He got some money to pay the military at least somewhat as a donation from some heir to the Mellon fortune.

kagis

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timothy_Mellon

During the 2025 United States federal government shutdown, Mellon donated $130 million to help pay members of the United States Armed Forces. The New York Times noted that the donation would equal approximately $100 per service member.[45]

Some other tidbits:

In the second quarter of 2023, Mellon donated $5 million to American Values 2024, a super PAC affiliated with the presidential campaign of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.; that, together with a large donation from billionaire Gavin de Becker, accounted for 97% of donations the PAC received through the end of June 2023.[40] By March 2024, Mellon’s donations to the PAC totaled $20 million,[41] and by July 2024 it had increased to $25 million.[14]

Between April 2023 and March 2024, Mellon donated $15 million to MAGA Inc. (Make America Great Again), a Trump-affiliated super PAC.[41] On May 31, 2024, Mellon gave MAGA Inc. $50 million, one of the largest disclosed donations ever.[42][31] By July 2024, Mellon had given $75 million toward supporting Trump’s campaign,[14] and by October, the total amount donated to the PAC had reached $150 million.[43]

Mellon faced media attention after comments describing his political views in his 2015 self-published autobiography “panam.captain” came to light.[31][30] In it, he calls social safety net programs “slavery Redux” and those receiving benefits “slaves of a new master, Uncle Sam”.[6] He also writes that black people became “even more belligerent” after social programs expanded in the 1960s and '70s.[31][30] Mellon defended his comments in the book and did not apologize.[12]

Heh, also:

As of 2024 reporting, he had donated to only two Democrats: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, for her 2018 campaign, and Tulsi Gabbard, for her 2020 presidential campaign.[30] He said he donated to Ocasio-Cortez to disrupt the Democratic Party.[12]