The White House ‘expansion’ project led by President Donald Trump has been controversial to say the least, yet at least now we finally know the names behind its growing $300 million budget thanks to a list of ultra-wealthy donors released by the government.
US President Donald Trump has already torn through and ripped apart a number of key federal departments as part of Elon Musk and DOGE’s cost-cutting measures earlier this year, but it seems as if he’s applied that same practice to the White House itself.
The plan for a brand new ballroom to be installed on White House grounds has been floated around for a little while, and Trump has already made a number of design adjustments to the presidential home in the 10 months that he’s been back in office.
However, few people expected the ballroom to encroach on existing White House elements, as construction workers have been tearing apart the historic East Wing in the midst of the government shutdown.
Popping up in its place soon though will be the aforementioned 90,000 square-foot ballroom, which initially began with a $200 million budget but has since increased to $300 million.
as since increased to $300 million.
The White House’s East Wing has given way for the construction of a new ballroom funded by America’s ultra-rich (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
One saving grace is that this isn’t being paid for by the taxpayer – at least not directly – as every single dollar is coming from ultra-rich private donors, including some ‘forcibly’ after Trump emerged victorious in a lawsuit.
Now, the White House has officially revealed a list of all 37 wealthy donors that are paying for the new ballroom, and it has many of the most powerful names in the country that have also aligned themselves closely with Trump after his election victory.
The list itself is split between corporate donors and those contributing privately or part of a family group, so first here are all of the companies that have offered up funds for the ballroom, as reported by Fortune:
- Meta Platforms
- Apple
- Amazon
- Lockheed Martin
- Microsoft
- Comcast
- Altria
- Coinbase
- Palantir Technologies
- T-Mobile
- Ripple
- Hard Rock International
- Tether America
- Union Pacific Railroad
- Micron Technology
- Caterpillar
- Booz Allen Hamilton
- HP
- NextEra Energy
- Reynolds American
Many of these names might not shock you, as they’ve been closely associated with Trump across the last year and have broadly benefitted from the policies that he has enacted in his second term as president.
Many of the world’s biggest tech companies are among the donors, including Apple, Microsoft, and Meta (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
Apple, Google, Meta, and Microsoft, for example, have all seen a major boost thanks to Trump’s artificial intelligence focus, and Coinbase as the leading cryptocurrency platform has also grown a lot thanks to the president’s emphasis on legitimizing crypto, including the introduction of his own Stablecoin.
Intriguingly there is no presence here for Musk or any of his companies, which might surprise some considering recent attempts for the two to make up after their public falling out on social media in June.
Completing the list, here are all of the private and family-based donors who have contributed to the ballroom’s funds:
- The Adelson Family Foundation
- Stefan E. Brodie
- Betty Wold Johnson Foundation
- Charles and Marissa Cascarilla
- Edward and Shari Glazer
- Harold Hamm
- Benjamín Leon Jr.
- The Lutnick Family
- The Laura and Isaac Perlmutter Foundation
- Stephen A. Schwarzman
- Konstantin Sokolov
- Kelly Loeffler and Jeff Sprecher
- Paolo Tiramani
- Cameron Winklevoss
- Tyler Winklevoss
- J. Pepe and Emilia Fanjul
You might be less familiar with many of these names, but most are already some of Trump and the Republican Party’s biggest donors and others, such as Scharzman and Hamm, have served as advisors and intermediaries during Trump’s time in office.
Additionally, you might also recognize the names of Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, who not only played a key role in Mark Zuckerberg‘s decision to start Facebook but are also the world’s first Bitcoin billionaires, who perhaps had a spare few million lying around after the crypto coin‘s value boom across the last 12 months.
Trump under fire following plans to demolish entire East Wing of White House for controversial $300,000,000 project
Trump’s White House plans have been called into question
US President Donald Trump has faced criticism for bending the rules once again, after the process of building his $300 million ballroom on White House grounds has caused the entire East Wing to be demolished.
There have been a number of notable changes made to the White House since Donald Trump regained presidency earlier this year, with design overhauls having been made to the Rose Garden, Oval Office, Cabinet Room, and Palm Room.
Many of these have taken the in-your-face gold appearance of many of Trump’s own personal projects, and it looks like plans for the next big renovation could take a similar route, ripping away a key part of the historic building in the process.
The East Wing of the White House has become one of its most important features, having been built in 1942 during Franklin D. Roosevelt’s presidency. It has typically been used for the First Lady and her staff ever since, and many couldn’t imagine the building without it.
The Trump administration has started to demolish the White House’s East Wing, making space for a new $300 million ballroom (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
Unfortunately they’ll have to now, as construction for Trump’s new lavish ballroom has unexpectedly led to the abrupt demolishment of the entire East Wing, despite the president assuring in July that it wouldn’t be touched.
Furthermore, this process hasn’t received any approval from appropriate agencies, not has it submitted or received permits that would typically be associated with an action as significant as this on White House grounds.
As reported by NBC News, a White House official has outlined that “all the historical components of the East Wing, such as elements from [Rosalynn] Carter’s original Office of the First Lady, have been preserved and stored under the supervision of the White House Executive Residence and the National Park Service,” yet the building itself is in the process of being torn down.
It was also added that the “entirety” of the East Wing would be “modernized and rebuilt,” but also that the process was ‘fluid’ and ‘subject to vary’ as it develops, so it’s unclear exactly where the East Wing will stand in the future.
The National Trust for Historic Preservation has urged demolition to be paused amid fears that it “will overwhelm the White House itself,” adding that it should wait until “plans for the proposed ballroom go through the legally required public review process.”
Permits and approval haven’t yet been obtained for the demolition and construction, prompting heavy scrutiny (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
However, the White House appears to be arguing that processes and permits are not required for demolition, and instead are only needed once construction of the ballroom itself starts.
“It seems like [the White House] plan to submit their proposal to the National Capital Planning Commission,” explained Priya Jain, a member of the Society of Architectural Historians, adding: “However, in regular federal projects, deliberation happens before anything is demolished.”
Officials from the White House have also attempted to downplay any criticism of the demolition, calling any negative response “manufactured outrage” by “unhinged leftists and their Fake News allies.” It also added that critics were “clutching their pearls over President Donald J. Trump’s visionary addition of a grand, privately funded ballroom to the White House.”
Since President Donald Trump returned to the White House in January 2025, there have been some serious complaints about how unserious the current administration has been.
Whether it be the President of the United States sharing embarrassing AI videos, the White House seeming to refer to Donald Trump as the villainous Sith from Star Wars, or the POTUS sharing private messages to Attorney General Pam Bondi on his Truth Social timeline, there’s been plenty to chuckle about at a time that everything is looking particularly glum.
President Trump has wasted no time in undoing the work put in place by President Biden’s previous term, and in an attempt to move with the times, he’s even remodelling the White House.
There’s been horror at images of the iconic residence’s East Wing being torn down to make room for Trump’s 90,000-square-foot ballroom, but keen to keep us informed, the official White House site has been updating us with all the progress.
There has been vocal opposition to Trump’s ballroom (Eric Lee / Stringer / Getty)
Eagle-eyed internet surfers have also noticed that the Trump administration has updated its timeline of key events from the building’s history. Starting with George Washington’s first unveiling plans for the White House in 1791, you can learn all about Theodore Roosevelt adding the West Wing (not the TV series) in 1902, President Taft bringing the Oval Office to life in 1909, and President Nixon turning the pool into the briefing room in 1970
This is where things derail somewhat, as there’s confusion about the timeline, mentioning more unusual events in the White House’s colorful past. There’s a direct mention of the Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky scandal that led to his impeachment in 1998, Barack Obama hosting the Muslin Brotherhood that ‘promotes Islamist extremism’ in 2012, and a bizarre reminder that Melania Trump oversaw the construction of a tennis court in 2020.
Perhaps the wildest event to make it onto the new timeline is the 2023 cocaine scandal. The slide explains: “2023: Cocaine Discovered. During Biden’s administration, a U.S. Secret Service agent discovered a small, zippered plastic bag containing cocaine in the West Wing entrance lobby.”
It continues: “Speculation has pointed to Hunter Biden, an admitted drug user. Additional evidence includes a laptop, seized in 2019, which contains photos of frequent drug use alongside emails about foreign business dealings (Ukraine, China) involving his father, Joe, while he was Vice President.”
