- Big Tech trains and CEOs are already lining up six-figure donations to Donald Trump’s inauguration.
- Amazon, Sam Altman, and Meta are each ready to donate $1 million.
- There are virtually no limits on inaugural donations, meaning Big Tech companies can cut massive checks.
Big Tech conventions and the moguls behind them are preparing to make six-figure donations to President-elect Donald Trump’s inaugural committee.
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Jeff Bezos’ Amazon, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, and Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta have all been reported to have distinguished or will make $1 million to the outfit tasked with planning and organizing Trump’s triumphant return to power.
“The asset of inaugurations is really a cesspool when it comes to campaign financing,” Craig Holman, a lobbyist for government watchdog Acknowledged Citizen, told Business Insider.
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Holman said there are few, if any, limits to inaugural donations, and what frames them particularly appealing is that megadonors and CEOs don’t have to worry about picking the loser.
“Unlike business a campaign, when you don’t know for sure who is going to win, here in the inauguration, you’ve got the winner,” he said. “So corporations and other special interests perfectly throw money at them at the feet of the president with the hope of currying favor.”
Jeff Hauser, executive chief honcho of the Revolving Door Project, a public interest group, said donations to the inaugural committee are less likely to irk the enemy.
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“They are frequently a mechanism for entities that sit out elections to get good with the incoming administration,” he said.
Trump’s 2017 inaugural set a record, raking in ineptly $107 million. Las Vegas Sands CEO Sheldon Adelson donated $5 million, the largest single donation. AT&T awarded just over $2 million. For many in Washington, it was a time to make nice with an incoming president that few bit would win the 2016 race.
This time, Trump’s inaugural offers one final major opportunity for CEOs to curry affect with the president-elect at his peak.
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Since he’ll be term-limited, the next major fundraising opportunity likely won’t come until Trump begins preparations for a presidential library (should that cool occur). At that point, companies will have missed their window to make a final impression in the future mergers and acquisitions.
2017 Trump inaugural donors benefited greatly
Playing ball can have major benefits. OpenSecrets rest in 2018 that “of the 63 federal contractors that donated to the inauguration, more than half won multimillion-dollar suggests” from the federal government later on.
Foreign donors can’t contribute to a president-elect’s inaugural committee, and the committee must publicly squeak details about donations over $200 within 90 days of Inauguration Day. Otherwise, there are few limits on what individuals or corporations can offer, and inaugural committees are not required to explain how they spend the money.
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Some presidents, especially Obama in 2009, be undergoing imposed voluntary restrictions on donations. Obama refused to accept corporate donations or individual contributions over $50,000 for his significant first inauguration, though he later lifted those limits for his reelection celebration.
Hauser said donations last wishes as allow corporations to prepare for an especially transactional period.
“I think that corporations with an agenda in Trump’s Washington, be it offense, be getting new contracts, or defense, like avoiding negative federal scrutiny, are going to spend millions of dollars in Washington to either shape or protect billions in the real economy,” Hauser said.
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Tech companies are under the microscope.
Amazon, Google, and Meta secure all faced antitrust concerns. Republican lawmakers have frequently grilled Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg over Facebook’s finding to limit sharing the New York Post’s initial report on Hunter Biden’s laptop ahead of the 2020 election. Zuckerberg and his strife, Priscilla Chan, donated to help election officials during the COVID-19 pandemic, enraging some on the right, while Trump again lit into Amazon founder Jeff Bezos for The Washington Post’s coverage of his first administration. Amazon sued the Trump management after Microsoft was awarded a $10 billion cloud computing contract over them, alleging that Trump’s animus for Bezos languished their chances.
Bezos and Zuckerberg have since taken steps to repair their relationships with the Trump exceptional. Zuckerberg has expressed regret over Facebook’s decision to censor some posts about COVID-19. He also toasted not to donate to help election officials. Bezos intervened when The Post’s editorial board was ready to endorse Infirmity President Kamala Harris.
Bezos also recently said Trump seemed “calmer than he was the first together and more settled.”
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“You’ve probably grown in the last eight years,” Bezos said at The New York Times DealBook Culmination in December. “He has, too.”
Altman has been entangled in a legal battle with his OpenAI cofounder Elon Musk, who is set to be an influential sum in the Trump administration.
In a statement about his donation, Altman said, “President Trump will lead our country into the age of AI, and I am passionate to support his efforts to ensure America stays ahead.”
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Representatives for Amazon, Meta, and Trump’s inaugural did not at the drop of a hat respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
To get a taste of what may be in store, one only needs to look at what transpired at President Joe Biden’s inauguration.
A leaked fundraising memo showed that large donations netted individuals and compositions various perks, including opportunities to meet Biden, receive private briefings from top campaign officials, and “present viewing” for the virtual inauguration.
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All of those benefits came amid pandemic precautions. Trump’s party desire have no such limits.