President Donald Trump is currently demolishing the East Wing of the White House in one of the more shocking acts of his second term. Trump plans to build an enormous $250 million ballroom in its place, a structure that will dwarf the existing White House. But who’s paying for it? As it turns out, a bunch of private companies and individuals. And, presumably, they’ll now expect to get a lot more access to Trump.
Trump hasn’t bothered to ask Congress or anyone else about destroying the public building. And the White House hasn’t released a list of the companies that are contributing to this assault on American democracy. But Trump has hosted at least two dinners that seemed to be fundraising events for the ballroom. And reports have trickled out about which companies are complicit.
Trump invited tech executives to dinner at the White House in early September, and CBS News reports that the president’s meeting was “interpreted” by at least one company as an appeal for donations. That kind of language suggests that Trump is again utilizing the mob-boss style of language that he’s become known for. Trump can’t explicitly say, “give me money or I’m going to make life hard for your company.” But he’s suggested exactly that several times since taking office in January.
Trump had another dinner at the White House just last week, and it featured some of the biggest names in tech and crypto, including Apple, Google, Meta, and Microsoft, as well as Coinbase, Tether, and Ripple. Defense contractors like Palantir and Lockheed Martin were also represented, along with tobacco companies Altria and Reynolds American.
“So many of you have been really, really generous,” Trump said at the dinner on Oct. 15. “I mean, a couple of you, I was sitting here and saying, ‘Sir, would $25 million be appropriate?’ They said, ‘I’ll take it.’”
The part of all this that seems most shrouded in secrecy is the exact amount of money each company is handing over. CBS News first broke the story last month that companies were lining up to pay for Trump’s ballroom, and the news organization included a few known figures. Lockheed Martin has pledged at least $10 million, according to CBS, while many other companies have pledged at least $5 million. But it remains to be seen whether there will be any transparency from official sources.
The companies that have contributed or are expected to contribute, according to the Wall Street Journal:
Altria Group
Amazon
Apple
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