Outside the White House, just days before President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration day, preparations were underway for a ceremony funded by a record number of corporate donations – including many first-time donors from the world of technology, artificial intelligence and crypto .
“I can see it both ways,” said Jr. Lopez, a tourist from Dalton, Georgia, who visited the nation’s capital before Inauguration Day. Lopez said the ceremony – an American tradition celebrating the new president and attended by politicians from both sides of the aisle – was a day for the people.
However, “if corporations have too much influence on politics, it could lead to problems. And it could lead to the interests of the people being ignored (in favor of) big corporations,” he said.
Trump’s second inaugural fund has raised $170 million so far, breaking the record he set in 2017 and the total donations raised by the Biden and Obama inaugural committees, which the new administration is tasked with organizing the day’s celebrations the inauguration.
While the donations are symbolic, they show that some companies are vying for a friendly relationship with the president-elect in the hope that he will follow through on his deregulation promises and allege that he is targeting officials at regulators such as the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Commission) is fired and the Federal Trade Commission.
Others could offer the money as a mea culpa for Trump, who has publicly downgraded companies insults against himincluding Meta’s Facebook – Trump once called the company an “enemy of the people” for banning him from its platform after the Jan. 6 riots.
But CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently praised the president-elect and admitted the company is making changes Moving away from fact checkingto fit the current political climate. He is attending the inauguration alongside other technology executives such as Apple’s Tim Cook and OpenAI’s Sam Altman.
“The contributions to the inaugural fund are essentially to curry favor and gain access,” said Bruce Freed, president and co-founder of the Center for Political Accountability, a nongovernmental organization that advocates for transparency in corporate political spending.
“They understand that the relationship with Trump will be transactional,” Freed added. “Even Trump has made it clear that he will do whatever he wants, but he expects everyone to go along with it.”
Republican lobbyist Ozzie Palomo, co-founder and managing director of Chartwell Strategy Group in Washington, D.C., said there was more uncertainty in 2017, when Trump first took office. “People were very reluctant to classify themselves socially and publicly. That stigma is gone,” he said.
“Inauguration weekend is by no means an opportunity to address all of your political concerns, but it does allow you to show face and begin building relationships with key stakeholders who will be in positions of power over the next four years.”
Which companies donated and how much?
CBC News reached out to 20 companies, many of which confirmed they had made a donation to Trump’s inaugural fund.
Boeing donated $1 million to Trump’s inaugural fund this year after donating the same amount to Biden’s inaugural fund in 2021 and Trump’s first inaugural fund in 2017. A spokesman for the aviation giant said the company was “pleased to continue Boeing’s bipartisan tradition of supporting the U.S. Presidential Inauguration Committee.”
Google, Microsoft and Meta each donated $1 million to the fund. An Uber spokesperson said the ride-hailing company donated $1 million to the fund (the same amount as its contribution to the 2021 Biden ceremony) and that its CEO Dara Khosrowshahi donated another $1 million this year.
An OpenAI spokesperson said that Altman, its CEO, made a personal donation of $1 million to the inaugural fund.
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Spokespeople for oil giant Chevron, investment firm Goldman Sachs and automaker Toyota confirmed the donations but did not specify the amount. And a spokesman for crypto company Ripple said it donated $5 million of its own cryptocurrency called XRP to mark the inauguration.
Amazon, Apple, Adobe, Pfizer, Hyundai and Delta Air Lines did not respond to a request for comment. Aside from Pfizer, which donated an unspecified amount, all have reportedly donated $1 million each to Trump’s inaugural fund.
Biden’s inaugural fund in 2021 raised $62 million, but in-person celebrations have been limited due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Obama raised a then-record $53 million for his inaugural fund in 2009, even with a cap on donations – something that was eliminated for his inaugural fund in 2013, which raised $43 million.
“You don’t want to be on the president’s bad side.”
The inauguration is largely viewed as a nonpartisan political event. But it can also be an opportunity for companies to show their support for a president or new administration, said Brendan Glavin, director of insights at OpenSecrets, a U.S. nonprofit that tracks money in politics.
“You don’t want to get on the president’s bad side,” Glavin said. “If he’s upset with someone or a company doing something he doesn’t like, he has no qualms about directly insulting the person in public.
“I think that really comes into play a lot more this time than it has in the past with different presidents,” he said. “I think past experience dictates some of the actions in this case.”
While the inaugural fund may receive a small amount from Congress to cover any community services related to the event, funds will be funded primarily through individual and corporate donations.
Companies aren’t allowed to donate directly to presidential campaigns — they can donate indirectly to political action committees or other groups that support a particular candidate — but they mostly stay out of politics to avoid angering their consumer base, Glavin explained.
While there is still a ban on foreign donations, start-up funds still apply are not governed are subject to the same restrictions as election campaigns. Some companies carry out self-disclosure. Otherwise, the Presidential Inauguration Committee has 90 days to disclose the full list of donors to the Federal Election Commission.
“If you’re not sitting at the table, you’re on the menu.”
Several industries stand out on the list of companies donating to Trump’s inaugural fund.
For the first time, several crypto companies are participating, including Ripple, Robinhood and Coinbase should be The donation to the fund reflects a desire to move forward with a government that has enthusiastically embraced the industry and even appointed a “crypto czar.”
“They see this as an opportunity to create a more formal regulatory structure to legitimize operations in their world. And this is sort of their political coming out party,” Palomo said.
Corporate America is “reading the tea leaves,” he added. “This isn’t necessarily about Donald Trump per se, but it’s about Donald Trump’s voters… From a commercial perspective, they need his voters to buy into what they’re selling in some way.”
“There’s the old saying here: If you’re not sitting at the table, you’re on the menu. And I think people are trying to figure out how to have a seat at that table where decisions are being made.”
