WASHINGTON — US President Donald Trump said his $300 million White House ballroom will be paid for “100% by me and some friends of mine.”
The White House released a list of 37 donors, including crypto billionaires, charitable organizations, sports team owners, powerful financiers, tech and tobacco giants, media companies, longtime supporters of Republican causes, and several of the president’s neighbors in Palm Beach, Florida.
Among them were two prominent Israeli-linked donors — close Trump ally and GOP megadonor Miriam Adelson and Israeli-American businessman and financier Isaac Perlmutter.
Adelson and her Adelson Family Foundation, which focuses on strengthening Israel and the Jewish people, are long-time allies of Trump.
While speaking in the Knesset during a visit to Israel last month, Trump gave Adelson — who was in attendance — a shoutout, noting her role in pushing for him to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in 2017. He added that she and her late husband Sheldon made more trips to the White House than anyone else.
“Look at her sitting there so innocently. She’s got $60 billion in the bank,” Trump joked about the majority owner of the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks.
Miriam Adelson, center, awaits a speech by US President Donald Trump at the Knesset, Oct. 13, 2025, in Jerusalem (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, Pool)
Perlmutter’s contribution came through his Laura & Isaac Perlmutter Foundation. The nonprofit based in Lake Worth Beach, near Palm Beach, focuses on promoting health care, social justice, the arts and community initiatives.
Perlmutter, former chair of Marvel Entertainment, and his wife Laura have donated to Trump’s presidential campaigns and affiliated PACs in the past.
Other notable contributors include tech giants Amazon, Apple, Google, and Microsoft — each of which also donated $1 million to Trump’s inauguration. Their executives have met repeatedly with Trump in recent months as the administration emphasizes domestic manufacturing and AI development.
Palantir Technologies, co-founded by Peter Thiel, was also said to be contributing, having secured lucrative federal contracts under the Trump administration.
Isaac Perlmutter, an Israeli-American billionaire, and then-CEO of Marvel, walks down the steps of Air Force One at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland, February 6, 2017. (Susan Walsh/AP)
Additionally, major crypto firms, including Coinbase, Ripple and Tether, were featured among the donors, underscoring the industry’s close alignment with Trump as his administration rolls back digital asset regulations and welcomes key crypto figures into advisory roles.
The list also includes large corporations from other sectors — such as Lockheed Martin and Booz Allen Hamilton, two major defense contractors; Caterpillar and NextEra Energy, industrial and energy giants; and Union Pacific, the freight rail company whose proposed $85 billion acquisition of Norfolk Southern, which would be the largest-ever rail merger, Trump has endorsed.
Individual donors include Blackstone CEO Stephen Schwarzman, oil magnate Harold Hamm, and Palm Beach entrepreneurs Edward and Shari Glazer, co-owners of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
US President Donald Trump hosts top tech CEOs for dinner in the State Dining Room of the White House, September 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
The list released by the White House is incomplete. Among others, it doesn’t include Carrier Group, which offered to donate an HVAC system for the ballroom, and artificial intelligence chipmaker Nvidia, whose CEO, Jensen Huang, publicly discussed its donation.
The White House hasn’t said how much each donor is giving, and almost none was willing to divulge that. Very few commented on their contributions when contacted by The Associated Press.
A senior White House official said the list has grown since it was first released in October, but some companies don’t want to be publicly named until required to do so by financial disclosure regulations. No foreign individuals or entities were among the donors, according to the official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss details that haven’t been made public.
