If you’ve been wondering how exactly the whole “companies bribe the president by contributing to his gaudy monstrosity of a ballroom” thing works, join the club.
Now, now. These aren’t bribes; they’re donations!
Just ask Meredith O’Rourke, one of President Donald Trump’s top fundraisers who is apparently in charge of this thing. She doesn’t work for the government. In fact, she literally works for Trump’s campaign—still.
O’Rourke isn’t just good at getting bribes, er, donations. She specializes in the sort of complicated, shady fundraising that this ballroom requires.
The East Wing is demolished to make room for President Donald Trump’s atrocious ballroom.
Remember how during his 2024 presidential campaign, Trump oddly set up a GoFundMe for Hurricane Helene relief? Donors gave money to the GoFundMe, and GoFundMe then turned around and paid out that donor money—but only after taking a small chunk per transaction.
Weird that those deep-pocketed donors didn't just donate to existing charities, right? Well, if they did that, Trump wouldn’t know exactly how much those donors gave in an effort to impress him. And that’s the O’Rourke difference!
Back in October 2024, coverage of this decidedly odd arrangement was all about how O’Rourke helmed the effort and how generous those deep-pocketed right-wingers were—like Bill Ackman, the Heritage Foundation, and Dana White—to the tune of $7.7 million.
That’s a lot of money! People in North Carolina must have been so grateful!
About that …
All of it went to religious charities with ties to Trump, and literally only $25,000 of the $7.7 million could be connected to a specific charity and donation. Mtn2Sea Ministries acknowledged that it used its $25,000 to buy gift cards for rural communities in Clinch County, Georgia. Another group admitted that it got $5.2 million but didn’t explain what it did with that money.
But, hey, what really matters is that Trump learned how much his rich donors are willing to spend to get his attention.
O’Rourke was also behind the “dedicated VIP experience” offered to donors willing to give big money to Trump’s pathetic birthday parade.
President Donald Trump during his military birthday parade on June 14.
But maybe you’re exceedingly rich and corrupt but feel like a military parade is a bit too flashy. If you’re more of a low-key sort, O’Rourke put together a candlelight dinner at Mar-a-Lago earlier this year, where $1 million got you a seat at the dinner but $5 million got you a one-on-one meeting with Trump.
It’s not clear how requiring seven figures to get in the room with Trump isn’t a donation, because if it’s not a donation … it’s a bribe.
Now, how about that ballroom!
Sure, Trump said he was going to pay for the ballroom, but now that’s been dialed back to, “President Trump is generously donating his time and resources to build a beautiful White House ballroom, a project which past presidents only dreamed about.”
Thanks to O’Rourke’s creative fundraising, where she—a private citizen—has partnered with the Trust for the National Mall—a private charity—which supports the National Park Service—a government agency—all of those delicious donor dollars can be laundered through the Trust, resulting in a sweet tax write-off.
Despite the Trust somehow being the conduit for hundreds of millions of dollars in ballroom donations, there’s nary a mention of the ballroom,Trump, or O’Rourke anywhere on its website.
Nonetheless, companies are falling over themselves to make donations to “The Donald J. Trump Ballroom at the White House,” and it’s all thanks to O’Rourke.
Everybody wins—except the American people.
