Trump Hosts Dinner for Wealthy Donors to White House Ballroom

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Source: New York Times

Trump Hosts Dinner for Wealthy Donors to White House Ballroom

The president lauded dozens of executives and businesspeople for the "tremendous amounts of money" they have pledged for his project, which has prompted ethical concerns.


President Trump and guests in the East Room on Wednesday night. The ballroom he wants to build as an addition to the White House would be 90,000 square feet and cost $200 million. Doug Mills/The New York Times

By Zolan Kanno-Youngs
Reporting from Washington
Oct. 15, 2025

President Trump hosted dozens of wealthy spenders for a dinner on Wednesday in exchange for what he called the "tremendous amounts of money" they agreed to donate to construct a $200 million ballroom addition to the White House, a project that has sparked concerns from ethics watchdogs. ... "We have a lot of legends in the room tonight, and that's why we're here to celebrate you, because you gave," Mr. Trump said in the East Room. "They wanted to have a ballroom, and it never happened because they didn't have a real estate person."

More than three dozen corporate executives and wealthy businesspeople attended the dinner, where Mr. Trump expressed gratitude for their opening their checkbooks for his long-desired state ballroom. Representatives from companies including Amazon, Apple, Google, Microsoft and Lockheed Martin were in attendance.

So were wealthy supporters of Mr. Trump, like Harold G. Hamm, the billionaire oil and gas executive who bankrolled Mr. Trump's 2024 campaign and stands to benefit from his energy policies. Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, who run the crypto exchange Gemini and have contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars to a pro-Trump PAC called MAGA Inc., were also there.

{snip}

This was the guest list, as provided by a White House official:

Altria Group

Amazon.com

Apple

Booz Allen Hamilton

Caterpillar

Coinbase Global

Comcast

Hard Rock International

Google

HP

Lockheed Martin

Meta Platforms

Micron Technology

Microsoft

NextEra Energy

Palantir Technologies

Ripple

Reynolds American

T-Mobile US

Tether

Union Pacific Railroad

J. Pepe and Emilia Fanjul

Adelson Family Foundation

Stefan E. Brodie

Betty Wold Johnson Foundation

Charles and Marissa Cascarilla

Edward and Shari Glazer

Harold G. Hamm

Benjamin Leon Jr.

The Lutnick Family

The Laura & Isaac Perlmutter Foundation

Stephen A. Schwarzman

Konstantin Sokolov

Kelly Loeffler and Jeff Sprecher

Paolo Tiramani

Cameron Winklevoss

Tyler Winklevoss

Zolan Kanno-Youngs is a White House correspondent for The Times, covering President Trump and his administration.
https://www.nytimes.com/by/zolan-kanno-youngs

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/15/us/politics/trump-white-house-dinner-ballroom-donors.html

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President Trump Hosts a Ballroom Dinner

The White House
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Oct 15 2025
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[Lemon Lyman]

1. Vomit

Asshole Convention.

[bluestarone]

19. Forgot to add the s on Asshole.

Just saying.

[AZJonnie]

2. Watch it end up being some cheeseball rinky-dink $5M Ballroom, and Trump pockets all the rest of the cash

and not one person in that room will give a shit, as long as IQ47 favors their business ventures.

And not one fucking maga wingnut asshole will call him out for 'profiting from his office' just cause, you know, Hunter Biden made a 100K higher salary (briefly) then the MAGAt's thought was appropriate for his experience level.

Of course the REAL reason they won't care is because IQ47 is the leader of their cult, and is therefore infallible and above reproach for ANYTHING, EVER.

[Irish_Dem]

5. Yes it is quite possible this is just another grift and money laundering operation.

Most of the money ends up in Trump's pocket.

[BaronChocula]

3. And he held it in the East Room which is...

the White House ballroom.

[BidenRocks]

4. If it gets built,

I would donate to destroy it!

All this gold is so fucking tacky!

[PortTack]

15. instead of destroying it, we should turn it into America's Holocaust Museum. The red hat being the new swastika

[wolfie001]

6. These greedy, nasty mf'ers certainly DO NOT WANT open and fair elections!

[samnsara]

7. dont get too comphy trump..its all gonna be torn down

..as soon as your ass is gone...

[PortTack]

16. See post #15

[BaronChocula]

21. I think these goons may demolish it

When their F-150s are all repossessed.

[samnsara]

8. we need to contact each of them and tell them their money will b wasted..

...as We The People will demolish it Day 1

[Vinca]

9. OMG - he had the damn chairs painted gold.

[kacekwl]

10. So trump pockets the majority of the money "donated"

and we have to pay to feed these pigs at the trough. Oh for one errant meteor to crash through the roof.

[bronxiteforever]

11. The swells who run the show. Drinking the pain

of countless disappeared families.
If our Party can’t muster anger at this oligarchy then our country is lost forever.

[Bengus81]

12. Shit...the East room is too big for that get together but let's build another huge room

that will look even more empty. BTW, who's the jack off wearing a ball cap at that "event"?

[travelingthrulife]

13. Every single person in that room is a bad human being intent on stealing everything this country has.

[BigmanPigman]

14. Another boycott would hurt some of these companies.

I'm all for that! It worked with Jimmy Kimmel's show.

[PortTack]

17. I watched part of it..the end mainly, and they all clapped...sick mofos!

[Hieronymus Phact]

18. Remember when the big scandal was Al Gore using the wrong phone for fundraising calls?

Last edited Fri Oct 17, 2025, 04:27 PM - Edit history (1)

[bluestarone]

20. Everyday, it looks more and more like America has

Sold to the highest bidders!!