Trump’s Inauguration Donors: Big Oil, Big Pharma, Big Tech, Crypto, and More

Donald Trump is president again, and corporate interests have been paying up. 

Dozens of major companies recently disclosed making significant donations to support Trump’s Jan. 20 inauguration, which ended up being a small, intimate affair in the U.S. Capitol. 

Industries showering Trump with cash included Big Oil, Big Tech, Big Pharma, Big Tobacco, Wall Street, crypto and private prison interests, and more. Many of the corporate donors are poised to win big in Trump’s second term. 

Trump reportedly raised a record $250 million for his inauguration. While Trump’s inaugural committee hasn’t reported its donors yet, lobbying disclosures provide a snapshot of his financial support: 44 companies reported donating a combined $31 million to the committee before the end of the year.

The Trump Vance Inaugural Committee received $2 million from oil and gas giant Chevron and $1 million from ExxonMobil, two companies that stand to benefit from Trump’s efforts to boost fossil fuels, eliminate environmental regulations, and ignore climate science.

Tech titans Amazon and Meta each contributed $1 million to Trump’s inaugural committee. The companies’ respective founders, Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg, have publicly cozied up to Trump in recent months and attended his inauguration at the Capitol. The Biden administration led antitrust lawsuits against both companies.

Other tech industry donors to the Trump inaugural committee included Uber and Qualcomm, which each gave $1 million. PayPal donated $250,000, while Instacart and Airbnb gave $100,000 apiece.

While Trump previously called the cryptocurrency bitcoin a scam, he has emerged as a major crypto booster and has pledged to loosen regulation on the industry. Shortly before he assumed the presidency, Trump released a crypto meme coin that quickly made his family and their businesses billions of dollars richer on paper. 

Crypto interests were among the top donors to Trump’s inaugural committee: Coinbase, Kraken, Galaxy Digital Holdings, Crypto.com, and Paradigm Operations each donated $1 million. 

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The Trump inaugural committee separately took $1 million from Wall Street firm Goldman Sachs, and $2 million from the financial services firm Robinhood Markets.

Private prison companies CoreCivic and GEO Group each gave $500,000 to the Trump committee. The companies are poised to cash in on Trump’s planned “mass deportation” of undocumented immigrants and asylum-seekers.

GEO Group’s executive chairman, George Zoley, said as much in a November investor call. Discussing Trump’s wishes to “implement a much more aggressive policy toward interior and border immigration enforcement,” Zoley said: “We believe that the private sector will play a critical role in assisting the government in carrying out its objectives.” He added, “The GEO Group was built for this unique moment in our country’s history and the opportunities that it will bring.”

Tobacco giant Altria gave $1 million to the Trump committee. A few days after he took office, Trump’s administration rescinded the Biden administration’s proposed rule to ban menthol in cigarettes and flavored cigars.

Trump selected medical conspiracy theorist Robert Kennedy Jr. to lead the Health and Human Services Department. It’s not clear yet what that will mean for drugmakers, but the pharmaceutical industry has shelled out big time for the president.

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The powerful drug lobby Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, or PhRMA, donated $1 million to Trump’s inauguration. So did drugmakers Bayer and Johnson & Johnson. The National Association of Manufacturers, a lobbying group that represents numerous industries, including the pharmaceutical sector, also donated $1 million. 

Other health care industry donors included medical device company Abbott Laboratories ($500,000), hospital chain HCA Healthcare ($250,000), and health insurers Elevance Health ($150,000) and Centene ($50,000)..

Telecom giants AT&T, Comcast, and Verizon each donated $1 million to the Trump inaugural committee. Ericsson gave $500,000.

Other $1 million donors included the refrigeration and HVAC company Carrier, tax preparation company Intuit, and Korean e-commerce company Coupang.

The Trump committee received additional donations from energy firms, including GE Vernova ($500,000), solar cell producer QCells ($500,000), and nuclear energy company Oklo Inc. ($250,000). The American Clean Power Association, a “clean power” lobby with ties to the fossil fuel industry, gave $100,000.

Food and beverage industry donors included Coca-Cola and the American Beverage Association, which both contributed $250,000. 

Chinese agriculture company Syngenta also gave $250,000, as did International Flavors & Fragrances.
Elsewhere, the anti-fraud tech company Socure gave $100,000. So did the lobbying firm Barnes & Thornburg LLP