A Year Later, Donors to Trump’s Transition Come to Light

U.S.

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By The New York Times

Published 22 minutes ago on

November 26, 2025

President Donald Trump, left, shares a laugh with Hoeard Lutnick during his ceremonial swearing-in as Commerce Secretary at the White House on Feb. 21, 2025. Lutnick was one of the dozens of donors to Trump’s transition, and his family donated to the $300 million White House construction project. (Tierney L. Cross/The New York Times)

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A full year after making a public pledge to do so, President Donald Trump has disclosed a list of donors who helped pay for his transition to power.

The list of 46 individuals, released by the transition team, includes billionaires like Jeff Yass and Paul Singer as well as several supporters who went on to be appointees in the current administration.

In total, the transition said it raised slightly more than $14 million, but did not specify how much each donor contributed. It said $13.7 million was spent on the transition effort.

“President Trump greatly appreciates his supporters and donors; however, unlike politicians of the past, he is not bought by anyone and does what’s in the best interest of the country,” Danielle Alvarez, a spokesperson for the Trump transition, said in a statement. “Any suggestion otherwise is simply false.”

Among those on the list are Linda McMahon and Howard Lutnick, who served as co-chairs of the transition and were subsequently appointed as the secretaries of education and commerce, respectively. Steve Witkoff, Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East, donated, as did Stanley Woodward Jr., the third-ranking official in the Justice Department. Dominick Gerace II, who was sworn in as the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Ohio in August, is also listed as a donor.

At least three of the entries on the list matched names of Washington lobbyists, but their identities could not be confirmed. Lobbyists with those names did not respond to requests for comment Tuesday evening. Because the list did not include addresses, hometowns or professions, it was not possible to confirm the identity of many other individuals described as donors.

Until now, the Trump administration had not released any information about the finances of its transition, the work-intensive project of preparing to take control of the government in the period after a presidential election.

Late last year, Trump’s transition team refused to sign an agreement with the General Services Administration that would have required it to publish the names of its contributors and the amount of money they donated within 30 days of the inauguration in exchange for more than $7 million in federal funding and administrative support.

Prior administrations, including Trump’s in 2016, signed that agreement, which in addition to the disclosure obligation caps individual donations at $5,000 and bars foreign contributions. By declining to sign, the second Trump transition sidestepped those strictures and presumably could accept far larger contributions.

Almost exactly one year ago, Susie Wiles, now serving as Trump’s chief of staff, described the decision not to sign the GSA agreement as a way to “save taxpayers’ hard-earned money.” At the time, she also pledged to disclose the names of donors and to ensure that no noncitizens contributed to the transition.

Trump had reported raising $6.5 million for his first presidential transition, all from private donations under the $5,000 cap. In 2021, President Joe Biden disclosed $22.1 million in contributions to his transition.

Watchdog groups had raised alarm about the lack of transparency surrounding the most recent Trump transition, noting that by not revealing who was contributing — and how much they had chipped in — it was nearly impossible for the public to know about potential conflicts of interest or pay-for-play arrangements.

“They claimed they were saving taxpayers money, but what they were doing was hiding the ball about who is buying the government,” said Max Stier, the president of the nonpartisan nonprofit Partnership for Public Service, which promotes best practices in the federal government and runs the Center for Presidential Transition.

Last week, that group released a report on the Trump transition that criticized it for “significant departures from established norms,” noting that it started late and relied heavily on a handful of outside think tanks, chiefly the Heritage Foundation and the America First Policy Institute, to develop policy and hire personnel for the new administration.

The report called on Congress to create laws requiring transitions to disclose the names of donors who give over a threshold amount as well as to publicly account for spending by the transition, which it said would “create public scrutiny that encourages the transition team to police itself tightly against conflicts of interest.”

The transition organization, formally known as Trump Vance 2025 Transition Inc., was incorporated in Florida and registered with the IRS as a type of non-charitable nonprofit. As such, it does not have to pay taxes, but it cannot give its donors a tax break for their gifts.

By law, the nonprofit must file an annual report with the IRS showing what it raised and how it spent its money, although it is not required to disclose the names of donors. That report must be provided to the public upon request. The New York Times requested that report Tuesday from the nonprofit’s agent, a lawyer in West Palm Beach, Florida. He said it would be released in the coming days.

Three of the donors also gave to Trump’s inaugural fund. McMahon and Singer each donated $1 million, while Marlene Ricketts, the wife of the founder of TD Ameritrade, contributed $1.1 million. In total, the incoming president raised a record $250.4 million for his inauguration, more than double the amount raised for his first one.

Lutnick’s family was also a donor to the $300 million White House construction project, according to a list disclosed by the administration last month.