Timothy Mellon is not like other billionaires. If you haven't heard of him, it's because he rarely appeared in the press, except for his wedding announcement in 1963. He lives in Wyoming, not in Jackson Hole, like other Western elites, in the small town of Saratoga, population 1,760.
Even though Mellon keeps a low profile, he is who Vanity Fair is. described as the most “significant mega-donor” of the 2024 presidential election.
Amid government shutdown, President Donald Trump announced that the administration received a donation of $130 million to pay for American soldiers. The donation was mysterious because the president refused to name the donor, whom he called a “patriot” and friend. Sources later identified sponsor The New York Times, saying that Timothy Mellon, the grandson of former Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon, provided the funds anonymously. (RELATED: Democrats reject bipartisan bill to pay military members and 'essential' federal workers during shutdown)
When Mellon, 83, is talked about in the press, he is usually described as a recluse. The media often uses a photo of him from 1981 when writing about him. The billionaire rarely gives interviews, although 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 duct tape on the bridge,” Vanity Fair previously reported.
🚨 Meet Timothy Mellon, the billionaire heir who reportedly just gave $130 million to keep our troops from missing pay.
He lives secluded in Wyoming and has not published a photograph of himself for decades.
A rare example of a billionaire funding the government rather than lobbying for it. pic.twitter.com/Ggwicjopq6
— Daily Call (@DailyCaller) October 25, 2025
Despite his age and wealth, Mellon has only recently become a frequent political donor. He donated several thousand dollars to the presidential elections of George W. Bush and John McCain, The New York Times. reported. In 2010, he donated $1.5 million to defend former Republican Arizona Gov. Janice Brewer's immigration policies.
Unlike other donors, Mellon has little interest in meeting those he donates to and instead often communicates with them by fax, Vanity Fair reports.
According to the Federal Election Commission (FEC), Mellon made donations to Dr. Ben Carson, Trump and the Republican National Committee (RNC) during the 2016 election cycle. documents. In 2018 Mellon sacrificed New York Democratic Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and then Hawaii Democratic Representative Tulsi Gabbard in 2020 when she ran for president.
He sacrificed to the Congressional Leadership Fund, the Republican Super PAC, and Sec. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Vice President J.D. Vance are running for Senate.
In April Mellon donated almost $2 million at MAGA Inc., a pro-Trump super PAC.
As Robert F. Kennedy Jr. campaigns in Grand Rapids, a billboard launched by the Democratic National Committee highlights how Robert F. Kennedy's Super PAC is allegedly receiving millions from Donald Trump's biggest donor, Timothy Mellon, on February 9, 2024 in Grand Rapids, Michigan. (Photo by Emily Elconin/Getty Images for DNC)
After some time, retail outlets have reported that Mellon had shifted to the political right.
“He was into Rush Limbaugh,” Mellon's nephew John Warner IV told Vanity Fair in 2024. “My mother told me she was furious about it. She told him: “You are an idiot, why are you listening to this idiot?” Tim was like, “I love it.”
Mellon reportedly splits his 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 because of lower taxes and fewer people.
Keeping a low profile, Mellon made a splash in Wyoming.
“In 2024, he put up a huge billboard on Colorado's winding border warning people entering Colorado that they were preparing to enter Venezuela. And it was sort of a taunt, a kind of warning about an apartment complex in Aurora that had apparently been taken over by Venezuelan gang members,” local publication Cowboy State Daily. reported in the video package. (RELATED: Blue City Leaders Ignored Warnings as Venezuelan Gangsters Terrorized Residents)
Politics aside, Mellon seems to have a fascination with Amelia Earhart. In 2012, the billionaire donated more than $1 million worth of stock to the International Historic Aircraft Restoration Group to help the team search for Earhart's plane, according to Vanity Fair. Mellon later said he found video footage of the wreckage and then sued the organization for fraud, saying they failed to act on the information he found, the newspaper reported. The two-year-old lawsuit was ultimately dismissed.
“I will contribute [Trump] or Biden, or whoever I want,” Mellon told The New York Times in a brief telephone interview in 2020. “I don't need to tell you why.”
