family is worth around $14 billion, making them one of the richest families in the country.
Mellon’s personal net worth varies in estimates from $700 million to $4 billion. The Washington Post reported that in a 2014 deposition Mellon estimated his net worth at $700 million.
Mellon now lives in Wyoming, having previously lived in Connecticut, where he attended Yale University. Mellon founded Guilford Transportation Industries, a railway company, that acquired several others. He then bought the bankrupt Pan American World Airways in 1998, and in 2006 the company renamed as Pan Am Railways. He made a significant donation in search of Amelia Earhart’s plane, later getting embroiled in a lawsuit over the matter.
Mellon has maintained a fairly private profile, but in recent years has donated millions to Trump’s campaign and various state campaigns.
In 2024, Mellon made a single $50 million donation to the super PAC Make America Great Again the day after a New York jury found Trump guilty of 34 counts of falsifying business records relating to a hush money payment before the 2016 presidential election. In total, he contributed $75 million to Trump’s 2024 presidential bid.
Mellon also helped bankroll then-presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s campaign, donating about $5 million. He has previously donated to various state campaigns, including $1.5 million in 2010 to defend an anti-immigration bill in Arizona, as well as providing over $50 million for Republican Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s border wall construction project in 2021.
While most often backing Republican candidates, Mellon has donated to Democratic and independent candidates as well, including Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s 2018 congressional campaign. Ocasio-Cortez has served as one of the Democratic Party’s most progressive members since then.
In 2020, a spokesperson for Cortez’s campaign told The Washington Post that the campaign did not solicit the donation in 2018 and would return it.
Mellon served as a trustee on the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation for 21 years, having stepped down from the board in 2002.
In a self-published 2015 book, Mellon made offensive racial remarks and commentary on federal social programs, calling them “Slavery Redux.” According to The Washington Post, Mellon wrote, “For delivering their votes in the Federal Elections, they are awarded with yet more and more freebies: food stamps, cell phones, WIC payments, Obamacare, and on, and on, and on. The largess is funded by the hardworking folks, fewer and fewer in number, who are too honest or too proud to allow themselves to sink into this morass.”
In July 2024, he published a book titled, panam.captain detailing his “journey from the legacy of the Mellon family to his success as an audacious entrepreneur who carved his own path in business and life.”
What People Are Saying
Chief Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said in a Friday email to Newsweek, “On October 23, 2025, the Department of War accepted an anonymous donation of $130 million under its general gift acceptance authority. The donation was made on the condition that it be used to offset the cost of Service members’ salaries and benefits. We are grateful for this donor’s assistance after Democrats opted to withhold pay from troops.”
Bobby Kogan, senior director of federal budget policy at the Center for American Progress, told The Washington Post: “In general, you may not spend money that has been donated because the Constitution and the Anti-Deficiency Act say that you can’t spend money unless you have an appropriation to make it happen.”
Conservative commentator Jack Posobiec wrote in a Saturday X post: “Timothy Mellon did what the Democrats refused. Patriot.”
