Ahead of Monday’s FEC Disclosures, It’s Clear Billionaires, Big Business Used the Inauguration to Buy Influence
Inaugural Financing Void of Limits and Effective Disclosure Is Fraught with Corruption
By Craig Holman
EDITORIAL BOARD AND REPORTER ALERT
Months after the inaugural festivities celebrating the re-election of Donald Trump to a second term in the White House, the nation finally gets to see who may have bought what in the sitting administration. On Monday, 90 days after the formal Inauguration, the Federal Election Commission (FEC) is releasing for the first time records of donors of $200 or more to Trump’s 60th Inauguration.
Although the identities of most donors will be revealed, what they got for their money, how it was spent, and what happened to millions of dollars in surplus funds will remain a mystery ripe for speculation.
But it does not take inside connections to formulate a fairly clear picture of billionaires and Big Business leaders using million-dollar inaugural donations to jockey for favors from an ingratiated Donald Trump. They were already boasting of their efforts by self-declaring their generous largess in honor of the 2024 presidential victor prior to the Inauguration.
The Trump Vance Inaugural Committee, Inc. admitted after the election it had surpassed its goal of raising $150 million in private donations to finance the 60th Inaugural festivities and was headed to collect up to $250 million in the end.
This far surpasses the previous record of $107 million to pay for Trump’s first Inauguration in 2017, and shatters all historical norms for Inaugural fundraising that have generally ranged from $20 million to $30 million from Reagan to Bush. Obama’s 2009 Inauguration committee raised $53 million while Biden’s 2021 Inauguration raised nearly $62 million in private contributions. (See Appendix A, “Estimated Private Donations to Presidential Inaugural Committees, 1973 – 2021”).
Nearly all the donations publicly disclosed so far have been in amounts of $1 million to $5 million from companies and wealthy business leaders and lobbyists with business pending before the upcoming Trump administration. As Trump mused on Truth Social, “EVERYBODY WANTS TO BE MY FRIEND!!!”
Who Donated to Trump’s Inauguration?
Even before Monday’s disclosure report, the Big Donors to Trump’s second Inauguration let us know who they are. These million-dollar donors come from a small class of very wealthy industries in Big Tech, cryptocurrency, and others with lucrative contracts or business pending before the federal government. For the first time ever, some of the biggest donors had long been critics of Trump, especially following the insurrection by Trump supporters, but now appear fearful of retributions by a vengeful president.
Public Citizen is tracking the conflict of interest of Inaugural donors who have publicly announced donations or pledges to the Trump Vance Inaugural Committee, Inc. The writing is already on the wall.
- Cryptocurrency firms and their CEOs have come out of the woodwork to embrace the new Trump administration, which has been signaling deregulation of the industry. Ripple pledged $5 million for the Inauguration, followed by $1 million donations each from Coinbase, Moonpay, Kraken and others.
- Wall Street and the financial sector are gushing over the next deregulatory administration, showing their enthusiasm with $1 million donations by hedge fund manager Ken Griffin, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs and Ondo Finance.
- Big Tech and Silicon Valley are joining the fray, with million-dollar donations from Apple CEO Tim Cook not to mention former adversaries of Trump, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Meta’s Mark Zuckerburg and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.
All of these donors are seeking less government oversight of their business or lucrative government contracts, or both.
While the scope of the donations and, in many cases, the fear of retribution driving the donations, are unique to the second Trump Inauguration, the self-serving motivations of inaugural donors in general are nothing new. Historically, corporations and government contractors who want something from the incoming administration overwhelmingly dominate the class of inaugural donors.
According to an analysis by Public Citizen of donors to Bush’s 2005 Presidential Inauguration Committee, corporations and corporate executives contributed 96 percent of the total to pay for the festivities. Of the 127 contributors to Bush’s committee, 121 are either corporations or their chairmen, CEOs, presidents or owners.
Occasionally, Presidential Inaugural committees will restrict the amount or sources of inaugural donations to avoid the appearance of a presidential administration on a chopping bloc. Even while Obama banned donations from corporations and lobbyists and limited individual donations to no more than $50,000 for his first Inauguration in 2009, almost 80 percent of the contributions disclosed by President-elect Obama’s Presidential Inauguration Committee came from 211 “bundlers.” More than $27.6 million of contributions came from 677 donations of at least $25,000. Prominent Wall Street figures comprised the largest portion of these bundlers.
As shown in Appendix A, the big jump in transforming inaugurations from more of a ceremonial transition of power to lavish parties and balls began in earnest with Ronald Reagan in 1985. Nixon in 1973 only raised $4 million from private sources to finance his Inauguration, and Carter raised even less at $3.5 million. During the Second World War, Franklin Delano Roosevelt kept festivities for his 1945 Inauguration at a bare minimum, holding a luncheon but no balls or parades. Thomas Jefferson eschewed all of the Inaugural pomp and circumstance in 1801 and simply walked to the Capitol in casual clothing for his swearing in. Presidents today cannot even fathom that type of dignity.
Rules of the Road
The root cause of allowing presidential inaugurations to become the playground for special interests currying favor with the incoming administration is the absence of meaningful limits and disclosure of inaugural funding. A president-elect forms a Presidential Inaugural Committee (PIC) as a nonprofit organization, registered with both the IRS and the FEC. There are no disclosure reports filed until 90 days after the Inauguration, and these reports disclose only donors of $200 or more. There is no disclosure of how the money is spent nor what happens to any surplus funds, other than very general and nondescript information provided to the IRS when the PIC disbands. Only foreign nationals are prohibited from making donations to an inaugural committee. Corporations, PACs and all other sources may make donations of any amount to a PIC (36 U.S.C. 510, and 11 C.F.R. Parts 104 and 110), unless the PIC itself sets voluntary limits.
Trump has placed no special restrictions on the sources or amounts of donations either to his 2017 or his 2025 Presidential Inaugural Committee, both of which set all-time records of fundraising.
What Does All This Money Buy?
Buying access to the president and the president’s inner circle is the name of the game. Like many recent PICs, the Trump Vance Presidential Inaugural Committee has outlined what donors can buy at various amounts of donations. Donors are separated into tiers depending on the amount they contributed. Donors who gave $1 million or raised $2 million from others for the Inauguration are in Tier 1. The lowest tier consists of donors of $50,000. Below that amount, there is no special access, other than for a small number of inaugural lottery winners from the general public.
The committee originally planned three days of events for supporters and wealthy donors, beginning with a Victory Rally on Jan. 18. There was to be an exclusive “Cabinet Reception” for the Tier 1 donors to rub shoulders with incoming cabinet officials. A “Vice President’s Dinner” was also reserved for Tier 1 donors to share an intimate dinner with Vice President Vance and Usha Vance, and another “Candlelight Dinner” with Trump for donors of $250,000 or who raised at least $500,000. There was even a scheduled “One America, One Light” Sunday service, at which donors of $100,000 or who raised at least $200,000 may pray with Donald and Melania Trump.
For corporations and wealthy special interests attempting to influence public policy or secure lucrative government contracts, writing big checks to Trump’s Inaugural committee – or any Presidential Inaugural Committee – provides a bonanza of access to leading government officials and influence over public policy. This is a level of influence peddling only available to those who can afford to pay the price and is denied to those who cannot.
Buying access may not always translate into buying government favors. But the sheer volume of money thrown at the feet of the president-elect through Inaugural donations certainly suggests that wealthy special interests believe it is worth the price.
Very unexpectedly, The Trump Vance PIC felt compelled to dramatically scale back the Inaugural festivities because of an unusual Arctic blast sweeping the East Coast. This was only the second time in inaugural history that cold weather caused a change in plans. The planned massive Victory Rally was moved indoors at the Capital One Arena for 20,000 well-wishers and broadcast on large-screen Jumbo-Trons for everyone else. Other events were also canceled or moved indoors.
Conclusion: What To Look For
Legislation to establish source prohibitions, contribution limits and full disclosure of donations and expenditures for Presidential Inaugural Committees have been proposed unsuccessfully in previous congressional sessions in both the House and the Senate. The record-shattering abuses of the 2025 Trump Vance Presidential Inaugural Committee, Inc., are likely to elevate the importance of closing this window of opportunity for buying favors this time around.
One such measure – the “Inaugural Fund Integrity Act” – was reintroduced by Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon (D-PA) and others before Trump’s Jan. 20th Inauguration. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto introduced the “Inaugural Committee Transparency Act of 2025.”
In order to ensure that undue influence-peddling through Inaugural donations is mitigated, effective regulation of the financing of presidential inaugurations should include, but not be limited to:
Source Prohibitions: Banning contributions from corporations, government contractors and lobbyists seeking government favors.
Contribution Limits: Placing reasonable limits on the size of donations from any single source.
Spending Restrictions: Requiring that funds be spent on activities directly related to conducting Inaugural festivities and not for personal use or the enrichment of the president-elect’s own business interests and political committees.
Surplus Funds: Establishing that surplus funds be returned on a pro rata basis back to donors or disbursed to qualified nonprofit organizations unaffiliated with the president-elect.
Routine and Full Disclosure: Disclosure reports should be filed with the Federal Election Commission on a regular basis, both before and after the Inauguration, and should include specific information on how the money was spent.
Public Citizen will provide its additional insights into the disclosure report of Trump’s 60th Inauguration on Monday. Keep in mind this disclosure report is limited and late and provides only a partial picture of the intense influence-peddling game by wealthy special interests seeking to shape the new administration. In the meantime, ask the following questions:
- Which donors appear to have obtained special influence over the administration’s public policies?
- Has the donor or representatives of his or her firm been appointed to a formal position in the administration?
- Is the donor serving in an advisory capacity to the administration?
- Who are the recipients of the Inaugural fund expenditures?
- Given an estimated $250 million Inaugural budget, what happened to the surplus funds?!
Appendix A:
Estimated Private Donations to Presidential Inaugural Committees, 1973 – 2021
The law requiring Presidential Inaugural Committees to report donors of $200 or more 90 days after the Inauguration (36 U.S.C. §510) was adopted by Congress on March 27, 2002. The total costs of presidential inaugurations prior to that date rely on estimates provided by the respective inaugural committees and other sources.
The figures below do not include expenditures of public funds, which are managed by several different agencies such as the Department of Homeland Security and the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies, for the swearing-in ceremony, security and maintenance.
Richard Nixon, 1973 – $4 million
Jimmy Carter, 1977 – $3.5 million
Ronald Reagan, 1985 – $20 million
George H.W. Bush, 1989 – $30 million
William Clinton 1993/1997 – $25 million/$29 million
George W. Bush 2001/2005 – $30 million/$42 million
Barack Obama 2009/2013 – $53 million/$45 million
Donald Trump, 2017 – $106.8 million
Joseph Biden, 2021 – $61.8 million
Donald Trump, 2025 – $250 million (est.)