What’s a billionaire doing paying off the troops?

The “anonymous donor” Donald Trump bragged about on Oct. 23 — the one supposedly giving $130 million to pay U.S. military personnel during the government shutdown — turns out to be billionaire Timothy Mellon, heir to one of the oldest capitalist dynasties in the United States.

The donation from the 83-year-old member of the filthy-rich Mellon financial dynasty amounts to $100 per member of the Armed Forces.

That’s about 2% of the Pentagon’s monthly payroll for those wearing a uniform. So what’s the point? 

Is Mellon’s money earmarked for elite units who could be mobilized to attack demonstrators protesting ICE raids? Or to pay off key generals and admirals in some future plot like the Jan. 6, 2021, takeover of the United States Capitol?

The $130 million payoff is likely illegal and violates the Antideficiency Act. Mellon isn’t donating paintings to the National Gallery of Art like his granddaddy, Andrew Mellon, did to get off tax evasion charges. 

It goes around Congress, which, in a republic, is supposed to decide where the tax money goes. Mellon’s money allows Trump to say to GIs, “I’m the one providing for your families, not the liberals in Congress.” 

SNAP benefits — formerly known as food stamps — for 42 million people are going to run out of money on Nov. 1. Why couldn’t Timothy Mellon make a donation to food banks?

Even with increasing food prices, $130 million could still buy a lot of eggs. 

This isn’t a random act of generosity.

The Mellon family octopus

What the DuPonts are to Delaware, the Mellons are to Pittsburgh and Western Pennsylvania. For over 150 years, the family has sliced and diced industries while breaking strikes.

Key to Mellon power is their bank, the Bank of New York Mellon, with assets of $440 billion. Its assets under management — funds belonging to its wealthy clients, which the bank manages — amount to $2.1 trillion.

Timothy’s grandfather, Andrew Mellon, used the family bank to control a whole series of blue-chip corporations, including Alcoa. Because of its patents, the outfit held a virtual monopoly on U.S. aluminum production for decades.

Interior Secretary Harold Ickes declared that if the United States lost World War II, it would be because Alcoa was holding back on producing aluminum for planes. The federal government had to break Alcoa’s patent monopoly.

The jewel in the family crown was Gulf Oil, which merged with Texaco to form Chevron in 1985. Andrew Mellon served as Treasury Secretary for three presidents in the 1920s (Harding, Coolidge and Hoover), giving tax cuts to his fellow plutocrats.

Afterwards, he was appointed ambassador to Britain, where he demanded a 50% cut of the British crown colony of Kuwait’s petroleum production for Gulf Oil. Sixty years later, the first U.S. war in the Arab/Persian Gulf began.

Machine guns for the miners

Every generation of Mellons has been at war with the working class. After their Pittsburgh Coal Company crushed a miners’ strike in the 1920s, a Senate inquiry exposed the firm’s private armies. Richard Mellon, Andrew’s brother, coolly told senators that “you couldn’t run a coal mine without machine guns.”

Timothy Mellon carried that tradition into modern times. As owner of several New England railroads, he fought union contracts and ran them into bankruptcy, slashing jobs and safety. 

His autobiography drips with racist contempt, describing Black people in racist terms. He poured $1.5 million into defending Arizona’s vicious SB 1070 anti-immigrant law, most of which was thrown out by the courts.

No wonder this bigot is a friend of Donald Trump.

The real question

Why should one billionaire decide who gets paid while tens of millions go hungry?

Why can a private fortune fill the gap left by a “shutdown” — but only for the armed forces, never for the poor?

The government always finds money for bullets, never for bread.