The truth about Trump’s $50m donor and his Irish ancestors

Billionaire Timothy Mellon is from Tyrone stock but he is not the first member of his family to support anti-immigrant politics

Trump has accused Biden of opening the US border ‘to people that are from prisons...insane asylums, terrorists’. Photo: Brendan McDermid/Reuters

Tom Deignan

The day after Donald Trump was convicted of 34 felony charges relating to “hush money” payments to porn star Stormy Daniels, Timothy Mellon gave $50m to the former president’s re-election campaign.

The donor was not a household name, even in the US. As news of his largesse emerged, journalists embarked on a frantic search for details about a man described as a reclusive heir to a Gilded Age fortune, whose billionaire family descended from an Irish immigrant.