Mellon, who lives primarily in Wyoming, retains a low profile regardless of his prolific political spending. He’s additionally a major supporter of Well being Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr, who additionally ran for president final 12 months. Mellon donated tens of millions to Kennedy’s presidential marketing campaign and has additionally given cash to his anti-vaccine group, Youngsters’s Well being Defence.
The Pentagon stated it accepted the donation below the “normal reward acceptance authority”.
“The donation was made on the situation that it’s used to offset the price of service members’ salaries and advantages,” Pentagon chief spokesman Sean Parnell stated in a press release.
The donation seems to be a possible violation of the Antideficiency Act, which prohibits federal businesses from spending cash in extra of congressional appropriations or from accepting voluntary providers.
Greater than three weeks into the federal government shutdown, the Trump administration has taken a sequence of unorthodox steps to redirect funds to pay sure authorities employees.
Trump has vowed to pay army members, immigration brokers and regulation enforcement officers despite the fact that politicians haven’t authorized the cash for his or her wages. Employees in these classes are thought of important and should proceed working through the shutdown, though they’re entitled to again pay below a 2019 regulation.
As a part of that promise, Trump signed an govt order this month directing the Pentagon to make use of unspent analysis and growth funds to cowl troops’ salaries. However congressional leaders have stated transferring funds round is simply a short lived repair.
1000’s of federal employees missed their first pay cheques this previous week. About 670,000 employees have been furloughed, based on a tally by the Bipartisan Coverage Centre, a Washington-based suppose tank. A further 730,000 or so are working with out pay.
US Well being Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr and President Donald Trump within the White Home earlier this month.Credit score: Bloomberg
In an autobiography that he self-published in 2015, Mellon describes himself as a former liberal who moved to Wyoming from Connecticut for decrease taxes and to have fewer neighbours.
His guide additionally accommodates a number of incendiary passages about race. He wrote that black individuals have been “much more belligerent” after social applications have been expanded within the Nineteen Sixties and Seventies, and that social security internet applications amounted to “slavery redux”.
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Mellon wrote one other guide within the northern summer season of 2024 about his work turning round Pan Am Techniques, a group of corporations that features rail, aviation and advertising corporations. The guide was put out by Skyhorse Publishing, which additionally revealed a latest memoir by first girl Melania Trump. Skyhorse Publishing president Tony Lyons cofounded an excellent PAC, American Values 2024, that backed Kennedy’s presidential bid.
In 2020, throughout a uncommon and transient interview with The New York Occasions, Mellon declined to reply questions on his political giving.
“I’ll contribute to him or Biden or whoever I need to,” he stated, referring to Trump and his rival, Joe Biden. “I don’t should say why.”
