Julio Herrera Velutini
President Donald Trump's secret White House ballroom donor list has leaked, revealing that some of the $333 million comes from companies with lucrative government business interests and a $2.5 million pledge by the daughter of a banker who Trump later pardoned.
Internal fundraising records obtained by The Washington Post identify 67 donations over $10,000 and show at least $77 million came from donors who requested to stay anonymous. The report says the money was funneled through a nonprofit into a White House account controlled by the president.
One of the more controversial names on the list is Isabela Herrera, who is the daughter of international banker Julio Herrera Velutini. Her father was indicted in 2022 for allegedly helping finance a Puerto Rican governor's campaign in exchange for getting rid of a regulator investigating his bank.
The Post's expose revealed that Isabela Herrera gave $3.5 million to a Trump-aligned political committee following Trump's 2024 presidential campaign victory. In September 2025, she also pledged $2.5 million to the ballroom fund and paid the first installment of $835,000 the following month.
Shortly after the donation, in August 2025, prosecutors reduced her father's bribery case charges to a misdemeanor through a plea deal. Trump then pardoned him in January 2026, four months after his daughter's ballroom donor pledge.
The reporting does not establish a specific link to the ballroom donation influencing the pardon.
Apple and Nvidia each committed $25 million, as did billionaire Charles Ergen and the Adelson family. Nvidia sought anonymity for its contribution, even though it publicly supported the project.
Ergen put up his $25 million once federal regulators had closed an inquiry into his firm, the telecommunications company EchoStar. In the case of Rocket Companies, a subsidiary put forward a $10 million pledge some weeks after one of its big acquisitions was given the nod by a federal agency, per the documents. Rocket has said there is no link between the gift and the government’s sanction.
The Post found that about half of the funds raised come from companies or executives tied to federal contracts during Trump's second term.
White House spokesman Davis Ingle defended the donors and said the administration would hunt down the leakers. He described allegations of conflicts of interest as baseless and added that the contributors are “a wide array of great American companies and generous individuals.”
Despite Trump’s claim that he will also help fund the project, his name did not appear on the list.
Reprinted with permission from Alternet
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