Today, the East Wing of the White House — which Betty Ford called the “heart” of the nation — is just a pit in the ground. It was razed in a matter of four days last week to make way for a huge, glitzy ballroom, fulfilling a long-cherished dream of President Donald Trump.
The Trump administration clearly realized that leveling the historic structure wouldn’t be popular, and tried to downplay the scale of the project, as well as the cost. Trump falsely claimed that building the ballroom wouldn’t involve destroying the East Wing. He also initially lowballed the price tag, estimating that it would cost $200 million, before recently announcing that he has raised $350 million for the project. Meanwhile, employees of the Treasury Department, across the street from the former East Wing, were forbidden from taking photos, presumably to prevent the public from seeing the walls come down and the debris pile up. The administration managed to sidestep the complicated process that such a project would normally entail — and the potential public outcry — in part by soliciting funds for the ballroom from corporations, wealthy individuals and foundations.
Trump touted that as a plus, calling the donors “patriots” and bragging that the ballroom project will come at “zero cost to the American taxpayer.” But as “Morning Joe” cohost Jonathan Lemire has pointed out, the wealthy donors who are chipping in for the ballroom — which, at 90,000 square feet will dwarf the main, 50,000-square-foot White House structure — also stand to benefit, in more ways than one. “Let’s be clear, the vast majority of events that size, that could be held in a ballroom of that magnitude, would be for wealthy donors,” Lemire said. “That’s who this would be [for]: People buying access to the president of the United States.”
“Greasing the system”: corporate donors line up to buy influence, security
It’s not news, of course, that major donors and big corporations put their fortunes to work in Washington, D.C. Corporate lobbying has been an institution in the nation’s capital for decades, and on K Street and beyond, leading donors of all ideological stripes have worked through 501c3 giving and other support to push their priorities. But Trump’s ballroom scheme catapults influence buying (some call it corruption) to a whole new level, doing away with all traces of debate, due process or democracy that should inform a national project of this size and scale.
It’s telling that President Trump himself solicited funds for his ballroom project, including at a recent White House dinner, according to a Wall Street Journal report. Richard Briffault, a professor of law at Columbia, argued that the solicitation “raises concerns about what these companies will be receiving in return from the federal government — or from Trump himself — particularly since many of them have massive contracts with the government,” according to Time.
“I doubt it’s a literal quid pro quo, but it’s probably more like, ‘if you give this, I will look favorably upon you.’” Briffault told Time. “It’s greasing the system by making contributions, and in some ways, his leaning on them for contributions is quasi-coercive.”
Who are those wealthy donors and what do they expect their money to buy? Tech giants like Amazon, Apple, Google, Meta and Microsoft all lined up to donate; so did defense contractors like Lockheed Martin and communication companies including T-Mobile and Comcast. Billionaires with ties to Trump — and their foundations, in some cases — were also among the donors. Some of those ties are social, some aspirational, but all, it can be assumed, are transactional in one form or another. (The amounts of the donations have not been disclosed).
Corporate leaders clearly hope to ensure that their businesses will benefit if they support the president’s vanity project. For Apple and Amazon, the stakes could be high. Both companies face monopolization lawsuits brought by the government, and Apple has lost private antitrust litigation, as The American Prospect reported, pointing out that “all of these cases could be withdrawn or settled by the president.” (The editorial board of the Washington Post, which is owned by Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, notably defended the ballroom project.)
As for Meta, its ballroom donation comes on top of $1 million to Trump’s 2025 inauguration committee from its chief, Mark Zuckerberg, who was previously pegged as an enemy by the right. The company is already reaping the rewards: Meta has been awarded government AI contracts and is contributing to the production of military products.
It’s no surprise that cryptocurrency companies, including Coinbase, Ripple and Tether, also stepped up. The Trump administration has given that controversial industry an extraordinary boost by loosening regulations and oversight. “Cryptocurrency has found its hero in Mr. Trump,” Finn Brunton wrote recently in the New York Times. The Trump family itself is benefitting from the crypto boom, of course; they have raised billions through their company, World Liberty Financial.
Caterpillar, another corporate ballroom donor, has obtained close to $1 billion in government contracts over the last three years, according to CNN, which also reported that tax evasion charges against the company were dropped during the first Trump administration.
Software data giant Palantir Technologies is also on the ballroom donor list. The company, which was cofounded by Peter Thiel, has already been a big winner under Trump. Palantir has worked as a contractor for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) under several administrations, but received an additional $30 million contract in April to develop a new platform that will fuel ICE deportation efforts. And last summer, Palantir sealed a deal with the army that will bring in $10 billion over the next decade
“Loyalty and money”: private donors and foundations backing Trump’s ballroom
The names of the private donors on the list are less familiar than their high-voltage corporate counterparts. Many of these individuals are cementing longstanding relationships with the president, including as political donors. The Adelson Family Foundation, which was created by Sheldon and Miriam Adelson, may have the highest visibility. Las Vegas casino magnate Sheldon Adelson supported Trump with a king’s ransom in political donations since he first ran for office; his spouse has continued that support since Adelson died in 2021. Both Adelsons have been avid Israel backers, and in a recent speech before the Israeli Knesset, Trump credited Miriam Adelson with helping to shape America’s Israel policy.
Oil executive and multibillionaire Harold Hamm is another loyal Trump donor: Last year, the Washington Post called him “Trump’s point person in raising funds from oil industry donors.” Hamm, who founded Continental Resources, controls a fortune of around $16 billion, according to Forbes, and stands to benefit from Trump’s efforts to limit environmental regulations and permit oil and gas production on public lands.
Sugar magnate J. Pepe Fanjul and his wife Emilia are also on the ballroom angels list. Forbes estimates that the Fanjul family’s sugar and real estate empire is worth $4 billion. Pitching in for the ballroom was likely a no-brainer for Fanjul, given the ways his family has already benefitted from his support for Trump. The Fanjul family has long courted American leaders, but their relationship with Trump has delivered the best returns yet, including pressure on Coca-Cola to use their cane sugar, and tariffs on their competitors.
Some of the donors backing Trump’s pet project are longtime loyalists whom he has rewarded with roles in his administration — a win-win for both parties. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, whose family contributed to the ballroom, has been a loyal Trump friend for years. Politico reported that the two regularly gossip and “replay the week” over ice cream sundaes at Mar-a-Lago. “Lutnick excels at the two things Trump arguably values most: loyalty and money,” according to the report. Lutnick worked for decades at the financial services firm Cantor Fitzgerald. Today, he is heavily invested in cryptocurrency, and presumably has the president’s ear when it comes to turbocharging that industry.
Former Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler of Georgia, a major Trump donor whom the president appointed to lead the Small Business Administration, contributed to the ballroom project along with her husband, Jeff Sprecher, who heads the company that owns the New York Stock Exchange. Benjamin Leon Jr., a healthcare businessman, is another longtime Trump campaign donor and ballroom backer; Trump rewarded him for his loyalty with an ambassadorship to Spain. The Betty Wold Johnson Foundation, which was built on the fortune of Johnson & Johnson, is a newly large foundation that primarily supports health, the arts and education. Woody Johnson, one of Wold Johnson’s sons, is a major Trump campaign supporter and was ambassador to the U.K. during Trump’s first term.
Laura and Isaac Perlmutter, who donated to the ballroom through their foundation, are longtime Trump pals. Perlmutter, who emigrated from Israel as a child, was chairman of Marvel Entertainment, which he sold to Disney for $4 billion in 2009. Perlmutter and his wife have been major Trump campaign donors and frequent Mar-a-Lago guests. During Trump’s first term, Perlmutter led a group of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago cronies that worked behind the scenes to drive policy at the VA, as ProPublica reported. Through their foundation, the couple primarily focus on health causes.
Given that so many of those in the Trump orbit — along with the president’s family — are cashing in on crypto, it is no surprise that many in that industry also ponied up to make his ballroom dream come true. Those funders include blockchain pioneer Charles Cascarilla and his wife Marissa, Edward and Shari Glazer, and Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss. The Winklevoss twins, who own Gemini, a cryptocurrency exchange, were among the first cryptocurrency billionaires; they have also invested in American Bitcoin, which was cofounded by Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr., according to CNN.
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“Presidency as wrecking ball”
There appears to be no limit to the ways Trump and his family intend to trade on his position to enrich themselves — from Trump’s Qatari jet to the dizzying selection of merch on offer at the Trump Store. Just last week, the New York Times reported that a company advised by Donald Trump Jr. may be forging a deal with the Pentagon to manufacture killer drones (Don Jr. “is positioned to profit considerably if this ambitious but unproven venture succeeds,” according to the Times). No one in a position to provide oversight — that is, the Republican-controlled Congress or the Supreme Court majority — seems inclined to object.
Still, the obliteration of the East Wing has unnerved Americans of all stripes — from former Obama aide David Axelrod to conservative columnist Peggy Noonan. Many observers see the project as an all too on-the-nose metaphor for Donald Trump’s presidency. David Frum, a speechwriter for President George W. Bush, tweeted: “Something profoundly symbolic about Trump taking a wrecking ball to the White House … paying for the demolition with money from cronies and insiders seeking government favors … and the Republicans in Congress acquiescing as Trump treats public assets as private property.”
Indeed, from cuts to aid for children facing famine overseas to the destruction of research and education at home, Trump is deploying a “presidency by wrecking ball,” as Washington Post columnist David Ignatius put it.
The question is, what will be left when he’s done? Besides, of course, a gold-encrusted ballroom bought and paid for by wealthy donors.
