More than $800 million has flowed towards Donald Trump’s pet projects since he returned to office, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis, an amount without precedent for a sitting American president. Much of that total runs through one woman: Meredith O’Rourke, a Florida fundraiser who now occupies an unusual position at the president’s side.
Who Is Meredith O’Rourke?
O’Rourke is a well-established fundraiser based in Florida who worked on Trump’s 2016 and 2020 campaigns before being chosen to lead fundraising for the entire 2024 campaign. After that election, as donors and company representatives began lining up outside his Mar-a-Lago club with multimillion-dollar cheques, Trump told her to begin soliciting donations immediately, according to advisers, even though she had been planning to slow the pace of fundraising. “Strike while the iron is hot,” Trump reportedly told her, an account he has repeated in private on several occasions.
She does not hold a formal government position, yet she is frequently at Trump’s side, both inside the White House and beyond. She has sat in on meetings, including those between Trump and corporate executives discussing issues that affect their companies directly, and has travelled with senior officials aboard Air Force One. She regularly posts photographs of herself with Trump, including from inside the Oval Office, and has described him as a mentor.
She has also taken on formal roles connected to Trump’s wider network, including a directorship at Trump Media & Technology Group, the owner of Truth Social, and a seat on the board of the National Park Foundation, which oversees the Trump-aligned group behind the Freedom 250 fundraising effort.
Most evenings inside the White House, Trump picks up the phone to speak to O’Rourke. He wants to know which companies and donors have paid up, which haven’t, and exactly how much has come in, according to the Journal.
It is not a casual chat. Trump often pushes O’Rourke to ask for far more than she had planned, sometimes $5 million from one donor and $50 million from another. He also hands her names to call, frequently people who have recently sat down with him in person, according to people familiar with the calls.
“This is very important to the president. He’s asked me to call you and ask you for this donation,” O’Rourke has told companies on these calls, following up persistently until they respond. On some calls, she refers to Trump simply as “the boss,” telling donors that “the boss wants this money.” Trump, in turn, has nicknamed her the “princess of darkness,” a nod to how effective people say she is with donors, according to the Journal’s report.
Where The Money Has Gone
The scale of the money raised is considerable. SoftBank contributed $50 million towards Trump’s planned presidential library. Apple gave around $25 million towards his White House ballroom project, while Microsoft put in about $10 million and Amazon around $5 million, according to the report.
Meta Platforms has also given repeatedly. The company recently donated $10 million to a political committee aligned with Trump, on top of a separate multimillion-dollar contribution to the ballroom and an earlier $22 million payment towards the presidential library, people familiar with the matter told the Journal.
According to the Journal’s analysis, Trump has raised more than $800 million in total since returning to office for his second term, a figure without precedent for a sitting American president pursuing personal or legacy projects. No law stops a president from raising unlimited amounts for nonprofits of this kind, whether for the ballroom, the library, his super PAC, or political issue committees, and for many of these, there is no requirement to publicly disclose donors or report spending regularly.
Some of the money is set aside for specific efforts, including the ballroom and the Freedom 250 fund marking America’s 250th anniversary, though Trump has suggested other uses too.
A President Who Tracks Every Donor
According to WSJ’s interviews with dozens of donors, executives, lobbyists and Trump advisers, the fundraising and influence operation around the president is vast, and he sits firmly at its centre. Trump closely follows who has given and how much.
People familiar with the exchanges told the Journal that when donors have been put on the phone with Trump after giving millions, they have sometimes expected a thank you, only to be asked for more. In one instance, O’Rourke reportedly asked an executive for a further $1 million just days after he had attended a dinner thanking him for a separate multimillion-dollar gift to the ballroom.
A Marked Shift From His First Campaign
Trump’s approach to fundraising today stands in sharp contrast to his position a decade ago. In 2015, he described political action committees as a “scam” and said he wanted nothing to do with them, even instructing his team to send letters asking unauthorised super PACs supporting him to return donor money. “I am self-funding my campaign and therefore I will not be controlled by the donors, special interests and lobbyists who have corrupted our politics and politicians for far too long,” he said at the time.
During that period, he would sometimes criticise aides for lining up too many donors for photographs on so-called “click lines,” and tended to leave events as soon as his speech ended. Throughout his first term, he often complained that money raised went to organisations such as the Republican National Committee, which he did not directly control, and treated fundraising more as an obligation than a priority. His 2020 re-election effort, while active, was not especially aggressive in comparison.
That changed heading into 2024. Susie Wiles reportedly had to convince Trump to take part in fundraising calls during the campaign, but he soon warmed to the scale of it, at one point asking oil executives for $1 billion at a Mar-a-Lago event in April 2024. Audio from a 2024 fundraiser reviewed by the Journal captured him telling donors he would not sit down to lunch for less than $5 million.
Dinners Where Access Comes At A Price
O’Rourke organises invitations for prominent chief executives, along with their advisers and lobbyists, to attend candlelight dinners priced at $1 million a head, held at the White House or at Trump properties, where guests are given significant access to the president. Many of these events are organised around specific industries, such as cryptocurrency or manufacturing.
She often attends the dinners herself, taking notes on what the president promises and what donors say in return, information she then shares with other White House officials. Attendees say Trump frequently encourages donors to follow up directly with O’Rourke afterwards.
Not every guest comes purely to socialise. Some have used the access to push specific agendas, including a marijuana company executive lobbying for changes to drug laws, and the chief executive of Pfizer, who used the opportunity to discuss experimental cancer treatments.
