The anonymous billionaire who donated $130 million to help pay U.S. military salaries during the government shutdown has been identified as Timothy Mellon, according to The New York Times.
Mellon, 83, is a railroad magnate and heir to the Mellon banking fortune. His grandfather, Andrew Mellon, served as Treasury Secretary from 1921 to 1932 and built a fortune in banking and industry before the Great Depression. The Mellon family is estimated to be worth $14 billion by Forbes.
President Donald Trump announced the donation Thursday but declined to identify the donor, describing him only as a “great patriot” and a “friend of mine.”
“He called us the other day and said, ‘I’d like to contribute any shortfall you have because of the Democrat shutdown… because I love the military and I love the country,'” Trump said.
When asked about the donor’s identity Friday, Trump said the individual was “a great American citizen” and a “substantial man” but maintained his anonymity.
“He doesn’t want publicity,” Trump said. “He prefer that his name not be mentioned which is pretty unusual in the world I come from, and in the world of politics, you want your name mentioned.”
Chief Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell confirmed the Pentagon accepted the donation October 23 under its general gift acceptance authority.
“The donation was made on the condition that it be used to offset the cost of Service members’ salaries and benefits,” Parnell said in a statement. “We are grateful for this donor’s assistance after Democrats opted to withhold pay from troops.”
The donation comes as about 1.3 million active-duty service members face the possibility of missing paychecks during the government shutdown. The Pentagon spends around $7.5 billion every two weeks in paychecks to soldiers and reservists, according to reports.
While generous, the $130 million donation equals only about $100 per service member. The Trump administration’s 2025 budget requested about $600 billion in total military compensation, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
Mellon is a longtime Trump supporter who contributed $75 million to Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign. He donated $50 million to the Make America Great Again super PAC the day after a New York jury found Trump guilty of 34 counts of falsifying business records. The $50 million contribution was one of the largest single donations ever publicly disclosed.
Mellon has previously donated to various conservative causes, including $1.5 million in 2010 to defend an illegal immigration bill in Arizona and more than $50 million for Republican Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s border wall construction project in 2021.
The government shutdown began when Congress failed to pass appropriations legislation for the 2026 fiscal year. Senate Democrats blocked a Republican short-term funding bill, demanding additional spending on health care and other provisions not included in the proposal.
About 670,000 federal workers have been furloughed, according to the Bipartisan Policy Center. About 730,000 are working without pay. Thousands of federal workers experienced missing their first paycheck this week as the shutdown stretches into its third week.
Earlier this month, Trump directed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to “use all available funds to get our Troops PAID.” A Defense Department official said the department identified approximately $8 billion of unobligated research and development testing, and evaluation funds from the prior fiscal year that could be used to issue mid-month paychecks to service members.
Mellon resides in Wyoming and has maintained a fairly private profile despite his political donations.