Timothy Mellon, seen outside an inspection train during a property tour in 1981. Exact date and location unknown.
AP Photo
The mystery donor whose $130 million contribution is meant to pay U.S. military troops during the government shutdown is Timothy Mellon, an heir to a renowned Gilded Age banking family, The New York Times reported Saturday.
But Mellon’s donation works out to only about $100 per service member. It costs nearly $6.4 billion to pay U.S. troops every two weeks.
And using his money might run afoul of federal law, according to the Times, which cited two people familiar with the matter in identifying the billionaire railroad magnate as the donor.
When President Donald Trump announced the donation at the White House on Thursday, he did not identify the man by name, but described him as a “great patriot” and a “friend of mine.”
“And he’s a big supporter of mine,” Trump told reporters on Friday night. “He’s a wonderful man, and he doesn’t want publicity.”
Mellon has an estimated net worth close to $1 billion, according to Forbes.
But in an email to the news outlet in 2024, Mellon wrote, “Billionaire NOT! … Never have been, never will be.”
Mellon’s contribution aims to help cover the cost of U.S. military personnel’s salaries and benefits as the federal shutdown drags on.
The donation might have violated the Antideficiency Act, which bars federal agencies from spending funds that have not been appropriated by Congress, the Times reported.
Mellon’s gift is also unlikely to go far in offsetting the cost of military pay.
There are more than 1.3 million troops in the active-duty military, and the Trump administration’s 2025 budget included a request of around $600 billion in military compensation, the Times reported.
Mellon, whose grandfather, Andrew Mellon, was one of the longest-serving Treasury secretaries, is a longtime Trump donor.
He contributed $50 million to Trump’s super PAC during the 2024 election cycle, one of the biggest single donations ever publicly shared, The Times reported.
A spokesman for Sen. Chris Coons told NBC News that the Delaware Democrat is concerned about allowing anonymous donors to fund government spending.
“Using anonymous donations to fund our military raises troubling questions of whether our own troops are at risk of literally being bought and paid for by foreign powers,” the spokesman said.
Read the complete Times report here.
