The largest donor of the 2024 presidential campaign, by far, is #Timothy #Mellon,
the reclusive billionaire and heir to the Mellon banking fortune.
Mellon was already the largest donor after donating $25 million each to the Super PACs supporting the presidential campaigns of Donald Trump (MAGA Inc.) and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (American Values 2024).
Then, Mellon donated another $50 million to MAGA Inc. on May 31, the day after Trump was convicted of committing 34 felonies. 
Mellon's $75 million contribution to MAGA Inc. represents almost half of the group's total fundraising.

Mellon has also donated millions more to other conservative causes this cycle. 

Despite his political spending, little is known about Mellon.

The most detailed account of Mellon's views comes from his self-published 2015 autobiography. "This book was not ghost-written: every single word is my own,"
Mellon said in a press release announcing its publication.

People who wanted to purchase the book were required to make a $9 donation to Hillsdale College, a private Christian institution that aggressively promotes right-wing ideology or another conservative group. 

Mellon also has a history of
supporting candidates that he thinks will damage the Democratic Party.

In 2018, for example, Mellon donated $2,700 to Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY).
In an interview with Bloomberg, Mellon explained the donation was because
“he thought that, if elected, her outspokenness would cause headaches for Democrats.”

Ocasio-Cortez’s campaign tried to refund the donation, but Mellon said he would “neither cash nor deposit the check but rather, frame it.”

The Wall Street Journal reported that Mellon also donated $5,800 to Senator Joe #Manchin (I-WV) in 2021 and 2022 and $2,900 to Senator Kyrsten #Sinema (I-AZ) in 2022,
two politicians who have a history of obstructing Democratic policy priorities.

Mellon's other massive donation

In 2021, Mellon donated $53 million to Texas Governor Greg #Abbott’s (R) fundraising campaign to build a border wall.

According to the Texas Tribune, Mellon’s donation “contributed nearly 98% of the fund’s total donations.”

In June 2021, Abbott announced a plan to build a state-funded wall on the Mexico border. Abbott “expected people to both donate their own money and volunteer their land for the barrier.”

The plan is part of Abbott’s Operation Lone Star, which seeks to subvert federal immigration policy. In addition to the barriers, some of which are topped with razor wire, Texas has authorized “Texas National Guard soldiers and state troopers to arrest” undocumented migrants.

This has created safety concerns and “essentially criminalizes seeking asylum,” which migrants have the right to pursue under federal law.

The Wall Street Journal reported that “people familiar with [Mellon’s] thinking” said that “[o]ne of the main issues driving Mellon’s giving is immigration.”

In 2010, Mellon gave $1.5 million “to help the state of Arizona defend a controversial law that required police to determine the immigration status of people suspected of living in the U.S. illegally, which critics said could lead to racial profiling.”

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