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Timothy Mellon isn’t like the other billionaires. If you haven’t heard of him, it’s because he’s rarely appeared in the press outside of a wedding announcement in 1963. He lives in Wyoming – not Jackson Hole, with the other elites of the west – in small town Saratoga, with a population of 1,760. Despite keeping a low profile, Mellon is what Vanity Fair described as the most “consequential mega-donor” of the 2024 presidential election. Amid the government shutdown, President Donald Trump announced that the administration received a $130 million donation to pay American troops. The donation was mysterious as the president refused to name the donor, who he called a “patriot” and friend. Sources later identified the donor to The New York Times, saying Timothy Mellon, grandson of former Treasury Secretary Andrew W. Mellon, provided the funds anonymously. (RELATED: Democrats Reject Bipartisan Bill To Pay Troops, ‘Essential’ Federal Workers During Shutdown) When 83-year-old Mellon is talked about in the press, he is typically described as reclusive. Media outlets often use a photo of him from 1981 when writing about him. The billionaire rarely does interviews, though his family has spoken about him and his political donations in the past. Those who know Mellon describe him as a “socially awkward” guy who “wears old aviator glasses with tape on the bridge,” Vanity Fair previously reported. 🚨 Meet Timothy Mellon — the billionaire heir who reportedly just gave $130M so our troops wouldn’t miss a paycheck. He lives reclusively in Wyoming and hasn’t even had his photo published in decades. A rare example of a billionaire funding the government, not lobbying it. pic.twitter.com/Ggwicjopq6 — Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) October 25, 2025 Despite his age and wealth, Mellon only recently became a frequent political donor. He donated a few thousand dollars to George W. Bush and John McCain’s presidential runs, The New York Times reported. He donated $1.5 million in 2010 to help defend former Republican Arizona Gov. Janice Brewer’s immigration policies. Unlike other donors, Mellon has little interest meeting with those he donates to and will instead often communicate with them via fax, Vanity Fair reported. Mellon made donations to Dr. Ben Carson, Trump and the Republican National Committee (RNC) during the 2016 election cycle, according to Federal Election Commission (FEC) filings. In 2018, Mellon donated to New York Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and then Hawaii Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard in 2020 as she ran for president. He’s donated to the Congressional Leadership Fund, a Republican super PAC, as well as Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Sec. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Vice President J.D. Vance’s run for Senate. In April, Mellon donated nearly $2 million to MAGA Inc., a super PAC that backs Trump. Over time, outlets have reported that Mellon has shifted to the political right. “He was into Rush Limbaugh,” Mellon’s nephew, John W. Warner IV, told Vanity Fair in 2024. “My mother told me she was furious about that. She told him, ‘You idiot, why are you listening to that idiot?’ Tim’s like, ‘I like it.'” Mellon is reported to be splitting time between a small town in Wyoming and Connecticut. In his 2015 autobiography, Mellon writes that he moved from the small blue state to Wyoming for the lower taxes and fewer people. While keeping a low-profile, Mellon made a splash in Wyoming. “In 2024, he put up a massive billboard on the Colorado winding border alerting people driving into Colorado they were getting ready to enter Venezuela. And that was part of, kind of a tongue in cheek, kind of a warning regarding an apartment complex in Aurora that was apparently taken over by Venezuela gang members,” the Cowboy State Daily, a local outlet, reported in a video package. (RELATED: Blue City Leaders Ignored Warnings As Venezuelan Gangsters Terrorized Residents) Outside of politics, Mellon appears to have a fascination with Amelia Earhart. The billionaire donated stock valued at more than $1 million to the International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery in 2012 to help the team on its search for Earhart’s plane, according to Vanity Fair. Mellon later claimed that he found video footage of the wreckage and he then sued the organization for fraud, claiming they didn’t act on the information he found, the outlet reported. The two-year lawsuit was eventually dismissed. “I’ll contribute to [Trump] or Biden or whoever I want to,” Mellon told the NYT in a brief 2020 phone interview. “I don’t have to say why.”
