Timothy Mellon, the ultra-wealthy political donor who funds President Donald Trump’s super PAC, has also been criticized as a potential spoiler for the 2024 presidential race against third-party candidate Robert F. Kennedy. -Donated millions of dollars to Junior.
It’s an unusual arrangement that Democrats have highlighted as they seek to portray RFK Jr. as someone much closer to the former Republican president’s “Make America Great Again” movement than to left-wing causes.
Many Democrats believe that Kennedy, the son of a former Democratic senator and nephew of a former Democratic president, could help elect Trump if some voters vote for him as an alternative to President Joe Biden. states that it is possible. Mr. Trump also suggested that Mr. Kennedy help him.
President Kennedy’s platform includes defunding the war in Ukraine, popular on the far right, and reinvesting that money into public child care, popular on the left. Although he advocates “closing borders,” a key issue on the right, he characterizes the situation as a humanitarian crisis.
Mr. Mellon is the heir to the family fortune of banking and industrial tycoon Andrew Mellon. He has donated to many anti-immigrant causes and was a major donor to a Texas-led fund to build a wall on the southern border with Mexico.
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Since 2023, this donor has given $20 million to a super PAC supporting Kennedy and $15 million to a super PAC supporting Trump. He supported Trump in 2020.
But Mr. Mellon doesn’t seem to have switched allegiances. Instead, over a nine-month period, it alternated $5 million in donations between American Values 2024, which supports Kennedy, and Make America Great Again Inc., which supports Trump.
For example, Mellon donated to American Values on April 10, 2023, followed by a donation to MAGA Inc. on July 10, 2023, according to Federal Election Commission records. He donated again to American Values on his July 20th, and on August 16th he donated to MAGA Inc. The donations continued until January.
Kennedy campaign spokeswoman Stephanie Speer said the campaign does not have contact with American Values or track its donors. “But Mr. Kennedy is pleased that donors from across the political spectrum are supporting his candidacy,” Spear said.
Before running for president, Kennedy was prominent in his advocacy work against vaccinations, including coronavirus vaccines. That position is more in line with Republicans, who are significantly less likely to get vaccinated, according to the Brookings Institution.
His platform includes proposals to invest federal funds in research into the health effects of “pharmaceuticals,” as well as policies to expand home ownership and invest in black businesses. He also mentions connections to prominent Democrats such as his uncle John F. Kennedy Jr. and Hispanic labor activist Cesar Chavez.
The Trump campaign declined to comment. Attempts to reach Mellon through the nonprofit organization were unsuccessful.
“Is it unusual? Yes. Shocking? No, not at all,” said Daniel Weiner, director of elections and government at the Brennan Center for Justice, a democracy law advocacy group based at New York University. Ta.
“Trump and Kennedy’s ideological overlap”
Mr. Kennedy is far behind both Mr. Biden and Mr. Trump. Members of the Kennedy family rejected his campaign and officially endorsed Biden in April. However, according to a FiveThirtyEight poll, Kennedy has the support of about 10% of voters.
Democrats say he could siphon votes away from Mr. Biden, but the polls have mixed implications about the extent to which he could siphon votes from Mr. Trump. Opinion polls in March showed that Mr. Biden beat Mr. Trump in a head-to-head contest, but lost to Mr. Trump when Mr. Kennedy was on the ballot. In April polls, Trump defeated Biden in a three-way race with Kennedy.
Weiner said it’s an old pattern for donors to support third-party candidates. He believes that if Trump’s supporters recognize that Kennedy’s candidacy is stealing more votes from Biden than Trump, supporting Kennedy’s campaign would be better for Trump than for supporting Kennedy’s candidacy. He said he was likely to think there was a “greater benefit” to him than giving him more money.
“Of course, there is some ideological overlap between Mr. Trump and Mr. Kennedy, and that could be the reason, but typically in these cases, big donors just choose their favorite person.” said Weiner.
Matt Corridoni, a spokesman for the Democratic National Committee, called Mr. Kennedy a spoiler for the campaign and said it was “no coincidence” that he and Mr. Trump share donors.
Mellon, who lives in Wyoming, is known for her privacy and is rarely photographed. He is an amateur pilot who has invested in and managed transportation-related companies such as Pan American Airlines. Forbes estimates the Mellon family’s net worth at approximately $14.1 billion.
According to the Washington Post, Mellon self-published an autobiography in 2016 that used racial slurs and criticized black people for accessing social welfare programs, calling them slaves to the government. He compared it to a system. USA TODAY did not independently review this book.
A book with the same title, “panam.captain,” is scheduled to be published in July by Skyhorse Publishing, another American Values donor. The design features Kennedy’s words on the cover: “Tim Mellon is a maverick entrepreneur who embodies the most admirable qualities of what FDR called ‘American industrial genius.'” .
It’s one thing for donors to support one candidate during a primary and then switch to another candidate during the general election, said Brendan Glavine, deputy research director at political funding group OpenSecret. He said it was unusual for donors to support two people at the same time.
He said Kennedy’s national profile and ability to draw votes away from both major presidential races could make him a uniquely attractive spoiler for donors. . “I think the question ultimately will be, ‘Is he going to keep doing this?'” Glavine said. “That’s going to be something to keep an eye on heading into the summer. Does he feel this strategy is working?”
Glavine added that the combination of the “hypercompetitive era” of close elections and the post-Citizens United world has led to an increase in big money trying to influence politics.
He said some argue that existing rules regarding super PACs should be more strictly enforced, while others argue that new rules should be introduced for how super PACs operate.
“There’s really nothing that can stop this situation from progressing,” Glavine said.
