Although the U.S. government remains in limbo under shutdown, the White House grounds have been buzzing with activity this week. Construction crews have begun demolishing the East Wing of the White House, and in its place will be built a 90,000-square-foot ballroom that is estimated to be able to accommodate up to 1,000 people.
Taxpayers aren’t funding President Donald Trump’s $250 million project. Rather, he is using private donations to build a lavish addition to the White House.
The White House on Thursday announced a list of funders for the project, which includes some of America’s most influential tech companies such as Amazon, Apple, Google, Meta and Microsoft, as well as defense companies such as Palantir and Lockheed Martin and telecommunications providers such as Comcast and T-Mobile. The crypto industry is also represented among the donors in the White House Ballroom, with funding coming from Coinbase, Ripple, Tether America, and the Winklevoss twins.
It is not clear how much each donor contributed to the project. But at least $20 million from Google is part of a recent legal settlement over YouTube’s suspension of President Trump’s account following the January 6, 2021, riot. TechCrunch asked Google if the settlement amount represents the full amount of the company’s donations, but has not yet received a response.
Trump’s relationship with Silicon Valley has changed markedly. Many in the tech industry initially resisted Trump when he first took office in 2016, but warmed to him during his second term. For example, Mehta did not donate to President Trump’s first inauguration, but he did donate $1 million to the president’s second inauguration. Amazon initially donated $58,000, but this time it has donated an even larger amount of $1 million.
These donations reflect growing collaboration between President Trump and the technology industry.
Many of these big tech companies are facing antitrust lawsuits, so the industry could be more willing to cooperate with the current Trump administration. The Trump administration has been far less aggressive in antitrust enforcement than when former President Joe Biden’s FTC was under former FTC Chair Lina Khan.
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Trump has also taken a more aggressive approach to AI development than his predecessors, which has been an economic boon for the companies developing the technology. In the AI Action Plan released in July, President Trump and his administration outlined goals to cut red tape and leverage government funding to help build data centers.
