Throughout the last few weeks, Elon Musk has multiplied initiatives to support Donald Trump until his re-election this Wednesday, November 6 joint appearances, glowing posts on his social network X, and even the organization of a million-dollar lottery offered daily to voters. While he has also contributed more than $100 million to Republicans such as Richard and Elizabeth Uihlein, Miriam Adelson and Kenneth Griffin, he is not Donald Trump’s main contributor.

According to the OpenSecrets organization, which compiled the data, the most generous contributor to the American campaign is unknown to the general public: Timothy Mellon, an 82-year-old banker who contributed $197 million (€183.42 million) to Republican candidates and the 47th President of the United States. A man so mysterious that a close member of Donald Trump’s team told the Washington Post “don’t even know what he looks like”.

The man worth 14 billion

The conservative billionaire is heir to one of America’s wealthiest families, which made its fortune in banking in the late 19th century. His close relations are based in Pittsburgh, while he has lived for almost twenty years on a huge ranch in the Wyomingin western Wyoming. After studying urban planning at Yale University, this amateur pilot invested in and managed transportation-related businesses. According to Forbeshis personal fortune is estimated at 14.1 billion dollars (around 13.13 billion euros). He cultivates this anonymity, as few snapshots of him are available to the general public, unlike the Democratic donors such as Bill Gates or Michael Bloomberg.

Timothy Mellon first came under fire in 2016, when he published his autobiography. A book quickly pulled from bookstore shelves after reading racist remarks in which he asserted that people from the African-American community had become “even more belligerent” after the expansion of social programs in the 1960s and 1970s. In his writings, as Washington PostTimothy Mellon goes even further: the social protection programs put in place by public policies are similar to a “return of slavery according to him.

Donation in favor of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

In the same year, he made donations to Donald Trump’s campaign, as in 2020 and 2024. More surprisingly, he also made a – much more modest – donation to Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in 2018: 2,700 dollars (2,514 euros). While he cultivates his discretion, another donation did not go unnoticed in 2021. The tycoon wrote a check for $53.1 million (49.47 million euros) in shares to State of Texas to finance the construction of walls on the U.S.-Mexico border, representing 98% of the fund’s total donations, reports Texas Tribune.

The conservative billionaire has not only supported Donald Trump during this campaign: he has also been the largest donor supporting independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. giving the pro-Kennedy super PAC “American Values” at least $20 million. The nephew of John Fitzgerald Kennedy had withdrawn from the race for the White House on August 23 to throw his support behind Donald Trump.