WASHINGTON – When President Donald Trump launched an inventory of personal donors paying for the development of his 90,000-square-foot, $300 million White Home ballroom — and the demolition of the East Wing — he left a lot of questions unanswered.
How a lot cash did these billionaires and company CEOs give? Who approached them about donating within the first place? Are they anticipating one thing in return? Are they actively lobbying the White Home for different perks for his or her companies or themselves?
Was this even a whole checklist of all of the donors behind the ballroom challenge? (It was not.)
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), the highest Democrat on the Senate Everlasting Subcommittee on Investigations, posed these inquiries to more than 30 of the known donors financing Trump’s ballroom challenge, in a collection of letters that went out in late October. He gave them till early November to reply.
The donors’ response letters, obtained by HuffPost, are remarkably evasive. The 21 responses ― two got here from contractors on the challenge, the remaining from corporations that donated ― virtually universally don’t reply Blumenthal’s questions, as an alternative boasting about their philanthropy and love of America.
Blumenthal posed very particular questions, like, “What quantity did you contribute to the White Home Ballroom challenge?” and “Please checklist all White Home personnel or different representatives or associates of the Trump Administration or Trump household with whom you will have spoken in regards to the donation.”
A number of the responses had been laughable. Apple, Amazon and Meta, who’re among the many Huge Tech corporations financing Trump’s challenge, stated their help for the ballroom is solely one other instance of them donating cash to a very good trigger. None truly stated how a lot cash they gave, or who they labored with in Trump’s orbit to make the donations occur.
Meta unironically advised it’s financing the ballroom challenge as a result of it cares about preserving the White Home grounds — as Trump simply razed your complete East Wing to make means for his challenge. (HuffPost obtained copies of the letters on the situation to in a roundabout way quote them.)
Different donors, like cryptocurrency corporations Coinbase and Ripple and main authorities contractor Booz Allen, equally claimed their donations are motivated by civic satisfaction and a dedication to defending the White Home. Booz Allen particularly hailed the White Home as a logo of American democracy and stated it’s proud to assist help the constructing, a part of which, once more, Trump simply utterly demolished.
The one firm that divulged its donation in its letter was Google, and it solely did so as a result of it’s already been reported that it’s donating $22 million as a part of a settlement the corporate reached with Trump after he was banned from YouTube, owned by Google’s dad or mum firm Alphabet, after he incited the Jan. 6, 2021, revolt.
Most of those donors insisted they’re following all legal guidelines and aren’t giving cash to the ballroom challenge in change for different perks from Trump.
Some corporations, together with Comcast and BlackRock, claimed they blindly donated cash to the Belief for the Nationwide Mall, the nonprofit accomplice to the Nationwide Park Service that accepts non-public cash for repairs and upgrades to nationwide monuments and grounds, and had no say of their funds going particularly towards Trump’s ballroom.
Others, like Nvidia and the Betty Wold Johnson Basis, confirmed they donated to the belief particularly to help Trump’s challenge.
One firm that gained’t be kicking in cash for the White Home ballroom is JPMorgan Chase. Its CEO, Jamie Dimon, stated last month on CNN that the corporate has quite a lot of authorities contracts inside and out of doors of the U.S., and it must be cautious about how its preparations are perceived and the way a future Justice Division could cope with them.
“We’re fairly aware of dangers we bear by doing something that appears like, you recognize, shopping for favors or something like that,” Dimon stated.
Trump’s ballroom challenge is unpopular with the general public. An ABC News/Washington Post survey from late October discovered simply 28% of Individuals backed the ballroom’s building, with 56% opposed.
