Ballroom Lobby-Blitz Creates New Favor Seeking Opportunities for Lobbyists
Firms of Three Top Lobbyists Raising Money for Trump White House Ballroom Project Represent Two-Thirds of the Corporate Donors
Introduction
The leaders of three of Washington’s most influential lobbying firms – Brian Ballard, Jeff Miller, and Reince Priebus – attended a White House fundraising dinner for the ballroom project last month and have helped raise the estimated $300 million to fund the project, according to news reports. Now, a Public Citizen report examining newly filed lobbying records finds that these three lobbyists’ firms represent the overwhelming majority of corporate ballroom funders: two-thirds of the corporations known to be funding the ballroom – 17 out of 26 – are clients of Ballard, Miller, or Priebus’s lobbying firms.
The records show these firms are lobbying the government on a broad range of issues on behalf of ballroom funders – ranging from tobacco to crypto – raising concerns that fundraising for the president’s ballroom project might give these lobbyists special leverage to sway government decisions. Public Citizen’s recent report, Banquet of Greed: Trump Ballroom Donors Feast on Federal Funds and Favors, also found that most of the corporate ballroom donors have entered into government contracts totaling $279 billion over the last five years and are either facing federal enforcement actions or have had federal enforcement actions against them suspended by the Trump Administration.
In a letter last week to Senator Elizabeth Warren responding to Senators’ request for information about the funding of the ballroom project, the President & CEO of the nonprofit organization Trust for the National Mall, which is serving as the funding vehicle for the project, wrote: “The Trust is not soliciting donations for the Ballroom and has no role in the planning, design, or construction of the new Ballroom.” The organization declined to provide Senators with any details about who is doing the soliciting or other requested information, which Senator Richard Blumenthal called “insultingly unsatisfactory.”
To shine more light into the secretive ballroom project fundraising – unlike funds raised for the President’s election campaigns it is not currently required by law to be made public – Public Citizen looked into the connections between the three powerful lobbyists reported to be fundraising for the ballroom project and the 26 corporate donors to the project that have been identified so far: 21 corporate donors disclosed by the White House and an additional 5 corporate donors uncovered by news reporting, and there may be others.
Analysis
Public Citizen examined federal lobbying reports associated with the 26 known corporate donors to the White House Ballroom Project, who were either disclosed by the White House or have been identified in news reports.
Public Citizen’s review found:
- Two-thirds of the corporate ballroom donors – 17 out of 26 – are represented by one or more of the firms of lobbyists reported to be helping raise ballroom project funds: Brian Ballard’s firm Ballard Partners, Jeff Miller’s lobbying firm Miller Strategies, or Reince Priebus’s lobbying firm Michael Best Strategies.
- Ballard’s lobbying firm represents 11 of the corporate donors to the ballroom project, including two health care companies not disclosed by the White House but later revealed in news reports: Vantive and ExtremityCare. The other corporate donors represented by Ballard: Amazon, Booz Allen Hamilton, Comcast, Hard Rock International, NextEra Energy, Palantir, Reynolds American, Ripple, and T-Mobile.
- Miller’s lobbying firm represents 6 of the corporate donors to the ballroom project: Altria, Apple, Comcast, Micron Technology, Palantir, and Tether.
- Priebus’s lobbying firm represents 5 of the corporate donors to the ballroom project: Hard Rock International, Lockheed Martin, Microsoft, Ripple, and T-Mobile.
Table: Corporate Donors & Lobbyists Fundraising for White House Ballroom Project
| Corporate Ballroom Donor | Represented in 2025 by Ballard, Miller, or Priebus’s lobbying firms | Source | Source |
| Altria | Miller Strategies | https://tinyurl.com/yv2d8yu3 | |
| Amazon | Ballard Partners | https://tinyurl.com/5x36jf3 | |
| Apple | Miller Strategies | https://tinyurl.com/3r9wj5fp | |
| BlackRock | NA | https://tinyurl.com/3c467rn8 | |
| Booz Allen Hamilton | Ballard Partners | https://tinyurl.com/477scs66 | |
| Caterpillar | NA | https://tinyurl.com/bdzbwhm9 | |
| Coinbase | NA | https://tinyurl.com/5a4fr7np | |
| Comcast Corporation | Ballard Partners, Miller Strategies | https://tinyurl.com/47xvj9y9 | https://tinyurl.com/25a35e44 |
| ExtremityCare; aka Tiger BioSciences | Ballard Partners | https://tinyurl.com/27hvvwr4 | |
| NA | https://tinyurl.com/4tb78syd | ||
| Hard Rock International; aka Seminole Hard Rock | Ballard Partners, Michael Best Strategies (Priebus’s firm) | https://tinyurl.com/2ddujspy | https://tinyurl.com/2dxrxk2b |
| HP | NA | https://tinyurl.com/5n7awzsu | |
| Lockheed Martin | Michael Best Strategies (Priebus’s firm) | https://tinyurl.com/f62ex5h4 | |
| Meta Platforms | NA | https://tinyurl.com/5db757yz | |
| Micron Technology | Miller Strategies | https://tinyurl.com/mdw7wjrb | |
| Microsoft | Michael Best Strategies (Priebus’s firm) | https://tinyurl.com/y77zfjc2 | |
| NextEra Energy | Ballard Partners | https://tinyurl.com/bdcppf65 | |
| Nvidia | NA | https://tinyurl.com/m7ewdds4 | |
| Palantir Technologies | Ballard Partners, Miller Strategies | https://tinyurl.com/4zwjjvjf | https://tinyurl.com/uhwv4zm6 |
| Reynolds American, aka RAI Services Company (https://www.reynoldsamerican.com) | Ballard Partners | https://tinyurl.com/mvrdhvsf | |
| Ripple | Ballard Partners, Michael Best Strategies (Priebus’s firm) | https://tinyurl.com/hxrr7dff | https://tinyurl.com/5h2x9wa2 |
| Susquehanna International Group | NA | https://tinyurl.com/4vynxhu3 | |
| Tether | Miller Strategies | https://tinyurl.com/m5tu8ced | |
| T-Mobile | Ballard Partners, Michael Best Strategies (Priebus’s firm) | https://tinyurl.com/48d3feyc | https://tinyurl.com/4htfncad |
| Union Pacific Railroad | NA | https://tinyurl.com/4dec4wtz | |
| Vantive | Ballard Partners | https://tinyurl.com/yc39m36m |
Recommendations
To guard against the potential for undue influence, improper favor-seeking and pay-to-play raised by this report’s findings, we make the following recommendations:
- Ban fundraising by federal lobbyists and people associated with federal lobbying firms for the pet projects of the president or other federal government officials.
- All fundraising connections made by lobbyists between their clients and federal officials must be disclosed by lobbyists in their regularly filed lobbying reports.
- All donations to the White House Ballroom Project facilitated by federal lobbyists and people associated with lobbying firms must be immediately and fully disclosed.