May was eventful for former President Donald Trump. On May 30, a New York jury convicted him on all 34 counts related to falsifying business records during the 2016 presidential election. A day after that, a well-known ultra-wealthy Republican donor from Wyoming made one of the largest single-donor contributions this election cycle. Timothy Mellon, heir to the Mellon banking fortune, is the leading donor in the 2024 election cycle, having donated more than $100 million so far.
With a $50 million donation on May 31, his total contribution to Trump’s main super PAC exceeded $75 million. The remaining $25 million went to American Values 2024, a super PAC backing Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s independent bid for the Oval Office.
Find out who is funding each campaign and the amounts they donated. Don’t see the list? Click here for our top donor list.
Prep for the polls: See who is running for president and compare where they stand on key issues in our Voter Guide
A few weeks before Mellon’s donation, Republican mega-donors Elizabeth and Richard Uihlein made their first significant contribution of $10 million to Make America Great Again Inc., Trump’s main super PAC. The Uihleins are also major backers of Club for Growth Action, a super PAC that supports candidates advocating for lower taxes and reduced government spending. Over the past few decades, only a handful of donors have spent more money than the Uihleins in conservative politics.
Prep for the polls: See who is running for president and compare where they stand on key issues in our Voter Guide
Kelcy Warren, a Texas billionaire and co-founder of the pipeline company Energy Transfer, made a $5 million donation on May 29, a day before the conviction. Warren is a big donor to America First Action Inc., a group that promotes Trump’s policies led by Linda McMahon, who is the second largest Trump donor after Mellon in this election cycle.
On the Democratic side, billionaire Michael Bloomberg donated $19 million to Future Forward PAC, which backs President Joe Biden. In May, billionaires James Simons and Fred Eychaner donated another $6.6 million and $2 million, respectively. The group, which ended May with $92 million in cash on hand, plans to run a $250 million ad campaign from the fall through election day in the battleground states.
Kennedy Jr.’s main super PAC raised just $281,503 in May, with hedge fund manager Robert Bishop contributing $175,000 of the total.
While these outside groups can’t coordinate with the campaign, they can raise unlimited amounts of money and spend as much as they like.
On the back of his conviction, the Trump campaign outraised Biden in May, narrowing the funding gap between the two campaigns. As USA TODAY reported last month, Trump and the Republican National Committee, which is led by the Trump family after a management shakeup, raised $141 million in May, outraising Biden’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee by $56 million, according to the numbers from the two campaigns. These numbers can be independently confirmed once quarterly reports are filed with the FEC around mid-July.
Trump’s campaign entered June with $116.6 million in cash on hand, while Biden’s campaign entered with $91.6 million in cash on hand.
