Big Tech CEOs Cozy Up to Trump
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Big Tech companies have spent at least $653 million cozying up to President Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress, according to a new report from Public Citizen. This funding is part of a deliberate effort by tech CEOs to ingratiate themselves with the Trump administration by heaping excessive praise on the president while going along with his unpopular and authoritarian policies.
Among those ingratiating themselves with Trump are some of the biggest tech companies, including Amazon, Apple, Google, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia, OpenAI, Oracle, Palantir, and corporations headed by Elon Musk, including X (formerly Twitter), SpaceX, and Tesla. Some examples of the tech industry’s egregious cheerleading are below:
- “I love Donald Trump as much as a straight man can love another man,” said Elon Musk, billionaire CEO of Tesla, SpaceX and other corporations in a post on his X platform;
- “I’m very hopeful — he seems to have a lot of energy around reducing regulation. And my point of view is, if I can help him do that, I’m going to help him, because we do have too much regulation in this country,” said Jeff Bezos, founder and chairman of Amazon, after meeting with Trump before the inauguration;
- “America’s unique advantage that no country could possibly have is President Trump,” said Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, following the unveiling of the Trump administration’s AI Action Plan;
- “President Trump will lead our country into the age of A.I., and I am eager to support his efforts to ensure America stays ahead,” said Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, in December 2024 when giving a $1 million donation to Trump’s inaugural fund;
- “[Trump] is actually a peace president,” said Alex Karp, CEO of Palantir, during his October 2025 visit to Ukraine; and
- “I mean, seeing Donald Trump get up after getting shot in the face and pump his fist in the air with the American flag is one of the most badass things I’ve ever seen in my life,” said Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta.
“Self-serving Big Tech corporations and billionaires have chosen a side – the side of MAGA and Trump,” said Rick Claypool, a research director for Public Citizen and author of the report. “Now they’re profiting off their products being deployed to automate unprovoked warfare, generate and spread viral misinformation, torment workers, target immigrants (as well as anyone standing up for them), and surveil Americans at an unprecedented scale. The dangerous synergies of an authoritarian White House supported and supercharged by Big Tech titans puts on full display the risk of concentrated and excessive corporate and oligarchic power.”
According to the report, Big Tech’s electoral spending on pro-Trump and Republican super PACs during the 2024 elections and current midterm cycle totals at least $545 million so far. Nearly two thirds of that – $361 million – is attributable solely to Elon Musk, who has already spent $70 million on the 2026 cycle so far.
As the 2026 midterm elections approach, Big Tech executives are scrambling to ensure their profitable MAGA alliance with Trump will continue – and threatening to spend more to discipline and defeat candidates who might restrain their power. Voters oppose the cozy connections between the Trump administration and Big Tech by a two-to-one margin, and strongly favor tough regulations to protect the public from AI technologies.