US business leaders are spending big on Donald Trump’s second inaugural fund, which is predicted to exceed even the record-setting $107m raised in 2017.
The donations, which are not restricted by campaign finance laws, come as industries and business leaders seek to curry favor with the incoming administration after the president-elect decisively won a second, non-consecutive term in November.
Some of the planned donations reportedly include $1m each from Jeff Bezos’s Amazon, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Facebook parent company Meta, led by Mark Zuckerberg.
Hedge-fund manager Ken Griffin has said he plans to donate $1m, Bloomberg reported; Uber and its CEO Dara Khosrowshahi are reported to be chipping in $1m each; and Toyota, Ford and General Motors are each peeling off $1m. Ford is also reportedly coupling its donation with a fleet of vehicles.
“EVERYBODY WANTS TO BE MY FRIEND!!!” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social on Thursday.
seriously, it is impressive to me how there has long existed this mechanism called an "inauguration fund" that has no restrictions or rules for the megawealthy dumping cash on recently elected head of state, and probably most Americans have never heard about it because it's never reported on by capitalist-owned media.
but trump is shouting from the rooftops, "yeah, make it rain on me you pigs or I'll take it personal and make it personal." and now it's a whole thing.
It is customary to send gifts to the monarch at their coronation
Ack. I just had a mental image of a nearly naked Trump in tiny underwear working the stripper pole at a strip club filled with pigmen.