Ballroom

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EXXON SHELL HAMM NEXTERA OCCIDENTAL

russian olig mining deal

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AN 10 26

Trump's secret White House ballroom donor list has leaked, revealing that some of the $333 million comes from companies with lucrative government business interests and a $2.5 million pledge by the daughter of a banker who Trump later pardoned.

Internal fundraising records obtained by *The Washington Post* identify 67 donations over $10,000 and show at least $77 million came from donors who requested to stay anonymous. The report says the money was funneled through a nonprofit into a White House account controlled by the president.

One of the more controversial names on the list is Isabela Herrera, who is the daughter of international banker Julio Herrera Velutini. Her father was indicted in 2022 for allegedly helping finance a Puerto Rican governor's campaign in exchange for getting rid of a regulator investigating his bank.

Following Trump's 2024 presidential campaign victory, the Post’s expose revealed that Isabela Herrera gave $3.5 million to a Trump-aligned political committee. In September 2025, she also pledged $2.5 million to the ballroom fund and paid the first installment of $835,000 the following month.

Shortly after the donation, in August 2025, prosecutors had reduced her father's bribery case charges to a misdemeanor through a plea deal. Trump then pardoned him in January 2026, four months after his daughter's ballroom donor pledge.

The reporting does not establish a specific link to the ballroom donation influencing the pardon.

Apple and Nvidia each committed $25 million, as did billionaire Charles Ergen and the Adelson family. Nvidia sought anonymity for its contribution, even though it publicly supported the project.

Ergen put up his $25 million once federal regulators had closed an inquiry into his firm, the telecommunications company EchoStar. In the case of Rocket Companies, a subsidiary put forward a $10 million pledge some weeks after one of its big acquisitions was given the nod by a federal agency, per the documents. Rocket has said there is no link between the gift and the government’s sanction.

The Post found that about half of the funds raised come from companies or executives tied to federal contracts during Trump's second term.

White House spokesman Davis Ingle defended the donors and said the administration would hunt down the leakers. He described allegations of conflicts of interest as baseless and added that the contributors are “a wide array of great American companies and generous individuals.”

Despite Trump’s claim that he will also help fund the project, his name did not appear on the list.

The $333 million in pledges is far below his initial target of $400 million. Furthermore, the cost of building the larger East Wing project has soared to $600 million.

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JUN 2026

https://www.citizen.org/wp-content/uploads/BALLROOM_BILLIONS_June_2026.pdf

June 4, 2026 Ballroom Billions: Trump Ballroom Donors Devour Taxpayer Dollars Corporate ballroom donors have received new and increased government contracts over the last 6 months totaling $50 billion By Jon Golinger, Eileen O’Grady, and Rick Claypool Six months after Americans reacted with shock and outrage to the video showing President Trump’s demolition of the White House East Wing, opposition to Trump’s plan to put a $400 million golden ballroom in its place has united Americans against it. Despite Trump and his administration claiming repeatedly that the ballroom wouldn’t cost taxpayers a dime, they recently attempted a surprise last-minute maneuver to force Congress to allocate a billion dollars for the “East Wing Modernization Project,” aka Trump’s ballroom. That backfired spectacularly in the face of a massive public backlash. Now, in public remarks and a recent court filing, the Trump administration is claiming the $400 million in corporate and billionaire donations reportedly raised for the ballroom project are “an invaluable gift from President Trump and many patriotic private donors who have given Hundreds of Millions of Dollars to build this Project . . .” But the contributions from these donors in fact constitute massive, inescapable, and irremediable conflicts of interest that are no gift – instead they’re a grift.

Public Citizen analyzed the government contracts and federal enforcement interests of the identified corporate ballroom donors, including the 21 corporate donors disclosed by the White House and 6 more identified by news outlets, for a total of 27. This is likely not the complete list, since the secret ballroom funding agreement Public Citizen obtained via a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit permits ballroom donors to remain anonymous. This analysis builds on our original report in November 2025 soon after the East Wing’s demolition and Trump’s gluttonous White House “thank you” banquet for his ballroom patrons.

This analysis finds that: ● Over half of corporate ballroom donors – 14 out of 27 – have received new or increased government contracts over the last 6 months totaling over $50 billion.

...

Table 1: Corporate Ballroom Donors With New/Increased Gov. Contracts Over Last 6 Months Corporate Ballroom Donor Corporate Sector New & Increased Government Contracts Over Last 6 Months

Lockheed Martin Aerospace/Defense $43,800,000,000 Booz Allen Hamilton Management Consulting $4,200,000,000 Palantir Consulting/Tech $1,032,100,000 Parsons Engineering/Defense $446,900,000 Microsoft Big Tech $318,700,000 Amazon Big Tech $255,700,000 HP Big Tech $197,289,650 Caterpillar Construction $142,600,000 T-Mobile Telecommunications $22,374,089 Google Big Tech $16,400,000 NextEra Energy Energy $13,490,896 Comcast Telecommunications $13,438,137 Vantive Health Care $468,192 Union Pacific Railroad Transportation $55,820 Total $50,459,516,784

...

Table 2: All Corporate Ballroom Donors

Corporate Ballroom Donor Corporate Sector FY 21-FY26 Total Contracts

Altria Group Tobacco N/A

Amazon Big Tech $887,100,000

Apple Big Tech $1,850,300

Black Rock Finance $9,596,392

Booz Allen Hamilton Management Consulting

$83,800,000,000

Caterpillar Construction $994,800,000

Coinbase Crypto $7,983,100

Comcast Telecommunications $437,899,443

ExtremityCare Medical Products N/A

Google Big Tech $83,030,940

Hard Rock International Restaurants/Casinos N/A

HP Big Tech $1,628,300,000

Lockheed Martin Aerospace/Defense $235,000,000,000

Meta Platforms Big Tech $49,599

Micron Technology Big Tech N/A

Microsoft Big Tech $2,620,000,000

NextEra Energy Energy $56,655,906

Nvidia Big Tech $10,209,651

Palantir Consulting/Tech $3,362,900,000

Parsons Engineering/Defense $9,116,600,000

Reynolds American Tobacco N/A

Ripple Crypto N/A

Susquehanna International

Group Finance N/A

Tether America Crypto N/A

T-Mobile Telecommunications $74,400,000

Corporate Ballroom Donor Corporate Sector FY 21-FY26 Total Contracts

Union Pacific Railroad Transportation $65,152

Vantive Health Care $5,003,358

Total $338,096,443,841

...

Table 3: Ongoing or Recently Closed Federal

Enforcement Actions Against Corporate Ballroom

Donors

Donor Corporate Sector Federal Enforcement Faced

Altria Group Tobacco –

Amazon Big Tech DOJ investigation into allegations Amazon fraudulently

concealed worker injuries.

CPSC litigation alleging Amazon is a legally a distributor of

products responsible for ensuring recalled and defective

products that violate federal safety standards are removed

from its online marketplace. Amazon is contesting the

allegations and the agency’s constitutionality.

EEOC investigation into alleged discrimination against

pregnant workers.

FCC investigation into alleged sales of illegal wireless

frequency jammers.

FTC investigation into alleged deception in online advertising.

FTC litigation alleging illegal monopolistic behavior in the ecommerce superstore and fulfillment provider market.

NLRB cases alleging unfair labor practices; Amazon is

contesting the agency's constitutionality

no lnx

Donor Corporate Sector Federal Enforcement Faced

Apple Big Tech DOJ litigation alleging antitrust violations to monopolize the

smartphone market.

NLRB cases alleging unfair labor practices.

Black Rock Finance An SEC investigation into investment advisers’ compliance

with record retention requirements relating to certain types of

electronic communications was dropped from a recent Black

Rock SEC filing.

Booz Allen Hamilton Management Consulting –

Caterpillar Construction Caterpillar is contesting OSHA fines of more than $30,000

imposed by the agency following the death of an employee in

Coinbase Crypto Trump's SEC dismissed charges the agency filed previously

alleging sales of unregistered securities and other securities

violations.

A separate SEC investigation into alleged misstatements of

its number of users on SEC filings is ongoing.

Comcast Telecommunications –

ExtremityCare Medical Products –

Google Big Tech DOJ investigation into whether its "acqui-hire" deal with

founders of CharacterAI violated antitrust law.

FTC investigation into alleged deception in online advertising.

NLRB cases alleging unfair labor practices.

...

Donor Corporate Sector Federal Enforcement Faced

Lockheed Martin Aerospace/Defense NLRB cases alleging unfair labor practices.

Meta Platforms Big Tech CFPB investigation into alleged improper access of user

financial data was closed.

FTC litigation alleging antitrust violations monopolizing social

media.

NLRB cases alleging unfair labor practices.

Micron Technology Big Tech –

Microsoft Big Tech Two FTC antitrust cases, one about the structure of a deal

with an AI startup, one into allegations of anticompetitive

actions related to AI and cloud computing. The Trump

administration dismissed a case against an anticompetitive

Microsoft-Activision merger.

NextEra Energy Energy Faces oversight including from the DOJ's Antitrust Division

and FERC over its proposed acquisition of Dominion Energy.

Nvidia Big Tech Facing a DOJ Antitrust investigation into allegations the

company abused its market dominance

Palantir Consulting/Tech – NO INFO

Parsons Engineering/Defense

Reynolds American Tobacco –

Ripple Crypto Trump's SEC withdrew its appeal seeking higher penalties

against Ripple over alleged securities law violations

Donor Corporate Sector Federal Enforcement Faced

Susquehanna

International Group

(SIG)

Finance SIG holds a $15 billion stake in ByteDance, which, in addition

to facing a ban in the US that Trump thwarted, also faces a

civil suit brought by the DOJ and FTC over alleged COPPA

violations and NLRB cases alleging unfair labor practices.

T-Mobile Telecommunications DOJ's Antitrust Division under Trump closed its investigation

into the allegedly anticompetitive T-Mobile-UScellular merger,

allowing it to proceed.

Tether America Crypto Allegedly faced a DOJ investigation into possible violations of

sanctions and anti-money laundering rules.

Union Pacific

Railroad

Transportation Union Pacific's proposed $85 billion merger with Norfolk

Southern faces antitrust scrutiny by the Surface

Transportation Board, a federal railway regulator. Trump fired

board member Robert Primus, who opposed the merger, in

August.

Vantive Health Care –

Source: Analysis of Public Citizen’s Corporate Enforcement Tracker

https://www.citizen.org/article/corporate-enforcement-trump-tracker/

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AN 9 26

Republican demands answers after Trump taps Secret Service funds for ballroom

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HMMN

Newsweek

https://www.newsweek.com › list-of-democrats-taking-money-from-trump-white-house-ballroom-funders-11937684

Democrats linked to donors behind Trump's White House ballroom

May 11, 2026Some Democrats have accepted thousands of dollars from donors affiliated with companies that have backed Trump's ballroom project.

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an 9 26

A very wealthy donor to President Donald Trump scored a deal with a Russian state-owned bank that would normally be off-limits due to sanctions, the International Consortium of Independent Journalists reported.

Konstantin Sokolov is a Russian-American businessman and a major donor to Trump's political groups. In 2025, he gave $11 million to MAGA Inc., the president's super PAC, and also contributed to Trump’s White House ballroom project.

Trump signed off on new sanctions last week. The new sanctions would target Russian officials, financial institutions, energy and defense sectors and oil-shipping networks. It also authorizes tariffs of up to 100 percent on major purchasers of Russian oil and gas, one explainer outlined.

But already, Trump's funder is exempt, according to a Treasury Department decision. Sokolov will be able to buy a major copper mine in Armenia from the Russian state-owned bank.

"The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, known as OFAC, can grant a license to individuals or companies to complete transactions that would otherwise be prohibited by sanctions," the ICIJ explained. "OFAC states on its website that it may grant a license to do business with sanctioned Russian entities when it is in the interest of the applicant and the U.S. government."

Sokolov's spokesperson confirmed that such approval was given.

Sokolov was also appointed chairman of a new $200 million State Department enterprise fund that will invest in Central Asia and the South Caucasus, which is a strategic geographic region at the border of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. Armenia is expected to benefit. That means Sokolov has two overlapping roles: first, he owns or manages private businesses in Armenia, including the copper mine. Second, Sokolov helps oversee a U.S. government-backed investment fund that may invest in Armenia.

Armenian lawmakers and critics are concerned that the relationship creates a potential conflict of interest by essentially granting Sokolov public or government-supported investment and decision-making in a country where he also has large private financial interests.

Armenia’s National Assemblymember Mesrop Manukyan said when speaking to the ICIJ that Sokolov’s position “create[s] legitimate questions about … the separation between private commercial interest and decisions involving public or government-backed funds.”

Sokolov's spokesperson also claimed there was “no evidential basis” to link Sokolov's donations to Trump and approval by Trump's government. Suggesting otherwise “would be incorrect and wholly misplaced," they added.

While the administration and Sokolov deny any corruption, the report raises legitimate questions about transparency, favoritism and whether private business interests could overlap with Trump's government power.

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AN 8 26

WaPo catches Trump red-handed: White House faked ballroom progress

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AN 8 26

The non-profit group that sued President Donald Trump for bulldozing the East Wing of the White House and starting his own nearly-$1 billion project has filed its first response to the appeal filed with the Supreme Court.

Courthouse News reporter Kelsey Reichmann flagged the filing on Tuesday, showing that the group, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, went straight to the heart of Trump's argument that the project is too far gone to stop.

"Petitioners, however, insist they will keep building — no matter what anyone says," the filing says.

They quoted the Trump argument saying, “When asked ‘[w]hen … it bec[a]me impossible for courts to stop this project,’ the Defendants stated point-blank: ‘[I]t would have been improper to enjoin it even on day one.’”

They also cited the back-and-forth between the judge and the Trump lawyers. In that instance, the judge asked, "So if this were complete lawlessness by the [g]overnment … , [it] couldn’t be stopped?" The government answered, "On these theories, I think that’s right."

"More astonishing is Petitioners’ declaration that they are on the brink of a fait accompli. They tell this Court that because the ballroom is being built with the type of concrete used 'in nuclear power plants,' it will soon be 'virtually impossible to deconstruct,'" the filing continues.

"Absent an injunction, Petitioners candidly contend that if the ballroom were 'ordered to be taken down, or even altered, by the court, there would be no way to do so,'" the filing states, quoting Trump lawyers. "That is the essence of irreparable harm."

The filing goes on to argue against allowing the Trump administration to finish the ballroom while the courts are still deciding whether it was legal to start with. Congress, it says, not Trump, decides whether major construction can occur on federal property, especially in a federal park in Washington D.C. It maintains that Congress never specifically authorized this ballroom.

The Trust alleges that the administration demolished the East Wing and began the project without completing any of the legally-required public, environmental, historic-preservation and planning reviews. They also allege that the Trump administration repeatedly changed its story about its legal authority and the project’s connection to a proposed underground security facility.

Initially, according to the filing, officials claimed it was a ballroom and bunker — two separate projects. It's the main reason that the lower-court judge put a stop to the ballroom but not to the new Trump bunker. Later, the White House claimed that the ballroom was necessary for national security because the structure would somehow protect the bunker. Now the argument has become that it's a "military complex" and that the White House has full jurisdiction over military projects.

Contrary to the White House's claim, the Trust continued, pausing construction would not endanger the president or national security because the injunction permits work on underground security facilities to continue. It also allows all measures needed to protect the White House, the president and his staff. The harms that the White House claims are an "emergency" and necessitate the Supreme Court weigh in immediately mostly have to do with "inconvenience" and "delay," the filing says.

This case doesn't involve the Supreme Court weighing in on the ballroom itself. This matter is only about the injunction to pause the building while it works its way through the courts. The Trust explained that it is concerned that the Trump administration will build so quickly that, by the time judges rule, the structure will be too expensive or impractical to undo. That is why it wants construction paused now, rather than after the case is fully resolved.

"'[O]wned by the American people,' the White House is 'more than the President’s residence," the Trust says, "it is integral to the 'national discourse about what it means to be American.'"

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AN 8 26

Trump asks Supreme Court to let him build ballroom

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5 20? 26 TRUMP ATTACK PARLIM ~ 86 TAX $

Payback: Republican Trump targeted is now going after his ballroom - Alternet.org

BILL CASSIDY PRIMARIED

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AN 8 26

An anonymous White House official emerged as part of President Donald Trump's push to revive the massive ballroom project. In an appeal to the Supreme Court after a lower court blocked the plan, the unnamed official defended the proposal by calling the ballroom “one of the most beautiful of its kind, anywhere in the country.” That official has now been uncovered.

The line in the court filing released Friday prompted digital chuckles from legal analysts, but it also led many to wonder who it was since the person doesn't rise to the level of a confidential law enforcement source.

"The Solicitor General of the United States, in making a legal argument, also takes the time to quote an official declaration from a White House official waxing rhapsodic about how [beautiful] the President's ballroom will be," said legal expert and American Immigration Council fellow Aaron Reichlin-Melnick.

Law and security expert Brian Finucane remarked, "another glorious day of executive branch lawyering."

Reichlin-Melnick sifted through the court documents to find the name, and in the appendix it was revealed to be the person Trump has assigned to oversee the full project.

"Joshua Fisher, Director of White House Management and Administration and the person managing the entire ballroom project, so it's brazen for the [solicitor general] to be quoting him as some anonymous official and making the clerks check the cite in the appendix (starts at 441a)," wrote Reichlin-Melnick on BlueSky.

"Here's the full context from his declaration, including that the paragraph is appended randomly at the end of the declaration and has no connection to the rest and, yes, reads like Trump himself wrote it (the SG's office probably wrote it in there specifically to make this argument)," he speculated.

"I have worked closely on this project and have the highest opinion of its final appearance," said Fisher in his statement. "This building is already being adjudged to be one of the most beautiful of its kind, anywhere in the country. To that end, the Supreme Court of the United States and, in particular, its magnificent Corinthian columns — considered the highest column order in architecture — have served as the inspiration for the monumental columns that front the military/ballroom complex. These columns are made from the highest-grade Indiana limestone, which was shipped to Italy, and are being carved by some of the greatest artists anywhere in the world. Delivery and installation will begin shortly."

The filing also makes the case to the Supreme Court that if Trump is required to ask Congress to get involved after the fact, it could be humiliating.

"Forcing the president to come hat-in-hand to Congress so the people's house is safe gives the legislature dangerous leverage," said the filing.

Trump continues to argue that his ballroom is about protecting him. The filing goes so far as to suggest that he needs the ballroom to be constructed, particularly after an "assassination attempt" from the July 8 threat of a missile attack on Air Force One.

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hmmn

Ashley St. Clair released a TikTok video post-White House Correspondents’ Dinner in 2025 claiming MAGA influencers use a “Fight Fight Fight” group chat. She named White House Deputy Chief of Staff James Blair as a member. St. Clair pointed to multiple influencers posting identical messages demanding Trump get “his ballroom.” Her argument relies on the statistical improbability of such synchronization without coordination. No screenshots, recordings, or chat logs support her story. James Blair issued no public response.

AN 5 26

President Donald Trump took time on Tuesday to share with the press pool precise details about the ballroom he is having built where the East Wing of the White House once stood.

Trump “is currently giving the pool an in-depth presentation on the new ballroom construction, down to the location of the AC units and thickness of the glass,” reported Wall Street Journal White House reporter Meridith McGraw.

The ballroom is “going to be something incredible — you see the quality of it,” he said, standing on the construction site. On the ballroom’s roof “we’re going to have the greatest drone empire that you’ve ever seen, and it’s going to protect Washington.”

“They’re building a hospital,” he added. “It’s a military hospital. They’re building all sorts of research facilities, also meeting rooms and rooms that go hand-in-hand for the military.”

“The ballroom is really a shield and protecting all of the things that are built here.”

He said the construction goes “six stories deep.”

Trump discussed the two facades the building will have, one facing the Washington Monument, the other, the Lincoln Memorial.

He said, “the roof is a barrier. It’s a shield, because it’s made out of the side walls of steel, impenetrable steel, and also impenetrable glass. The glass is approximately four inches thick. And yet, it’s amazing, you can see through it as though it didn’t exist. It’s amazing. And it can stop just about anything. Just about anything.”

“On the other side of the glass,” he continued, “we have steel and concrete. So that the glass is very powerful, what’s holding the glass is equally as powerful.”

“All of these columns, they go directly right to the roof of the building,” he said. “And again, we call it a drone port. It’s set up for unlimited numbers of drones.”

“When this is finished,” he said, “my term ends shortly after that. This is really for other presidents, this is not for me. This is my gift to the United States of America. I’m going to be able to use it very little.”

“This is all my money and donors’ money,” he said. “This is tax free.”

While Trump said that he and other benefactors will be paying the cost of the ballroom, reportedly $400 million, he has been pushing Congress to spend $1 billion for security enhancements apart from the ballroom itself.

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AN 5 26

White House preservation group flattens lies in Trump’s ballroom court filing - Alternet.org

GOP fumes as Trump drops a 'political landmine' at the worst time - Alternet.org

mma

Right-wing media spent months claiming Trump’s ballroom wouldn’t cost taxpayers a penny. Republicans are now proposing $1 billion in taxpayer money to secure it. | Media Matters for America

parkrose fuhrer bunker

an 526

Outrage explodes after GOP allocates $1 billion for Trump’s ballroom - Alternet.org

Trump vanity projects reveal desire for 'dynastic succession' - Alternet.org

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AN 4 26 SHOOTING JUSTIFY

Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) criticized Democrats for opposing President Donald Trump’s proposed White House ballroom, prompting some of those same Democrats to point out the obvious: Because the White House Correspondents Dinner is a private event, it would never have been held at the White House, and therefore a ballroom would have made no difference.

“We were there front and center,” Fetterman posted on X on Sunday. “That venue wasn’t built to accommodate an event with the line of succession for the U.S. government. After witnessing last night, drop the TDS and build the White House ballroom for events exactly like these.”

The acronym “TDS” stands for “Trump Derangement Syndrome,” which refers to people who supposedly hate Trump so much that they become irrational. Yet as many Democrats and other Trump opponents pointed out, Fetterman — whose advocacy of a ballroom echoes the arguments made by Trump and his supporters after the supposed shooting attempt at the White House Correspondents Dinner on Saturday — is the one being irrational. After all, the dinner in question is a private event, and has never been held in the White House.

“Sorry, @JohnFetterman, but the WHCA dinner is NOT sponsored by the White House,” posted Democratic strategist Jon Cooper on X. “Nobody is forcing the VP and other Cabinet members to attend this fancy black tie event.”

He added, “Sit down and worry about your primary.”

Liberal pundit Dean Obediallah also called out Fetterman’s comment, posting on X that he “can't wait for Fetterman to become a Republican so we can DESTROY him in the election!” Comibing both Cooper’s and Obediallah’s points, CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Evan Gold wrote “Do you directly get the talking points from the GOP or just read about them? No venue should hold the entire line of succession. Period.”

He added, “Also this was a WHCA event, not a White House event. It wouldn't be held there.”

Meanwhile former tennis star Martina Navratilova, an outspoken critic of Trump, posted on X that Fetterman needs to “eff off already!!!”

The ballroom, which would be 90,000 square feet and eclipse the White House itself, is being challenged by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and last week a federal appeals court found that Trump lacked the legal authority to make those renovations without Congressional approval.

Notably, however, the U.S. District Judge Richard Leon allowed underground work to continue for security reasons — that is, because experts were concerned that beginning the construction created security risks that could not be ameliorated unless at least some of the construction is allowed to continue.

“The hurried reviews, with construction cranes already swiveling above the White House grounds, are an abrupt departure from how new monuments, museums and even modest renovations have been designed and refined in the capital for decades,” Emily Badger, Junho Lee and Larry Buchanan of The New York Times reported regarding the process behind the renovations.

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AN 4 26

While the financing of President Donald Trump’s planned $400 million White House ballroom has been shrouded in mystery for months, government watchdog Public Citizen has obtained important new information about the project’s funding.

Public Citizen on Tuesday unveiled a copy of the funding agreement the Trump administration has used for the ballroom project after months of legal wrangling that forced the group to file a lawsuit to compel enforcement of a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request it made last year.

As summarized by The Washington Post, the ballroom contract’s provisions “allow wealthy donors with business before the federal government to contribute anonymously to a sitting president’s pet project, while exempting the White House from key conflict of interest safeguards and limiting scrutiny by Congress and the public.”

While dozens of big-name corporate donors—including Amazon, Apple, Lockheed Martin, Google, Altria, and Union Pacific Railroad—have been public about their donations to the project, the fact that some donors can choose to remain anonymous is raising serious concerns among ethics experts.

Charles Tiefer, a retired law professor at the University of Baltimore with a long history of scrutinizing government contracts, told the Post that the contract’s anonymity provisions could give the Trump administration an escape hatch from future congressional scrutiny.

“If Congress knocks on the door,” Tiefer said, “the White House is going to slam it shut and say, ‘You’re not allowed to know these donors.’”

This means that there is no way to know whether these donors have business before the government, and no way to know if they expect to get something in return for their donations.

Kathleen Clark, a government ethics lawyer and law professor at Washington University in St. Louis, told the Post that the contract’s very narrow scope of reviewing for conflicts of interest among donors renders it “nothing more than a sham.”

Jon Golinger, democracy advocate for Public Citizen, said the key takeaway from the newly unearthed documents is that “anonymous donations are the heart of this agreement.”

“The questions this raises are, of the hundreds of millions being funneled in secret, who are these anonymous donors, and what are they hiding?” Golinger added. “The American people deserve answers, and we’ll keep fighting until they get them.”

Wendy Liu, Public Citizen attorney and lead counsel on the lawsuit to obtain the contract, said the administration’s initial refusal to comply with a FOIA request was “flatly unlawful,” and “the American people are entitled to transparency over this multimillion-dollar project, and this win gets us a bit closer to knowing the truth.”

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) blasted the Trump administration’s efforts to hide the contract in a statement given to the Post.

“At every turn, President Trump has sought to conceal the facts about his monstrous multimillion-dollar ballroom,” Blumenthal said. “His administration has kept the contract under wraps, the identities of big dollar donors secret, and the American people in the dark about what big corporations have to gain by funding this boondoggle.”

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AN 4 26

In 2025, four major companies — Paramount, ABC, Meta (which includes Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Threads), and the Elon Musk-owned X, formerly Twitter — agreed to donate millions of dollars to fund Donald Trump's presidential library in Miami. Altogether, the donations totaled at least $63 million for the library, which according to President Trump, could double as a Trump-branded hotel.

Senate Democrats have been probing that $63 million, but according to The New Republic's Greg Sargent, a lot of questions remain unanswered.

"After the companies agreed to these shakedowns — sorry, settlements — the fund created to receive donations was dissolved last September," Sargent explains in an article published on April 20. "Since then, Senate Democrats have been asking: What happened to the money? Now, there's been an important new turn in this saga. The four companies have provided fresh information to Senate Democrats in written responses to their questions. For these Democrats, those responses — obtained by The New Republic — raise more questions than they answer."

Sargent, a former Washington Post columnist, adds, "In these formal replies, all four companies confirmed that they did pledge that money to Trump's library — itself a notable development. More importantly, however, the Democrats say the responses reveal that the money is still largely unaccounted for."

According to Sargent, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts) has "taken the lead in tracking this money."

"The companies all settled lawsuits with Trump after his 2024 victory — Paramount for $16 million over a claim of fraudulent editing by CBS; Meta for $25 million, and X for around $10 million over supposed censorship of Trump; and ABC for $15 million over alleged defamation," Sargent reports. "Experts criticized the lawsuits as weak and denounced the settlements as akin to extortion payments. Under those settlements, the companies donated virtually all that money to the library project, totaling at least $63 million. But then the fund where most of that money appeared to be directed — the Donald J. Trump Presidential Library Fund — was dissolved by Florida officials amid the failure to file a required annual report."

Warren is demanding answers about the $63 million.

The liberal senator told Sargent, "Not one of these companies can say with any clarity where their multi-million-dollar donations to Donald Trump's library slush fund are, or where they will go…. Tens of millions of dollars are unaccounted for, and the American people are left completely in the dark."

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Trump just broke his America First promise to build his illegal ballroom - Alternet.org

//

an 4 26

Congress's cowardice exposed again as Trump ignores judge's ruling

:{:{Sabrina Haake April 09, 2026 }:

From his first days back in power, Trump has set about remaking the nation’s capital in his own gilded image.

He paved over the 1903 Rose Garden, then matched the new patio to his Mar-a-Lago hotel, demolished the entire East Wing, and spray painted Oval Office fixtures in a

Let-them-eat-cake gold frenzy. The Kennedy Center, left alone until one artist after another refused to perform there following Trump’s rebrand, is now facing an unplanned two year “closure” for “comprehensive renovations.” Still in the works are Trump’s massive ‘arch de Trump’ between Arlington National Cemetery and the Lincoln Memorial, the conversion of three historic municipal golf courses into private, luxury courses, and a 90,000 square foot ballroom styled after his Palm Beach bordello that will dwarf the White House.

The Commission of Fine Arts is an independent federal agency established by Congress to advise the President and Congress on aesthetics and design in order to preserve the quiet dignity of the nation's capital. After Trump packed its governing board with allies, the Commission voted to approve his gold-appointed ballroom, no notes. However, on March 31, 2026, in a delicious smackdown that got out-noised by Trump’s WWIII insanity, U.S. District Judge Richard Leon put a pin in it.

Addressing the planned ballroom, Judge Leon wrote that the President of the United States “is the steward of the White House for future generations of First Families,” however, he is not the owner.

What gives Trump the right to redraw the nation’s capital?

Facing down Trump’s claims of foolproof authority to control what happens to the White House, Judge Leon belabored the historical context in which Congress —not the president— has always controlled construction at the White House. His opinion can be found here.

Leon started by noting that the original White House construction was directed and funded by Congress. The initial build was quickly followed by repairs necessitated by the War of 1812. From there Leon detailed how Congress appropriated funds for construction of the South Portico in 1823, the North Portico in 1829, and the East and West Wings in 1902. In the late 1940s, Leon noted, after the discovery of major structural issues, Congress appropriated funds for “the renovation, repair, and modernization” of the White House but prohibited any change of the “architectural appearance of the exterior of the mansion or the interior of its main floor.”

Despite the clarity of historical precedent, easily found on the White House’s own Historical Association website, the White House announced in August 2025 that, “President Trump, and other patriot donors, have generously committed to donating the funds to build” a 90,000 square foot ballroom, at “zero cost to the American Taxpayer!” (Cancer! Lobotomies! at zero cost!)

Less than two months later, photos circulating online confirmed that the East Wing had been entirely demolished to make way for Trump’s ballroom eyesore.

National monuments don’t belong to Trump’s oligarchs

Trump has claimed repeatedly that he, not Congress, possesses vast powers to control the nation’s purse strings. To construct his ballroom, he claimed the right to supplant Congressional funding with money donated by his wealthy donor class, as if centuries of American tradition could be restyled in Trump’s taste by simply paying for it. Trump’s ballroom donors wouldn’t have $400 million laying around to begin with if not for Trump’s $117 billion in tax cuts lining their pockets.

Issuing a preliminary injunction against the ballroom’s construction last week, Judge Leon ordered it to “stop until Congress authorizes its completion.” Under 40 USC. § 8106, in effect since 1912, “[a] building or structure shall not be erected on any reservation, park, or public grounds of the Federal Government in the District of Columbia without express authority of Congress.” The statute further instructs the Secretary of the Interior to protect the District of Colombia’s scenery, natural and historic objects “in such manner and by such means as will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations.”

Trump’s legal team tried numerous spins around these statutory hurdles, but Judge Leon rejected them in turn, ruling that “no statute comes close to giving (Trump) the authority he claims to have” to bypass Congress for such major alterations, regardless of who’s paying for them.

Ultra vires: ‘beyond the powers of,’ ‘unauthorized’

Letting Trump and his oligarchs pay to control the landscape of our nation’s 235 year capital is blatantly unethical. Donor entities such as Amazon, Apple, Meta, Google, and Microsoft, defense contractors, and cryptocurrency firms paying for the ballroom expect paybacks in the form of regulatory breaks, merger approvals, more tax breaks, and lucrative federal contracts. That’s why the Antideficiency Act restricts government agencies from accepting private funds without explicit authorization from Congress- to prevent people and corporations from donating to the government in order to buy influence.

Trump, above that law thanks to SCOTUS, is now freely and openly selling influence and accepting bribes. Aside from the obvious corruption of pay to play, by revising national monuments with private funds, Trump is also trying to transfer the power of Congress, a co-equal branch of government, to his own corporate donors. That Congressional Republicans are letting him do it suggests severe pathologies and hints at a flaw in our founding document.

Fittingly, as to Trump’s lamentations that the work had already begun on the ballroom, with the destruction of the East Wing now leaving an unsightly mess, Judge Leon called it “a hole of the President's own making.”

If that’s not a metaphor for this disastrous presidency, nothing is.

Sabrina Haake is a columnist and 25+ year federal trial attorney specializing in 1st and 14th A defense. She writes the free Substack, The Haake Take.

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Even conservatives see Trump's White House renovation as power grab - Alternet.org

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Yesterday, U.S. district judge Richard Leon blocked Trump from proceeding with construction of his $400 million ballroom on the site of the White House’s demolished East Wing. This has halted, at least for now, one of Trump’s most visible efforts to reshape the symbolic center of the federal government’s executive branch.

In a 35-page opinion, Judge Leon — an appointee of Republican President George W. Bush — wrote that Trump likely did not have the authority to make changes to the White House that could endure for generations, without consulting Congress.

This marks, by my calculation, the 89th time since the start of Trump’s second term that a federal judge has ruled that he cannot simply do whatever he wants; his actions must be authorized by Congress.

Focus for a moment on the word authorized.It’s from the Latin auctoritas and auctor — to originate, the originator.

In our system of government, a president is notthe originator of power. Power comes from the people. And among the three branches of government, the people are most clearly represented by Congress. This was the founders’ design in the Constitution, which is why the very first article enumerates Congress’s powers.

The decision by Judge Leon puts the ballroom project on hold while the lawsuit continues. When a federal judge grants a preliminary injunction, it means that the judge views it likely that plaintiffs (in this case, the National Trust for Historic Preservation) will prevail on the merits of the case, and that allowing whatever is going on to continue (in this case, construction of Trump’s enormous 90,000-square-foot ballroom) will cause the plaintiffs irreparable harm.

In December, the National Trust sued Trump after he razed the East Wing (originally constructed in 1902 and expanded during Franklin Roosevelt’s presidency) to make way for what Trump says will be the “finest” ballroom in the country.

As designed, that ballroom is larger than the Executive Residence and the West Wing combined. If constructed, it would be the dominant edifice of the White House — symbolically shifting its focus from where the president works and lives to where a president might lavishly entertain, as in a king’s throne room.

Trump has repeatedly emphasized that his ballroom is funded entirely by private donors, so its cost won’t be borne by taxpayers and it doesn’t need a congressional appropriation. He says he’s raised more than $350 million from personal backers and around two dozen tech, cryptocurrency, and defense corporations to fund the structure without government support.

Translated: He’s extorted $350 million from monied interests eager to suck up to him.

But Judge Leon insists this doesn’t give Trump authorityto destroy part of the White House and erect a giant ballroom in its place: “No statute comes close to giving the President the authority he claims to have.”

Judge Leon adds: “The President of the United States is the steward of the White House for future generations of First Families. He is not, however, the owner!” [exclamation included]

The idea that Trump is the steward of anythingfor future generations rather than an owner must seem odd to Trump. I doubt that the former real-estate developer has ever once thought of the presidency as a stewardship.

Which is why the notion that he’s not authorizedto do whatever he wants — raze the White House for a grand ballroom, deploy ICE and Border Patrol agents to terrorize immigrants and murder Americans trying to protect them, attack Iran — is inconceivable to him.

In his first public reaction to the court order, Trump called the National Trust “a Radical Left Group of Lunatics” that’s suing him for a “ballroom that is under budget, ahead of schedule, being built at no cost to the Taxpayer, and will be the finest Building of its kind anywhere in the World.”

To real-estate developer Trump, all that matters is being under budget, ahead of schedule, and at no cost to taxpayers. Even if he demolishes the entire White House and erects a Trump Tower in its place. Even if he extorts every CEO in America to pay for it. Even if he erects a giant arch across the Potomac with his name emblazoned on it.

But the peoplehave not authorized him to do any of this. Which means — as long as we have an independent federal judiciary, and any hope for a Congress that will stand up to him — he cannot.

Robert Reich is a professor of public policy at Berkeley and former secretary of labor. His writings can be found at https://robertreich.substack.com/.*

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The White House has pushed back against architectural criticism of President Trump's planned ballroom expansion, with Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt attacking the credibility of those raising design concerns rather than addressing the specific issues they identified.

Leavitt characterized critics as people with no construction experience, defending Trump's vision and the project's lead architect. The criticism stemmed from published analysis highlighting questionable design elements, including a prominent staircase that appears to serve primarily aesthetic purposes rather than functional ones.

According to reporting on the project, the proposed staircase features columns that block window views and does not lead to any entrance or functional space within the structure. The design choice has raised questions about the ballroom's architectural coherence.

The approval timeline for the ballroom has also drawn scrutiny. The project received expedited clearance through the Commission of Fine Arts, a process that contrasts sharply with historical precedent. Previous White House modifications underwent months of public review and consultation, a standard that did not apply to this significantly larger undertaking.

The White House has maintained that the ballroom addresses a longstanding need and that private funding will cover the expense, removing any burden on federal budgets. The figure cited for the project has grown substantially since initial announcements, reflecting expanded scope or revised cost estimates.

The ballroom project began with the demolition of existing White House facilities that served multiple purposes for the first lady's office and entertainment functions. This removal opened space for the new structure, which would exceed the dimensions of the current White House.

Legal challenges to the project remain pending from preservation organizations concerned about the impact on the historic complex. However, regulatory approval appears likely to proceed, with final votes expected to formalize authorization for construction.

During his first term, Trump pursued several government building initiatives that faced architectural and structural criticism. His plan to redesign the presidential seal and the Oval Office generated debate among design professionals about historical preservation versus modernization.

The proposed renovation of federal courthouse facades during his first administration drew concerns from architectural preservation organizations. Critics argue that Trump-era modifications prioritize aesthetic changes that do not align with historical architectural standards or the buildings' original design intent.

Trump's efforts to modify Lafayette Square, the park adjacent to the White House, sparked significant controversy. The administration's plans for the space included renovation proposals that critics argued would alter the character of the historic area. Preservation advocates warned against changes that would diminish public access or transform the square's traditional role in American civic life.

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There's one key reason the Trump 'ballroom' will never get built: analysis - Alternet.org

OVERBUDGET NOT STRUCT SOUND? 3 26

Trump’s White House ballroom is turning into a disaster: report - Alternet.org

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Republicans were quietly 'disturbed' after Trump bulldozed the White House: report - Alternet.org

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Trump's Corporate Colluders - More Perfect Union

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Corporations that pandered to Donald Trump after his reelection could soon pay the price for it, with one bipartisan consulting firm warning clients of a "tsunami of congressional oversight" in the likely event the Republicans lose the midterms, and it will be "much worse than they expect."

The memo, reported on by Axios, was written by Matthew Miller and Tucker Eskew, who the outlet credited as "veterans of high-profile campaigns." They warned that a major shift is almost certainly headed for Washington D.C., and that companies need to start preparing themselves for Democratic leadership in the House.

"A tsunami of Congressional oversight is headed straight for corporate America," Miller and Eskew wrote. "Barring a dramaticand improbable reversal of both current and historic political trends, Democrats will retake control of the House of Representatives (and possibly the Senate) in November’s elections, ushering in two years of divided government. With prospects for passing major legislation during that period hovering between slim and none, oversight will become the leading substantive and political weaponfor newly ascendant Democrats."

Since Trump's return to the White House, the pillars of corporate America — including tech titans like Amazon, Apple, Meta and Google — have faced widespread accusations of currying favor with his administration. Companies big and small followed Trump's command at the start of his second term to do away with "diversity, equity and inclusion" programs. The aforementioned major companies also donated significant amounts of money to Trump's inauguration and his controversial White House ballroom.

Miller and Eskew further suggested that, in many ways, the incoming Democratic leadership could be similar to past periods when the party held majorities in Congress. However, they also warned that shifting priorities and key changes within the party mean that companies are more likely than ever to face scrutiny.

"The first change stems from a widespread belief among Democrats that major corporations have drawn too close to the administration for comfort," the memo continued. "For example, they have attacked crypto companies for allegedly funneling money to the president and his family, called antitrust review 'pay-to-play corruption,' and questioned the relationship between the White House and oil companies. For Democrats on the Hill, aggressive oversight of private companies is no longer just an end to itself, but a means for exposing alleged abuses by the Trump administration."

Miller and Eskew also predicted that Democrats are preparing for the White House to stonewall any and all attempts at oversight investigations. This will, in turn, cause them to turn their attention to corporations, using oversight of them as "a means for exposing alleged abuses by the Trump administration."

"It's going to be so much worse than they expect," Miller said in a statement to Axios.

ref mkting

...the first change stems from a widespread belief among Democrats that major corporations havedrawn too close to the administration for comfort. For example, they have attacked crypto companiesfor allegedly funneling money to the president and his family, called antitrust review “pay-to-playcorruption,” and questioned the relationship between the White House and oil companies. ForDemocrats on the Hill, aggressive oversight of private companies is no longer just an end to itself,but a means for exposing alleged abuses by the Trump administration...

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Overnight court filing reveals DOJ’s latest excuse for Trump’s ballroom

Sarah K. Burris

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Banquet-of-Greed-Final

:{:{Palantir Technologies: The Peter Thiel-founded data analytics company is a major federal contractor whose role has grown dramatically under the second Trump administration. In its SEC filings, Palantir states its business is affected by the following policy issues, among others: Privacy and data laws; AI regulations, taxation Lobbying priorities: Defense spending bill, including Army intelligence and readiness programs, battlefield domain awareness, space, and Air Force data analytics. Miller Strategies, led by MAGA lobbyist and fundraiser Jeff Miller, helped Palantir and other companies make donations to the ballroom, the Free Press reported.}:

...

Union Pacific Railroad: The railroad operator has announced plans for a $85 billion merger with Norfolk Southern as early as the end of November. The merger would for the first time give a single company control of a coast-to-coast rail line. Union Pacific will need approval from the Trump-controlled Surface Transportation Board (STB). Trump fired STB board member Robert Primus in August after Primus made clear his opposition to the proposed merger. In its SEC filings, Union Pacific states its business is affected by the following policy issues, among others: railroad laws and regulations; health and safety laws; labor and employment laws; environmental standards; and taxation. Lobbying priorities: broadband and telecommunications; rail safety; the Surface Transportation Board; the proposed merger with Norfolk Southern; truck size; trade and tariffs; locomotive emissions; collective bargaining; rail ports of entry at the U.S.-Mexico border; cybersecurity; the tax and budget reconciliation bill.

}:

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President Donald Trump's administration is now responding to a lawsuit seeking to halt construction of his proposed new White House ballroom.

The Associated Press (AP) reported Monday that Trump is now justifying the construction of his $300 million ballroom – which would replace the demolished East Wing of the White House — by claiming it's necessary for "national security" purposes. U.S. Secret Service officials told the judge assigned to a lawsuit filed by the National Trust for Historic Preservation in the United States that construction on the site where the East Wing used to stand had to continue to meet unspecified "safety and security requirements."

The administration's claim of needing the ballroom for "national security" purposes was roundly mocked on social media. Rep. Julie Johnson (D-Texas), who sits on the House Foreign Relations Committee, asserted on her official X account that Trump's ballroom was "not a national security priority."

"His vanity project is only a distraction from resolving global crises in Ukraine, Gaza, Sudan, Afghanistan, and the list goes on," Johnson wrote.

Former Democratic campaign worker Gerald M. LeRoy also piled on, observing that the news of the day was "so insane that I do appreciate the humor of a breaking news headline essentially being 'Trump opposes someone opposing him.'"

"There is no bottom to the mendacity of these scoundrels," Chicago-based writer Lynn Becker posted.

Florida-based attorney Steve Kerins responded to the news by also pointing to Trump's recent executive order classifying fentanyl as a weapon of mass destruction (WMD).

"National security ballroom. Fentanyl WMDs. We're really on a roll of authoritarian consolidation today," Kerins wrote.

Vox.com senior writer Elias Isquith took a different direction, sarcastically wondering if Trump was the "physical embodiment of a larger metaphysical force" that was "designed to ruthlessly exploit the most obvious flaws in our constitution & our society & thus force us to address glaring defects."

Click here to read the AP's full report.

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During his 2024 presidential campaign, Donald Trump aggressively campaigned on the economy — repeatedly blaming the Biden Administration for inflation — and it worked. Trump's focus on economic angst was enough to get him past the finish line, with a narrow victory of roughly 1.5 percent over Democratic nominee Kamala Harris in the popular vote.

Ten months into Trump's second presidency, however, anger over the economy remains. And many polls are showing Trump with low approval ratings.

In a biting New York Times op-ed published on Thanksgiving 2025, liberal journalist Molly Jong-Fast argues that one group of Americans has a lot to be thankful for under the Trump Administration: billionaires.

Jong-Fast, a frequent guest on MS Now (formerly MSNBC), notes that Thanksgiving brings "a sense that we need to take a moment to acknowledge what we have, and be reminded to help others less fortunate than ourselves."

"Trumpsgiving is not about that," Jong-Fast laments. "The spirit of this season is always Trumpstaking. For himself, his family and the various oligarchs in his circle, alternately grateful for his patronage and fearful that he might turn on them. In just under a year since Mr. Trump returned to power, this has been the lesson again and again. We're living in the age of what I call reverse philanthropy: instead of giving, you get. See: his free 747."

Jong-Fast continues, "And in setting this example, Mr. Trump is making our country's rich people worse, by emboldening them to embrace his transactional style of governing."

Trump, she observes, practices "reverse philanthropy" — meaning that "he wants you to give to him — or else."

"Remember the dozens of people and corporations who gave over a million dollars each to his inauguration?," Jong-Fast writes. "Mr. Trump then went to five crypto firms and eight tech companies, including some that helped fund the inauguration, for help building his ballroom. Which will itself be a place to gather fellow oligarchs and others who seek Mr. Trump's favor…. Philanthropy was always, on some level, a way for people with too much to feel better about that fact, or maybe about how they came to have all that loot in the first place. They need to be reminded of that. And of what they should be grateful for: this country, and its hardworking nonbillionaires trying to survive."

The liberal journalist adds, "Maybe it's time to bring the guilt — not the gilt — back."

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SJMN AN 11 25

As recently as the 1980s, California was still a red state — from Bakersfield to San Diego to Simi Valley to Glendale. Orange County south of Los Angeles was a bastion of conservatism, and the state's famously conservative GOP governors included Ronald Reagan, George Deukmejian and Pete Wilson.

These days, California is a Democratic stronghold. Yet it still has pockets of conservatism, including Silicon Valley tech bros who have allied themselves with President Donald Trump. And according to Mercury News reporter Ethan Baron, that bond is showing no signs of weakening.

Baron, in an article published on November 2, reports, "Silicon Valley technology companies' cozy relationship with President Donald Trump appears to be deepening and bearing fruit, as firms and their leaders show fealty with gifts, policies, and public statements of support, and CEOs show their ability to influence the president on matters of politics and business. In recent weeks, the White House has confirmed that Google, Meta, Apple, and HP donated to the construction of Trump's new White House ballroom, with Santa Clara chip giant Nvidia's CEO, Jensen Huang, later saying he was 'delighted to be part of it'…. Google and YouTube parent Alphabet, in late September, agreed to pay $22 million toward the ballroom, in a settlement over a lawsuit by Trump over his suspension from YouTube after the January 6 insurrection."

Baron adds, "In similar cases, Meta agreed to pay $22 million toward Trump's presidential library, and X agreed to pay a settlement of about $10 million."

Jan English-Lueck, a San Jose State University anthropology professor known for studying the tech industry, told the Mercury News that Silicon Valley tech bros "need to protect the assets of their companies from the very real threats that they could face."

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Nolan Higdon, a lecturer at Cal State East Bay lecturer, told the Mercury News, "When they need something, they give him things…. Trump has shown that unless you force him to stop or defeat him, he won’t stop. That begs the question with these tech execs: How much is he going to ask of them and how much are they going to give?"

*Read Ethan Baron's full Mercury News article at this link (subscription required).

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ballroom list huffpo

All The Donors Financing Trump’s Ballroom As He Demolishes The White House | HuffPost Latest News

wASHINGTON ― The White House on Thursday released a list of all the private donors who have agreed to pay for the construction of President Donald Trump’s 90,000-square-foot, $300 million ballroom ― and the entire demolition of the East Wing, which is now complete.

Donors on the list include CEOs, real estate moguls, lots of corporations, and otherwise just really rich people. Defense contractors like Lockheed Martin and Booz Allen Hamilton are kicking in money for the president’s project, as are telecommunications companies like Comcast, and tobacco industry companies like Reynolds American. Tech companies like Amazon and Apple are in the mix, along with crypto companies.

Here’s the full list, provided by a White House official:

• Altria Group, Inc.
• Amazon
• Apple
• Booz Allen Hamilton
• Caterpillar, Inc.
• Coinbase
• Comcast Corporation
• Pepe and Emilia Fanjul
• Hard Rock International
• Google
• HP Inc.
• Lockheed Martin
• Meta Platforms
• Micron Technology
• Microsoft
• NextEra Energy, Inc.
• Palantir Technologies Inc.
• Ripple
• Reynolds American
• T-Mobile
• Tether America
• Union Pacific Railroad
• Adelson Family Foundation
• Stefan E. Brodie Tax day horror story: King of Prussia firm says its accountant failed to file taxes for years

[### United States of America, Appellant v. Stefan E. Brodie ...

Justia Law

https://law.justia.com › cases › federal › appellate-courts](https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/F3/403/123/561333/)

Defendant Stefan E. Brodie was found guilty by a jury of conspiring to trade with Cuba in violation of the American Cuban embargo currently in place.

• Betty Wold Johnson Foundation
• Charles and Marissa Cascarilla
• Edward and Shari Glazer
• Harold Hamm
• Benjamin Leon Jr.
• The Lutnick Family
• The Laura & Isaac Perlmutter Foundation
• Stephen A. Schwarzman
• Konstantin Sokolov Malta’s newest batch of citizens: Putin insiders, a game hunter, and an oilman facing sanctions - The Shift News

• Kelly Loeffler and Jeff Sprecher
• Paolo Tiramani
• Cameron Winklevoss
• Tyler Winklevoss

Trump has boasted about his ballroom being funded entirely by private donors and his own money, not public dollars. But the White House hasn’t shared how much money each of these companies and people have pledged to give him – or what they’re expecting in return.

Some donors were reportedly given the option of having their names permanently etched in the White House ballroom’s brick or stone.

The only individual donation that’s been made public is tied to Google’s parent company, Alphabet, which is contributing $22 million to Trump’s ballroom. That money is coming from a recent legal settlement the company reached with Trump after he was banned from YouTube, owned by Alphabet, after he incited the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection.

Trump has demolished the entire East Wing of the White House to make way for his 90,000-square-foot, $300 million ballroom.

Bloomberg via Getty Images

HuffPost reached out to all of the companies on the list, and as many of the individuals as we were able to track down, with the same two questions: How much are they donating to Trump’s ballroom, and if they have any comment about Trump destroying the East Wing ― and American history in the process ― to make way for his project.

Most didn’t respond immediately to requests for comment, but a few did.

“I can confirm that Microsoft contributed to the ballroom, as has been publicly reported,” company spokesperson Kaitlin Haskins said in an email. “That’s all I have at the moment, but if anything changes, I will circle back.”

T-Mobile confirmed it gave money to the Trust for the National Mall, the nonprofit overseeing the donations to fund Trump’s ballroom. But beyond that, a spokesperson said the company didn’t have any say on how those dollars were spent.

“Ahead of America’s 250th Anniversary, T-Mobile donated to the Trust for the National Mall, which partners with the National Park Service to restore and enrich the historic landmarks that define our nation’s capital, such as the White House ballroom,” the T-Mobile spokesperson said in an emailed statement.

“T-Mobile has no role in the use of those funds or decisions related to the construction of the ballroom,” they said. They did not share how much money T-Mobile donated.

A Betty Wold Johnson Foundation employee who returned a phone call to HuffPost said she was “not authorized to discuss the donation.”

The woman, whose name we didn’t catch, seemed like she wished maybe she hadn’t called us back.

“I have a lot of activity happening today and a lot of phone calls to return,” she said. “I wasn’t really aware of the nature of this call.”

Asked if the foundation’s president, former U.S. Ambassador Woody Johnson, was aware that the East Wing of the White House had been completely demolished Thursday to make way for Trump’s ballroom, the woman said he doesn’t “generally discuss his philanthropy.”

Johnson, whom Trump tapped to be his ambassador to the United Kingdom in his first term, is also the owner of the New York Jets.

“I don’t know how familiar he is with the nature of the details of the construction,” she said before we hung up.

The rubble that was once the East Wing of the White House, pictured on Wednesday.

via Associated Press

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Thursday that Trump is committed to being transparent about donations to his ballroom. She courted new donors, too.

“Perhaps there will be more people who want to generously contribute to this project,” Leavitt said in her daily press briefing.

Outside the building, a single protester was loudly chanting about Trump breaking laws by razing part of the White House.

“This demolition is illegal,” shouted Suzanne Jordan, a Virginia resident holding a cardboard sign that read, GENEVA. “This demolition is a federal crime.”

:{:{When power gathers under golden ceilings, real journalism stands outside, asking the questions that matter.}:

She told HuffPost she was a student at George Washington University on Sept. 11 and had to evacuate the school when the Pentagon was hit by a plane. The images of part of the Pentagon being in rubble after the attack, with rescue workers spraying hoses on the wreckage, stayed with her, she said, and now she’s seeing similar images with Trump’s destruction of the White House.

“The look, feel, of the hose on a pile, I feel that as well. Like, triggering in the most extreme,” said Jordan. “I was thinking of the New Testament today. Like Jesus has said, ‘Forgive them, Father, they know not what they do.’”

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CNN) — As demolition crews this week bulldozed the White House’s East Wing to replace it with a massive ballroom, President Donald Trump has emphasized that the dramatic changes will come at “zero cost to the American Taxpayer.”

Instead, the donors picking up the tab include some of the country’s biggest corporations, including many who have business before the federal government, along with many longtime supporters of the president, according to a CNN review of a donor list released by the Trump administration.

Trump has been recruiting donors for the construction project for months, showing off renderings and scale models to Oval Office visitors. Now estimated to cost $300 million, the work is being funded by private, tax-deductible donations routed through the nonprofit Trust for the National Mall.

The president has said he will personally pay for some of the project, but the White House hasn’t specified how much. At least one donation of $22 million from Google was made on “behalf” of Trump as part of a legal settlement over the president being banned from YouTube in 2021, court documents show.

The ballroom donors were feted at a White House dinner last week. Now that the demolition has begun, here’s who’s paying for the overhaul of the country’s most famous residence.

Adelson Family Foundation

Miriam Adelson, a billionaire who made her fortune in casinos alongside her late husband Sheldon and has been a major Trump donor, runs this philanthropic foundation. Trump awarded Adelson the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2018.

• Past donations to Trump: Miriam and Sheldon Adelson have been some of Trump’s top political donors since his first presidential bid, giving more than $30 million to pro-Trump PACs and his campaigns over the years. Miriam also gave $1 million to the president’s 2025 inaugural committee.

• Key issues: The foundation’s stated aim is to “strengthen the state of Israel and the Jewish people,” and Trump has Adelson and her support of Israel. Adelson, who is the majority owner of the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks, has also donated to lawmakers and PACs that support pro-gambling and sports betting legislation.

Altria Group

Previously known as Phillip Morris, tobacco giant Altria Group is the seller of Virginia Slims, Marlboro and Parliament cigarettes in the United States.

• Industry: Tobacco
• Past donations to Trump: A subsidiary, Altria Client Services, LLC, gave $1 million to a Trump-associated PAC in May 2025, $1 million to the president’s 2025 inaugural committee and $500,000 to his 2017 inaugural committee.
• Key issues: Altria has fought tighter industry regulations and, along with other tobacco companies, pushed legislation that would limit FDA oversight of e-cigarettes.

Amazon

Amazon billionaire founder Jeff Bezos told the world he was “optimistic” about a second Trump presidency late last year, saying he appreciated his “energy” around reducing regulations. The president called out Amazon publicly earlier this year when he learned that the e-commerce retailer was considering displaying tariff costs for consumers, which the company said it would not do.

• Industry: Tech, e-commerce
• Past donations to Trump: Amazon gave $1 million to Trump’s 2025 inaugural committee and made an in-kind donation of almost $900,000 for digital services and advertising supporting the event. The company also gave about $58,000 to his 2017 inaugural committee.
• Government business: Amazon Web Services – the company’s cloud computing platform – earned more than $500 million from federal contracts over the last three years, government data shows.

Apple

Apple CEO Tim Cook served on Trump’s American Workforce Policy Advisory Board during his first term. He attended the president’s 2025 inauguration along with other tech leaders, and this summer presented Trump with a customized 24-karat gold-and-glass statuette in the Oval Office while announcing plans to invest $100 billion in US jobs and suppliers.

• Industry: Tech
• Past donations to Trump: Cook personally gave $1 million to Trump’s 2025 inaugural committee.
• Key issues: The company secured a major win this summer, when smartphones were exempted from heavy tariffs levied on goods imported from India.

Betty Wold Johnson Foundation

The late Betty Wold Johnson was a philanthropist and mother of the two owners of the New York Jets, who are the foundation’s co-presidents. One of her sons, Woody Johnson, served as ambassador to the United Kingdom during Trump’s first term.

• Past donations to Trump: Woody Johnson has given more than $4.7 million to Trump’s campaigns and supporting PACs since 2016.

Booz Allen Hamilton

A major federal contractor, Booz Allen Hamilton primarily provides technology and consulting services and takes in billions in annual revenue.

• Industry: Defense and national security consulting
• Government business: About $6 billion paid by federal agencies over the last year, government data shows.
• Key issues: In January, Booz Allen Hamilton agreed to pay the US government nearly $16 million to settle a case alleging that a subsidiary submitted fraudulent claims related to a Defense Department contract.

Stefan E. Brodie

Stefan Brodie co-founded the chemical manufacturing company Purolite. Brodie, who was found guilty of violating American sanctions on Cuba in the early 2000s, was denied pardon by former President Joe Biden in 2023. It’s unclear if he has petitioned Trump for a pardon.

• Industry: Biotech

• Past donations to Trump: Brodie and several other family members each gave more than $840,000 to Trump’s joint fundraising committee in 2024.

Charles and Marissa Cascarilla

Charles Cascarilla is the co-founder and CEO of blockchain firm Paxos Trust Company, which provides digital asset infrastructure to financial institutions.

• Industry: Cryptocurrency
• Past donations to Trump: Charles Cascarilla gave just under $1 million to Trump’s 2025 inaugural committee.

• Key issues: Cascarilla has advocated for “a more welcoming and clearly defined regulatory environment for digital assets.”

Caterpillar

The Texas-based Caterpillar manufactures construction and mining equipment and supplies it to the US military and other government agencies. During Trump’s first term, the Department of Justice dropped a criminal investigation into Caterpillar for allegedly dodging taxes days after Trump appointed the company’s former attorney, Bill Barr, as attorney general. Barr said he would recuse himself from issues involving Caterpillar or other former clients.

• Industry: Construction and mining equipment, defense
• Past donations to Trump: Gave $100,000 to Trump’s 2025 inaugural committee.

• Government business: Nearly a billion dollars from federal contracts in roughly the last three years, federal data shows.

Coinbase

Coinbase, one of America’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, was founded in 2012 by CEO Brian Armstrong. The corporation, which went public in 2021 with a valuation of about $100 billion, helps users buy, sell and store cryptocurrencies. The Securities and Exchange Commission sued the company in 2023 for allegedly acting as an unregistered broker, but the Trump administration dropped the lawsuit earlier this year. Coinbase had said it was not in violation of any law.

• Industry: Cryptocurrency
• Past donations to Trump: Coinbase gave $1 million to Trump’s 2025 inaugural committee.

Comcast

One of the world’s biggest telecommunications companies, the conglomerate owns NBCUniversal, which includes film studios such as Universal Pictures and DreamWorks, cable channels such as CNBC and Bravo, as well as Peacock, a streaming platform.

• Industry: Media
• Past donations to Trump: Gave $1 million to Trump’s 2025 inaugural committee, after giving $250,000 to his 2017 inauguration.
• Key issues: The company and its CEO, Brian Roberts, have been frequent targets of Trump. This spring he called the company and Roberts a “disgrace to the integrity of Broadcasting,” and previously declared Roberts the “Lowlife Chairman of ‘Concast.’”

J. Pepe and Emilia Fanjul

Jose “Pepe” Fanjul and his wife Emilia are part of a Cuban-American family that owns a massive sugar conglomerate. The Biden administration had previously blocked a company partially owned by the Fanjul family from shipping sugar to the US over allegations of forced labor practices, which the company denied. The Trump administration lifted that block in March.

• Industry: Sugar
• Past donations to Trump: The couple have given more than $3 million to Trump’s campaigns and associated PACs going back to 2016.

• Key issues: In July, Trump announced he persuaded Coca-Cola to release Coke made with cane sugar instead of high-fructose corn syrup – a move that could benefit the sugar industry. The US government has long supported the domestic sugar industry and boosted prices. Brazil, the largest exporter of sugar to the US, was hit by a 50% tariff in July.

Edward and Shari Glazer

The Glazers are part of the extended family that owns the NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers and a majority share in the English football team Manchester United. Edward Glazer is the co-chairman of the Bucs and oversees real estate acquisitions for the family company, First Allied Corporation, according to Forbes. Shari Glazer is the founder and CEO of Kalos Labs, a consulting agency that advises and strategizes global brands on blockchain technologies, NFTs and cryptocurrency.

• Industry: Sports, real estate, cryptocurrency
• Past donations to Trump: The couple gave at least $675,000 to committees associated with Trump’s 2016 and 2020 presidential campaigns.

Google

Google and its parent company Alphabet have joined Trump administration initiatives to promote AI education, and CEO Sundar Pichai praised the administration’s investments in AI at a White House event last month. Google-owned YouTube agreed to pay $22 million towards Trump’s ballroom project as part of an agreement settling legal claims brought by Trump over his removal from the video platform.

• Industry: Tech
• Past donations to Trump: Google gave $1 million to Trump’s 2025 inaugural committee, after having given $285,000 to his 2021 inauguration.
• Government business: Among other deals, the company was awarded a contract in July worth up to $200 million related to AI capabilities at the Department of Defense.

Harold G. Hamm

Harold Hamm is the billionaire founder of Continental Resources, a natural gas and petroleum production company based in Oklahoma City. Considered a pioneer in hydraulic fracking, Hamm is one of the richest oil men in America and among the richest men in the world, according to Forbes.

• Industry: Energy
• Past donations to Trump: Hamm has donated more than $3 million to Trump-associated PACs between 2016 and 2024, and his company Continental Resources gave more than $3.5 million. Continental also gave $100,000 to Trump’s 2025 inaugural committee.

• Key issues: In his second term, the Trump administration has significantly curbed environmental regulations and opened up more oil and gas production on federal lands – all issues Hamm supports and reportedly pushed for in 2024.

Hard Rock International

Hard Rock International is owned by the Seminole Tribe of Florida and includes a global chain of theme-bar restaurants, casinos, hotels and museums. Hard Rock International in 2017 purchased an Atlantic City, New Jersey, casino that was once owned by Trump. It re-opened the following year as Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Atlantic City.

• Industry: Hospitality, entertainment and gaming
• Trump connection: Hard Rock’s board chairman Jim Allen had previously served as vice president of operations at the Trump Organization, Trump’s business and real estate conglomerate. He also serves as the CEO of Seminole Gaming.

HP Inc.

HP Inc. is a multinational information technology company based in Palo Alto, California, primarily producing printers, printing supplies, and personal computers. CEO Enrique Lores attended a White House roundtable in September, according to his LinkedIn.

• Industry: Tech
• Past donations to Trump: Gave $50,000 to Trump’s 2025 inaugural committee.
• Government business: The company has received contracts from the US military and other departments, records show.

The Laura & Isaac Perlmutter Foundation

Isaac Perlmutter sold Marvel Entertainment to The Walt Disney Company in 2009. Perlmutter and his wife, Laura, have supported healthcare and education initiatives through their foundation, including a more than $50 million donation to NYU’s Langone Medical Center earmarked for cancer research.

• Industry: Media and entertainment
• Past donations to Trump: The couple have given more than $23 million to Trump’s campaigns and supporting Super PACs since 2016.

Benjamin Leon Jr.

Benjamin Leon Jr. is a Cuban-American entrepreneur who founded a chain of healthcare centers in the Miami area. In January, Trump nominated Leon to be US Ambassador to Spain.

• Industry: Healthcare
• Past donations to Trump: Gave more than $3.8 million to Trump’s campaigns and pro-Trump PACs in 2020 and 2024.

Lockheed Martin

The Pentagon’s largest aerospace and defense contractor, Lockheed Martin projects more than $74 billion in sales this year. In a statement about its ballroom donation, a spokesperson for the company said it is “grateful for the opportunity to help bring the President’s vision to reality and make this addition to the People’s House, a powerful symbol of the American ideals we work to defend every day.”

• Industry: Defense
• Past donations to Trump: Gave $1 million to Trump’s 2025 inaugural committee.
• Government business: Earned more than $40 billion from federal contracts over the last year, according to government data.

Kelly Loeffler and Jeff Sprecher

Kelly Loeffler, a Trump cabinet member who leads the Small Business Administration, was previously appointed US senator representing Georgia in 2020 and later lost her seat to Raphael Warnock in a run-off election. Her husband, Jeffrey Sprecher, is the CEO and founder of Intercontinental Exchange, which owns the New York Stock Exchange.

• Industry: Finance, government

• Past donations to Trump: The couple donated at least $13.5 million to Trump’s campaigns, super PACs supporting them, and other associated political action committees since 2020. In June 2025, Sprecher and Loeffler donated $2.5 million each to MAGA Inc., a super PAC that supports Trump.

The Lutnick Family

Howard Lutnick joined the Trump administration as Secretary of Commerce after decades as CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald, a financial services firm. Lutnick handed the reins of the company to his 27-year-old son, and his other son also works at Cantor.

• Industry: Finance, cryptocurrency, government
• Past donations to Trump: Howard Lutnick gave a total of more than $9 million to a pro-Trump Super PAC, Trump’s 2020 and 2024 presidential campaigns and associated fundraising committees.
• Key issues: Since Lutnick’s appointment, he has focused on implementing Trump’s tariff strategy. Lutnick, who has said he is heavily invested in cryptocurrency, has also pushed for pro-crypto policies during his tenure.

Meta

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg once banned President Trump from Facebook and Instagram, and the president once threatened him with criminal investigations. But since the 2024 election, Zuckerberg has taken steps to endear himself to the president and his MAGA supporters. Earlier this year, the social media giant ditched its fact checkers and named Dana White, the Ultimate Fighting Championship president and a Trump ally, to its board. Zuckerberg also dined with Trump at Mar-a-Lago.

• Industry: Tech
• Past donations to Trump: Meta gave $1 million to Trump’s 2025 inaugural committee.
• Government business: The General Services Administration approved Meta’s AI model for use across government in September. The company is also helping to develop military products.

Micron Technology

A US-based maker of advanced memory chips, Micron Technology was lauded by the White House earlier this year for a $200 billion investment in the United States, including the construction of a new facility in Idaho.

• Industry: Technology, manufacturing
• Past donations to Trump: Gave $1 million to Trump’s 2025 inaugural committee.
• Government business: The Biden administration announced billions in funding for Micron last year.

Microsoft

Microsoft has been somewhat quieter than other tech firms about its support of President Trump and his administration. CEO Satya Nadella didn’t sit front row during Trump’s inauguration, unlike Meta’s Zuckerberg, Amazon’s Bezos and Google’s Pichai. Nadella has met with Trump, including attending a tech dinner at the White House last month, shortly before the president called for the company to fire a former Biden official who serves as its chief of global affairs.

• Industry: Tech
• Past donations to Trump: Donated at least $750,000 to Trump’s 2025 inauguration committee.

• Government business: Paid roughly $1.4 billion from federal contracts over the last three years, government data shows.

NextEra Energy

NextEra Energy is a major producer of solar and wind power. The company was hurt by the elimination of clean energy tax credits in the president’s landmark tax and spending cuts bill. CEO John Ketchum has said he agrees with the administration’s focus on bringing jobs back to America but criticized Trump’s efforts to boost the coal industry.

• Industry: Renewable energy

• Past donations to Trump: Gave $1 million to Trump’s 2025 inaugural committee, after giving $250,000 to his 2017 inauguration.

Palantir

Founded in 2003 by Peter Thiel and several associates, the data analytics firm provides services for several government agencies, including Department of Homeland Security, the Internal Revenue Service and the Army. Thiel has been a longtime supporter of the Republican Party, a friend of Vice President JD Vance and an early supporter of President Trump.

• Industry: Tech
• Past donations to Trump: CEO Alex Karp gave $1 million to Trump’s 2025 inauguration and another $1 million to a Trump-associated PAC the month after the 2024 election.

• Key issues: Earlier this year, CNN reported that the Department of Government Efficiency, then run by Thiel ally Elon Musk, was using Palantir to build a database to speed up immigration enforcement.

• Government business: Palantir inked a deal with the Army in July worth up to $10 billion over the next decade.

Reynolds American

One of the country’s largest tobacco manufacturers, Reynolds American’s subsidiaries manufacture cigarette brands including Newport and Camel. The company also sells e-cigarettes.

• Industry: Tobacco
• Past donations to Trump: The company’s political action committee gave $25,000 to a Trump fundraising committee in 2016.
• Key issues: Reynolds American is among a number of tobacco companies pushing for less regulation on the industry, and it has opposed state bans on flavored tobacco.

Ripple

Ripple helped launch XRP, one of five cryptocurrencies Trump has said should be included in a new US crypto strategic reserve. The company’s CEO shared a photo alongside Trump on X earlier this year, saying he had “a great dinner” with the president.

• Industry: Cryptocurrency
• Past donations to Trump: Ripple gave nearly $4.9 million to Trump’s 2025 inaugural committee, the second-largest single donation the committee received.

• Key issues: Ripple has previously battled federal regulators who alleged that the company had violated securities law through the sale of its XRP token to retail investors. A federal judge ultimately sided with the company, finding it had not violated the law.

Stephen A. Schwarzman

Stephen A. Schwarzman is a GOP megadonor and the co-founder of global investment firm Blackstone. He served as the chairman of a business advisory council during Trump’s first term. Schwarzman announced in 2022 that he would not back Trump for a second term, but reversed course in 2024, citing concern with the rise of antisemitism in the US.

• Industry: Finance
• Past donations to Trump: Gave more than $4 million to pro-Trump political groups and Trump’s campaigns since 2017.

• Key issues: Schwarzman has publicly backed Trump’s wide-ranging global tariffs.

Konstantin Sokolov

Konstantin Sokolov is the founder of a private equity firm focused on tech, finance and infrastructure, a major shareholder in Armenia’s largest telecom company and the chairman of an undersea cable initiative to carry energy and telecommunications between Africa and Europe.

• Industry: Finance

T-Mobile

One of the largest wireless carriers in the country, T-Mobile said in a statement that its donation wasn’t only earmarked for the ballroom. “Ahead of America’s 250th Anniversary, T-Mobile donated to the Trust for the National Mall, which partners with the National Park Service to restore and enrich the historic landmarks that define our nation’s capital, such as the White House ballroom,” the company said. “T-Mobile has no role in the use of those funds or decisions related to the construction of the ballroom.”

• Industry: Telecommunications
• Key issues: T-Mobile has reportedly been part of a new wireless service announced by Trump, dubbed Trump Mobile. Democratic lawmakers have criticized the deal as a conflict of interest.

• Government business: T-Mobile has received at least a billion dollars from federal contracts in the last three years, government data shows.

Tether

The cryptocurrency company Tether has a multi-billion-dollar valuation and claims to have 500 million users worldwide. The firm, which is headquartered in El Salvador, hired former Trump administration crypto official Bo Hines to lead its US expansion earlier this year.

• Industry: Cryptocurrency
• Key issues: Howard Lutnick, the Secretary of Commerce and former CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald, had previously promoted Tether — with Cantor Fitzgerald reportedly securing a financial stake in the company. At his confirmation hearing, Lutnick told lawmakers he would divest himself of interests in his companies, including Cantor.

Paolo Tiramani

An industrial designer, Paolo Tiramani co-founded a modular homes company, BOXABL, with his son. A donor-advised fund created by the company donated $10 million in preferred stock to the Trust for the National Mall, which supports Trump’s ballroom initiative.

• Industry: Construction
• Past donations to Trump: Tiramani gave at least $100,000 to Trump’s joint fundraising committee in 2024.

Union Pacific Railroad

One of the nation’s largest railroad companies, Union Pacific operates more than 32,000 miles of track in 23 states.

• Industry: Transportation
• Key issues: Union Pacific is awaiting regulatory approval for a merger with Norfolk Southern that would create the country’s first transcontinental freight railroad. CEO Jim Vena is reportedly attempting to get Trump’s support for the deal and met with the president last month to discuss the benefits of the proposed merger.

Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss

The Winklevoss twins became some of the first cryptocurrency billionaires after using a multi-million-dollar legal settlement from Mark Zuckerberg to invest in Bitcoin more than a decade ago. The brothers also founded the cryptocurrency exchange Gemini and an investment company that focuses on tech and blockchain start-ups.

• Industry: Cryptocurrency
• Past donations to Trump: Each of the twins has given more than $1.6 million since last year, largely in cryptocurrency, to Trump’s campaign and supporting PACs.

• Key issues: The Winklevoss twins have advocated for crypto deregulation and Trump’s plans for greater government embrace of cryptocurrency. In addition to their political donations, they also invested in American Bitcoin, a crypto mining company co-founded by Eric and Donald Trump Jr. This summer, the twins donated $21 million to a crypto super PAC supporting conservative candidates.

*CNN’s Emily Condon, Rob Kuznia, and Logan Schiciano contributed reporting.

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Charles Cascarilla is the co-founder and CEO of Paxos, a regulated blockchain infrastructure platform that enables the movement of all assets in a trustworthy way. Let's take a closer look at this article for a better understanding.

Who is Charles Cascarilla?

Charles Cascarilla is an American entrepreneur and financial technologist who is the co-founder and CEO of Paxos, a regulated blockchain infrastructure platform that enables the movement of all assets in a trustworthy way. He is also the co-founder of itBit, a cryptocurrency exchange that was acquired by Paxos in 2018.

Cascarilla was born in 1979 and grew up in New York City. He studied finance at the University of Notre Dame and worked as a financial analyst for Goldman Sachs before entering the cryptocurrency industry.

In 2012, Cascarilla co-founded itBit with Rich Teo and Andrew Chang. itBit was one of the first regulated cryptocurrency exchanges in the world. In 2018, itBit was acquired by Paxos.

Cascarilla's Successes in Respective Field

Cascarilla is a pioneer in the crypto custody industry. He has been instrumental in the development of Paxos's regulated blockchain infrastructure platform, which is used by a variety of financial institutions to custody digital assets. Paxos's platform is the first of its kind to be approved by the New York State Department of Financial Services.

Cascarilla is also a member of the board of directors of the Digital Currency Group, a venture capital firm that invests in blockchain companies. He is also a member of the Libra Association, a group of companies that are developing a new stablecoin called Libra.

Cascarilla's Net Worth

Cascarilla's net worth is not publicly known. However, he is likely to be a multimillionaire. He has made a significant amount of money from his investments in digital assets, and he is also a successful entrepreneur.

Why is Charles Cascarilla Considered a Pioneer in the Crypto Custody Industry?

Charles Cascarilla is considered a pioneer in the crypto custody industry because of his work to develop Paxos's regulated blockchain infrastructure platform. He is a visionary leader who has helped to shape the future of the crypto industry.

Cascarilla is also a role model for entrepreneurs in the crypto space. He is a successful entrepreneur who has built a successful company in a new and emerging industry.

Conclusion:

Charles Cascarilla is a brilliant entrepreneur and financial technologist who is making significant contributions to the development of the crypto industry. He is a pioneer in the crypto custody industry, and he is a role model for entrepreneurs in the crypto space.

Who is Charles Cascarilla? How Rich Is He? - I hope this article was informative.

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He criticized his Democratic opponent last week for accepting $1K from a donor convicted of tax evasion.

Sam Stern, the Republican candidate for Palm Beach County State Attorney, recently asserted that unlike his Democratic opponent, he had “not accepted contributions from convicted criminals.”

Not true.

Stern accepted $100,000 in September from a company whose principals were found guilty on multiple charges of violating the Trading with the Enemy Act of 1917 (TWEA).

The “enemy” they illegally did business with? Cuba.

Stern threw shade in a statement to the Palm Beach Post last week at Deputy Chief Assistant State Attorney Alexcia Cox, a Democrat running for State Attorney, for taking a $1,000 donation from Broward Sheriff’s Advisory Council Vice Chair Lewis Stahl.

Stahl was sentenced in 2019 to 30 months in prison, fined $75,000 and ordered to pay $6 million in restitution after being convicted of tax evasion in 2019. He’s made many political contributions this cycle, including to U.S. Rep. Carlos Giménez, Attorney General Ashley Moody and Gov. Ron DeSantis-appointed Palm Beach Commissioner Michael Barnett ­­— all Republicans — and to Democratic Palm Beach Sheriff Ric Bradshaw.

Division of Elections show the $1,000 donation Cox received from Stahl last year is tied for the second smallest state-level donation he’s given this cycle, second only to the since-aborted Orange and Osceola State Attorney campaign of Republican Seth Hyman.

But a big contributor to Stern, who has raised and spent more than $1.4 million for the State Attorney’s race, was Philadelphia-based chemicals manufacturer Wynnefield Brothers International. Stern’s political committee, Stern PC, reported receiving $100,000 on Sept. 9 from the company, which registered with the Florida Division of Corporations in 2022.

Wynnefield Brothers principals Donand Stefan Brodieare the former owners and operators of a biotech applications and manufacturing company called Bro-Tech, which does business as Purolite. In 2021, the same year the Brodies sold Purolite to the Ecolab Company, Stefan Brodie announced on Purolite’s website that it was embroiled in a dispute with its accountants because they had not filed tax returns on the company’s behalf between 2010 and 2017.

That ironic tax-related tidbit isn’t the most interesting detail about the Brodie brothers and their company. This is: In 2002, a federal jury convicted Bro-Tech and the Brodies for violating a TWEA embargo on Cuba to sell water purification resins to the island nation.

Bro-Tech was convicted of 45 counts of violating the TWEA. Don Brodie was convicted on 34 counts, including “causing” and “approving” illegal sales of water purification resins to Cuba. And Stefan Brodie was convicted of one count of conspiracy to violate the TWEA.

After the trial Judge granted the defendants a new trial because he determined that the language prosecutors used prejudiced the jury, Don Brodie pleaded guilty to one count of the indictment and was sentenced to a year’s probation and a $10,000 fine. Bro-Tech did similarly and was fined $250,000.

The U.S. government appealed the Judge’s decision to grant Stefan Brodie’s motion for judgment of acquittal. After reviewing the case, the Third Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals reinstated his conviction.

In their written opinion, Judges Theodore McKee, Michael Fisherand Edward Beckerwrote that “a reasonable jury could conclude beyond a reasonable doubt that (Stefan Brodie) had actual knowledge of the law violated, the facts constituting the offense and the illicit purpose of the conspiracy.”

They added that evidence in the trial showed Brodie exhibited “willful blindness” and painted “a convincing picture of (him) as a company president who deliberately stuck his head in the sand” about the prohibited transactions.

Stern did not immediately respond to questions about whether he was aware of the TWEA violations, Stefan Brodie’s conviction, Don Brodie’s guilty plea and if he plans to return their $100,000 contribution. Florida Politics will update this report if he does.

Federal and state records show Stefan Brodie, a Miami Beach resident, gave $1.25 million to the Never Back Down PAC that backed DeSantis’ short-lived presidential campaign, $1 million to DeSantis’ Empower Parents PC political committee, $844,600 to a joint fundraising committee supporting Donald Trump’spresidential campaign, $20,000 to the Republican Party of Florida, $6,600 to Trump directly, and $5,000 to Trump’s Save America PAC.

Don Brodie gave $844,600 to the Trump joint fundraising committee, $10,000 to the Republican Party of Florida, $6,510 to Trump and $5,000 to Save America PAC.

A former federal and Palm Beach County prosecutor, Stern is competing with Cox and no-party lawyer Adam Farkas to succeed Palm Beach State Attorney Dave Aronberg, who is departing after 12 years in office.

The winner Nov. 5 will earn a salary of $219,000 and command an office of 115 prosecutors and 180 support personnel tasked with delivering justice in Florida’s fourth-most populous county.

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