The top 10 billionaires behind Trump

Source: Forbes

Donald Trump said when he launched his 2016 presidential campaign: "I don't need donations from anyone - it feels good. I don't need donors." During that campaign, he spent $66 million of his own money.

But in fact, Trump in 2016 still relied on donors, just not to the extent he does today. In this year's US election, the former president has not paid a penny from his own wallet so far, while other billionaires have poured millions of dollars into groups supporting him.

According to the latest filings with the Federal Election Commission, the ten billionaires who donated the most in this presidential campaign are all long-time supporters of the former president, and they have donated a total of $123 million to groups supporting Trump.

That doesn't sound like a small amount, but these people are worth more than $55 billion, giving them the money they need to keep going into the next campaign. In the next five months, as Americans decide for the third time whether to put Trump in the White House, expect them to write more big checks.

Here are the top 10 billionaires who donated the most to Trump:

01 Timothy Mellon(Timothy Mellon)

Total donations to Trump's team in this election: $76.5 million

Net worth: more than $1 billion

Timothy Mellon is a descendant of the Mellon family, whose approximately $14 billion fortune dates back to the Gilded Age (1870-1898) in American history.

As early as 2020, Mellon donated $20 million to a Trump campaign team, and the day after a New York jury convicted the former US president of 34 felony charges, Mellon donated $50 million to a super political action committee (PAC) supporting Trump, which attracted widespread attention. Mellon founded a computer programming company in the 1960s, then began to acquire railroads and set up a railway company, which he sold for $600 million in 2020. In addition, he 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.

02 Linda McMahon (Linda McMahon, wife of Vince McMahon)

Total donations to Trump team in this election: US$11.1 million

Net worth: US$2.9 billion

Photo source: CHIP SOMODEVILLA/GETTY IMAGES

During Trump's first term in the White House, McMahon served as the director of the U.S. Small Business Administration. She resigned before the 2020 U.S. election and became the 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 Connecticut Senate in 2010 and 2012, is the president of the pro-Trump nonprofit America First Policy Institute (Fox Business Channel 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 team in this election: $5.8 million

Net worth: $6.3 billion

Photo source: JOHN L. MONE/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. 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 donated more than $11 million to Trump's re-election, and has donated nearly $6 million to Trump's supporters this year alone.

04 Diane HendricksTotal donations to Trump's team in this election: $5.5 million

Net worth: $20.9 billion

Photo credit: GABRIELA HASBUN FOR FORBES

When former Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker withdrew from the presidential race in 2015, Trump didn't take it too seriously. He also said disdainfully to his former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski: "Corey, see if you can get his vote."

But in the end, Trump attracted the attention of Diane Hendrix, Walker's most important supporter and the richest self-made woman in the United States. Hendrix served as vice chair of Trump's 2016 fundraising committee and donated more than $6 million to the 2020 election and has donated $5.5 million to this year's campaign. Hendrix, a former Playboy Bunny, co-founded the building materials company ABC Supply with her late husband Ken and built it into a $20 billion building materials giant.

05 Timothy Dunn

Total donations to Trump team in this election: $5 million

Net worth: $2.2 billion

Image source: GUERIN BLASK FIOR FORBES

Dunn founded a private oil well company called CrownQuest in West Texas and made his fortune. He has been donating to Trump since 2020, but he has become more generous in this campaign. In December last year, Dunn donated $5 million to Trump's largest super PAC. He also donated $2.5 million to action committees of other Republican candidates, including those supporting Indiana Rep. Jim Banks and Florida Sen. Rick Scott.

06 Elizabeth Uihlein

Total amount of donations to Trump team in this election: 5 million US dollars

Net worth: 6.6 billion US dollars

07 Richard Uihlein

Total amount of donations to Trump team in this election: 5 million US dollars

Net worth: 6.6 billion US dollars

Photo source: PAUL MORIGI/GETTY IMAGES

In 1980, the Uileins founded Uline, a packaging materials company, in their basement in Wisconsin. Today, the company has annual sales of $6.1 billion, and the couple is worth a combined $13.2 billion.

In the past few election cycles, their wealth has become a significant source of funding for Republican campaigns - Richard alone has donated $84 million to the Republican Party in the 2022 midterm elections. To some extent, they have always been Trump supporters, 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 gave $2 million to an anti-Trump group. Last year, the two donated another $3 million to a super PAC supporting Trump challenger Ron DeSantis. But the Uileins are now fully on Trump's side: Last month, they each donated $5 million to Trump's main super PAC.

08 Phil RuffinTotal 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, after all, he and the former US president jointly 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 his campaign. Fortunately, the money was 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 whose net worth is $2.6 billion. In addition, he married his wife Oleksandra 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 team in this election: $3 million

Net worth: $3.1 billion

Photo source: STEFANIE KEENAN/GETTY IMAGES

With 11,000 apartments, Palmer 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, and has donated $3 million so far this year.

10. Robert "Woody" Johnson

Total donations to Trump team 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 medical giant Johnson & Johnson and once served as Trump's ambassador to the UK.

It is reported that one of the tasks Trump gave him at the time was to ensure that the British Open was held at Trump's golf resort Trump Turnberry, a historic golf course that Trump purchased two and a half years before taking 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.