Campaign trail to billionaire’s club

President Trump sounded a lot of populist notes on the campaign trail. But as he took the oath of office for the second time, he was joined onstage by billionaires and CEOs who’d spent millions to be there — leaving supporters who’d trav­eled across the country to at­tend literally out in the cold.

Presidential inaugurations have always been an opportuni­ty for wealthy special interests to curry favor with the incoming administration with generous inaugural donations. But the nation has never seen influence peddling like we just witnessed at Trump’s second inauguration.

Shattering all records, the Trump Vance Inaugural Com­mittee, Inc. raised and spent over $200 million in special interest money celebrating the 2024 election victory. (The all-time previous record was $107 million for Trump’s first inau­guration in 2017. By contrast, Biden’s 2021 inauguration raised and spent nearly $62 million.)

Nearly all this financing comes from companies and wealthy business leaders who have business pending before the incoming administration. Rarely are small donations re­ceived from citizens simply ex­cited about a new president.

The public won’t get a full picture of Trump’s inaugural donors until the spring, when the one-and-only disclosure re­port is filed 90 days after the inauguration. But the ones we know about so far are painting an ugly picture of corporations, government contractors, billion­aires, and millionaires seeking to endear themselves to Trump and his administration.

All the self-reporting donors — including Big Tech firms like Google, Microsoft, Meta, Ama­zon, and OpenAI — pledged $1 million or more. The cryptocur­rency firm Ripple pledged $5 million. In fact, the cryptocur­rency industry even hosted its own inaugural ball.

And of course, Wall Street is cozying up with major donations from Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, and billionaire hedge fund manager Ken Griffin.

“EVERYBODY WANTS TO BE MY FRIEND!!!” Trump mar­vels on his Truth Social account.

Some of these new friends previously expressed opposition toward Trump, who has a his­tory of seeking revenge against his adversaries and even said he might seek retribution in his second administration. “When this election is over … I would have every right to go after them,” Trump said of his politi­cal opponents over the summer.

In addition to being former Trump critics, Mark Zuckerberg of Meta, Jeff Bezos of Amazon, and Sam Altman of OpenAI have their sights on major gov­ernment contracts from the new administration. Each has now donated $1 million to Trump’s Inauguration. Zuckerberg and Bezos even partied with Trump at Mar-a-Lago and at the inau­guration in DC.

What else does all this money buy? Access. Access itself does not necessarily mean success at buying official favors. But the sheer volume of today’s inau­gural donations suggests that wealthy special interests be­lieve it is worth the investment.

Presidential inaugurations have not always been such a soiree for the wealthy. Nixon in 1973 spent less than $4 million on his inauguration. Carter in 1977 spent $3.5 million. Thomas Jefferson in 1801 simply walked to the Capitol to be sworn in and then walked home.

The very ripeness for scan­dal this time around calls for reasonable restrictions on the sources and amounts of inau­gural donations. Corporations, and certainly government con­tractors, should be banned from donating.

Contributions should be limit­ed to avoid even the appearance of buying favors. The disclosure requirement should be vastly expanded to include disclosing expenditures as well as dona­tions. And rules should be es­tablished on how surplus funds are dispensed.

Presidential inaugurations should be celebrations for the nation as a whole, not influ­ence-peddling opportunities for the very wealthy.

Craig Holman is the government affairs lobbyist for Public Citizen. This op-ed was distributed by Oth­erWords.org.