michaelaMethodology:
Forbes looked for donations from those who appeared as part of the 614 American billionaires on the 2020 World’s Billionaires list published April 7, 2020, and all of their publicly identifiable spouses. We used that list to search Federal Election Commission filings, which show donations to candidate committees. We counted individual itemized contributions made in increments of at least $100 to the Donald J. Trump For President campaign committee, then reviewed addresses and employment information to confirm identities. We counted contributions that were transferred in from joint fundraising committees Trump Victory and Trump Make America Great Again Committee. We left out donations made to super PACs, counting just the money that went straight to Trump’s campaign. We reached out to every person we found to get their feedback. It’s possible we missed someone. We’ll continue searching through the 2020 election
The richest president in American history has gotten financial support from nearly one in 10 U.S. billionaires.
This article reflects Federal Election Commission filings as of February 29, 2020.
Nearly five years ago Donald Trump descended an escalator inside Trump Tower and announced a long-shot bid to become president of the United States. Standing on a stage in the building’s lobby, in front of eight American flags, he spoke to a gaggle of cameras. “I’m using my own money,” Trump said, indicating that he would self-fund his campaign. “I’m not using the lobbyists. I’m not using donors. I don’t care. I’m really rich.”
How times have changed. Now in the midst of his reelection campaign, President Trump has accepted donations from 80 billionaires and their spouses, according to a review of Federal Election Commission filings. Fifty-one moguls donated in their own names. Seven others are married to people who did. In other words, 9% of America’s billionaires, who together are worth a combined $210 billion—either directly or through their spouse—have pitched in to cover the costs of Trump’s 2020 campaign.
Texas banker Andy Beal, who Forbes estimates is worth $8.1 billion, has given more money to the Trump Victory joint fundraising committee than any other individual billionaire, according to federal filings. Since 2017 Beal, whose bank was once a senior lender to Trump Entertainment Resorts, has donated more than $1 million over many months. That’s nearly twice as much as he gave during the 2016 campaign. (And just $12,200 less than the combined sum TD Ameritrade AMTD 0.0%’s Joe Ricketts and his wife Marlene gave.) Brothers and casino magnates Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta, along with their wives, meanwhile, gave $1.4 million to Trump Victory in one single day last October.
Some donors made one large contribution early in the Trump presidency, like Revlon chairman Ronald Perelman, who gave $125,000 to Trump Victory in September 2017. Others have contributed multiple times over the last three years. Fifty-one percent of Trump’s billionaire donors did not give to the president’s 2016 campaign. U-Haul billionaire E. Joe Shoen made his first-ever contribution to Trump Victory, $35,500, in February 2020. “President Trump has done an outstanding job and certainly merits my vote,” Shoen says. (Forbes reached out to all of Trump’s donors, nearly all of whom declined to comment on the record.)
Robert Mercer is a hedge-fund billionaire who many consider President Trump’s most important donor, and he has many eccentric views.
The New Yorker reports that he has said that African Americans were better off economically before the civil rights movement, and also that the atomic bombs dropped on Japan during World War II may have made some Japanese, who lived outside of the initial blast zones, healthier.
WWE cofounder Linda McMahon, who contributed $152,700 to Trump Victory in 2016, was appointed by Trump to head the Small Business Administration. She stepped down from her position last year to run a pro-Trump super PAC called America First Action. She has since given more than $2.7 million to that PAC, money that’s not included in this tally because super PACs are technically independent of campaigns.
