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Timothy Mellon is a mysterious billionaire who is the heir to a Gilded Age banking fortune.
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He is RFK Jr.’s biggest backer. and has donated $25 million to a super PAC supporting him.
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But he also spent $75 million on Trump, including $50 million the day after his conviction.
Timothy Mellon has now emerged as the top donor to both former President Donald Trump and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., spending tens of millions of dollars on both men.
The relatively secretive billionaire was a megadonor to the Republican Party for years and emerged as a major backer of Kennedy’s last year. He contributed most of the funding for American Values 2024, the main super PAC supporting Kennedy’s candidacy.
In July 2023 – before Kennedy abandoned his Democratic primary campaign for an independent bid – Mellon described Kennedy as the “only candidate who can unite the country and root out corruption.” Since then, he has donated $25 million to the super PAC, including $10 million in April.
At the same time, Mellon has made a handsome contribution to the pro-Trump super PAC ‘Make America Great Again Inc.’, pouring $25 million into the PAC from July 2023 to April 2024.
Then came the big one: The day after Trump was convicted of 34 crimes by a Manhattan jury, Mellon gave $50 million to MAGA Inc., according to documents filed Thursday with the Federal Election Commission.
Mellon did not respond to Business Insider’s request for comment.
Who is Timothy Mellon?
The 81-year-old Mellon is the grandson of Andreas Mellona Gilded Age banking titan who served as Secretary of the Treasury from 1921 to 1932, for three Republican presidents.
He is heir to the family fortune. Forbes estimates the family’s fortune at more than $14 billion.
When it comes to Mellon’s own business ventures, he is perhaps best known for buying and turning around Pan Am Systems, and he will release a book about it next month titled “panam.captain.”
Mellon is a former liberal who has moved to the right over the years, telling Bloomberg in 2020 that it was mainly about his business dealings.
“I think a lot of it came from doing business with certain small businesses and seeing the interaction between commerce and government – it just seemed like government was making things way too difficult and going against the best interests of working people,” Mellon said at the time . “The more restrictions you have, the less likely you are to hire people.”
Him too once wrote in a self-published autobiography that welfare programs are a “redux of slavery”, while black people are said to have become “even more combative and unwilling to improve their own situation” following the expansion of welfare systems.
He told Bloomberg that he “said everything I wanted to say” and has “no regrets” about the book.
He is a major contributor to the goals of the Republican Party – and Democrats have been keen to point that out
The last time Mellon spent that much money in one fell swoop, it was for a literal border wall.
In 2021, Mellon contributed $53 million to an effort led by Republican Governor Greg Abbott of Texas to build a wall along the US-Mexico border, which would effectively allow him to single-handedly finance that entire endeavor.
But he has given millions of dollars to GOP causes and campaigns in recent years, including $20 million to a pro-Trump super PAC in 2020, $45 million to a super PAC tied to GOP House leadership, and $30 million dollars to a super PAC associated with the Senate. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.
As Democrats try to minimize Kennedy’s appeal to the party base to prevent him from hurting President Joe Biden’s chances, Mellon’s donation history has been a major calling card.
After Mellon’s most recent contribution to Kennedy was made public in May, Democratic National Committee spokesman Matt Corridoni said the transaction “tells us everything we need to know.”
“MAGA Republicans are determined to stop RFK Jr. to support as a spoiler for Trump in this race,” Corridoni said in a statement at the time. “This is even more proof that a vote for RFK Jr. is a vote for Trump.”
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