Major Telecom, Tech Companies Among Donors to Trump's White House Ballroom
Comcast, Google and T-Mobile are among at least 10 tech and telecom companies that the White House said Thursday have donated to President Donald Trump’s proposed 90,000-square-foot ballroom. Trump on Wednesday estimated the ballroom’s construction will cost $300 million, up from the administration’s initial projection of $200 million. Other donating companies include Amazon, Apple, HP, Facebook parent Meta, Microsoft, Micron and Palantir. The family of Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick is also a donor, the White House said.
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The administration didn’t disclose how much each entity contributed to the ballroom’s construction. Google’s donation includes $22 million that it pledged in September as part of its settlement of Trump’s lawsuit against the company's YouTube platform for suspending his account after the Jan. 6 Capitol siege. The companies didn’t immediately comment.
The donations quickly prompted questions about how the companies involved might stand to benefit. FCC Chairman Brendan Carr sent a warning letter in July to Comcast, NBCUniversal’s parent company, announcing an FCC investigation into whether the network unduly influences programming decisions by its affiliate stations (see 2507300049).
The Trump administration has drawn pushback over the ballroom plans, particularly once workers began demolishing the White House’s East Wing earlier this week.