Trump Hosts Dinner for Wealthy Donors to White House Ballroom [View all]
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
President Trump Hosts a Ballroom Dinner
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