Comcast, T-Mobile Among White House’s List of Ballroom Donors

WASHINGTON, Oct. 27, 2025 – Comcast and T-Mobile are among the corporations and wealthy donors the Trump administration says are supporting a new $300 million ballroom that will replace the East Wing of the White House.

The White House released a list of donors last week, and didn’t specify the size of donations. An aide reportedly told NBC News that donors have the option of remaining anonymous.The list also included Apple, Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Meta, and others.

The New York Post reported that Comcast’s donation was in the range of $5 million and $10 million. The company did not respond to a request for comment.

Comcast would need Justice Department approval to acquire some or all of Warner Bros. Discovery, which confirmed last week it was up for sale. The company and its CEO Brian Roberts have drawn the ire of President Donald Trump over its ownership of liberal news network MSNBC.

Spinning off many of those properties into another company, a process still underway, apparently didn’t do much to change the president’s attitude toward the company. Trump posted in April that the spinoff “won’t work” to distance Comcast from MSNBC and called Roberts a “disgrace to the integrity of broadcasting.”

The ballroom donation is probably not going to move the needle much either, New Street Research policy advisor Blair Levin wrote in an investor note Monday.

“While we have no idea of the level of the contribution, we are highly skeptical that whatever the amount was, it will be sufficient to overcome Trump’s opposition to Comcast owning more media assets,” he wrote.

As part of Skydance’s acquisition of Paramount, Skydance committed to install an ombudsman to oversee bias complaints at CBS News. The company appointed Kenneth Weinstein, former head of the conservative Hudson Institute. 

The New York Post also reported Thursday that the administration favored Paramount Skydance to scoop up Warner Bros. Discovery.

T-Mobile said in a statement to Broadband Breakfast that “ahead of America’s 250th anniversary” it had made a donation to the Trust for the National Mall, the nonprofit managing donations for the ballroom. The company didn’t say how much it donated.

“T-Mobile has no role in the use of those funds or decisions related to the construction of the ballroom,” the company said. 

The trust works with the National Parks Service on restorations to the National Mall and the White House.

T-Mobile has already closed its purchase of UScellular, plus acquisitions of fiber providers Metronet and Lumos through joint ventures, after securing Trump administration approval.

Executives said on the company’s earnings call that T-Mobile would still be interested in buying up more fiber assets at the right price. The major wireless carriers are each trying to expand their fiber footprint, and increasingly their fixed wireless offerings, as quickly as possible in a bid to offer bundled home and mobile broadband.

Democrats concerned

On Thursday, five Democratic senators wrote to NPS and the Trust for the National Mall saying they were concerned ballroom donations were effectively vehicles for buying favorable treatment from the White House.

“We are concerned about the risk of quid-pro-quo arrangements in which large corporations get backroom favors from the White House and President Trump gets his multi-million-dollar ballroom,” they wrote.

The lawmakers, led by Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., asked for answers to a slate of questions, including a list of donors and the amounts they contributed.

The editorial board of the Washington Post, owned by Amazon founder and executive chairman Jeff Bezos, largely defended the project, arguing that although “the fundraising for the ballroom creates problematic conflicts of interest,” the White House needed an event space upgrade.

“It is absurd that tents need to be erected on the South Lawn for state dinners, and VIPs are forced to use porta-potties,” the paper wrote.