President Donald Trump announced earlier that he has a friend who loves the military and the country so much that he would donate a fortune so that the soldiers get their pay on time during the ongoing government shutdown. But the mystery donor, a patriot no doubt, did not want to be identified. The New York Times revealed the identity of Donald Trump’s mystery benefactor and reported that the man is Timothy Mellon.
Who is Timothy Mellon ? What is his relationship with Trump?
The NYT described Timothy Mellon as a reclusive billionaire. “He doesn’t want publicity,” Trump said about him. “He prefer that his name not be mentioned which is pretty unusual in the world I come from, and in the world of politics, you want your name mentioned.”Mellon is a wealthy banking heir and railroad magnate who gave tens of millions of dollars to groups supporting Trump’s campaign last year. Mellon made a $50 million donation to a super PAC supporting Trump, which was one of the largest single contributions ever disclosed.
Why nobody knows about Timothy Mellon
NYT reported that Mellon was not a prominent Republican donor until Trump was elected. A grandson of former Treasury Secretary Andrew W Mellon, Timothy keeps a low profile and lives primarily in Wyoming. The Pentagon said it accepted the donation under the “general gift acceptance authority.”“The donation was made on the condition that it be used to offset the cost of service members’ salaries and benefits,” Sean Parnell, the Pentagon’s chief spokesman, said in a statement.“It remains unclear how far the donation would go toward covering the salaries of the more than 1.3 million troops who make up the active-duty military. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the Trump administration’s 2025 budget requests about $600 billion in total military compensation. A $130 million donation would equal about $100 a service member,” NYT reported.
