Since President Trump was elected a second time, he and his allies have raised nearly $2 billion for his favored political causes and passion projects. That total, which was confirmed by four people involved in the fund-raising, likely eclipses the amount raised<\/a> to support his 2024 campaign.<\/p>\n The astounding haul hints at a level of transactionalism for which it is difficult to find obvious comparisons in modern American history. The identities of the donors behind much of the cash are not legally required to be, and have not been, publicly disclosed. In some cases, Mr. Trump\u2019s team has offered donors anonymity<\/a>.<\/p>\n To shed light on what has been a largely opaque fund-raising apparatus, The New York Times conducted a comprehensive investigation. It relied on previously unreported documents and public campaign finance filings, as well as interviews with dozens of people who are familiar with the solicitations or are involved in the fund-raising. It traced a large portion of the funds raised \u2014 more than half a billion dollars\u2019 worth \u2014 back to 346 donors who each gave at least $250,000. It also found that more than half of them have benefited, or are involved in an industry that has benefited, from the actions or statements of Mr. Trump, the White House or federal agencies.<\/p>\n It is not possible to prove that any of the donations directly led to favorable treatment from the Trump administration. And the contributions do not personally enrich Mr. Trump, unlike some of his family\u2019s cryptocurrency ventures<\/a>.<\/p>\n But many of the deep-pocketed individuals and corporations who have given large sums have a lot riding on the administration\u2019s actions, raising questions about conflicts of interest.<\/p>\n Each of these dots represents a person or company that has given at least $250,000 to a group or project supported by Mr. Trump since he was elected to a second term.<\/p>\n The president\u2019s inaugural committee raised nearly $240 million, more than double the record, which Mr. Trump himself set in 2017. The 284 donors shown here each gave at least $250,000.<\/p>\n 284 red dots are arranged into a circle on the screen.<\/p>\n After Mr. Trump won, the fund-raising didn\u2019t stop for a super PAC devoted to him and run by his advisers. At least 81 donors gave $250,000 or more to MAGA Inc. It raised $200 million from Nov. 7, 2024, to June 30, 2025.<\/p>\n 81 of the dots separate from the main group and are highlighted.<\/p>\n According to Mr. Trump, $350 million has been raised for his White House ballroom project, which is largely being processed by the Trust for the National Mall. The Times has identified pledged or completed donations from 14 ballroom donors, which amount to about $100 million.<\/p>\n The original group of dots re-forms and a new group of 14 dots separates and is highlighted.<\/p>\n The biggest donors to the White House Historical Association to support this year\u2019s Easter Egg Roll, including the four shown here, were offered new types of branding opportunities and access to an event beforehand with Melania Trump, the first lady.<\/p>\n The original group of dots re-forms and a new group of four dots separates and is highlighted.<\/p>\n The president\u2019s team has also raised money for America250, a nonprofit group that was formed to produce celebrations for the country\u2019s semiquincentennial birthday. Eight of the donors identified by The Times sponsored this group after the 2024 election.<\/p>\n altText:The original group of dots re-forms and a new group of 8 dots separates and is highlighted.<\/p>\n Of the 346 donors identified by The Times, at least 197 have benefited, or are in industries that have benefited, from policies or actions of Mr. Trump or his administration. Those include pardons, favorable regulatory moves, the dropping of legal cases, access to the president and more.<\/p>\n altText:The original group of dots re-forms and a new group of 197 dots separates and is highlighted.<\/p>\n Hover or tap on each of the circles here to learn more about the individual and corporate donors who have given at least $250,000 to Trump-approved causes. (Dollar figures may be undercounts, since some kinds of donations do not need to be disclosed.)<\/p>\n The dots return to their original arrangement in a circle.<\/p>\n Presidents of both parties have raised funds for their inaugurations, and many major companies have long histories of donating to them. But second-term presidents usually begin winding down their own fund-raising after their inaugurations, focusing instead on boosting their parties\u2019 committees and candidates.<\/p>\n Mr. Trump, on the other hand, was emboldened by the record-breaking sum of nearly $240 million raised by his inaugural committee. He immediately tasked his fund-raising team, led by his campaign\u2019s finance director, Meredith O\u2019Rourke, to raise money for an array of groups and causes supported by the president, according to three people involved in the fund-raising. They requested anonymity to discuss nonpublic information, as did five others who discussed other elements of the fund-raising.<\/p>\n It is a buffet of options that allows donors to pay tribute to Mr. Trump and sometimes receive access to him to pitch their own interests. While the groups raising funds are independent from one another, and some are nonpartisan, they are presented to donors as part of a fund-raising apparatus to which Mr. Trump or his allies would like them to give, according to four people familiar with the fund-raising. They said Mr. Trump closely tracks which companies have given, and how much, debriefing regularly with Ms. O\u2019Rourke.<\/p>\n Lobbyists with connections in Mr. Trump\u2019s orbit recommend that their clients donate to these groups to try to win him over, said five people familiar with the fund-raising.<\/p>\n \u201cIn this town, money talks, and that is going to give you an opportunity to at least have a seat at the table,\u201d said Harrison Fields, a former Trump White House official who left in August and became a lobbyist<\/a>. His firm, CGCN Group, has represented companies that have donated to projects Mr. Trump supports, including the new White House ballroom, America250<\/a> and MAGA Inc.<\/p>\n \u201cThese people are not getting coerced. They are making business decisions,\u201d said Mr. Fields.<\/p>\n At least 51 of the donors have given to more than one of the groups in this analysis since the election.<\/p>\n While MAGA Inc., the inaugural committee and the Republican National Committee (another entity for which Trump-allied fund-raisers are soliciting money) are required to disclose their donors to the Federal Election Commission, there is no such requirement for contributions to other groups for which the president\u2019s allies are raising funds.<\/p>\n Those groups include the Trust for the National Mall, America250, the White House Historical Association, a political nonprofit group called Securing American Greatness and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, which Mr. Trump\u2019s allies have remade in his own image<\/a>, including adding his own name to the title<\/a> and the building\u2019s facade<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Times\u2019s investigation identified a number of donations, or potential benefits to donors, that had not been publicly known.<\/p>\n One $2.5 million contribution to MAGA Inc.<\/a> was given by a South Florida woman whose father months later received an unusually lenient deal<\/a> from top Justice Department officials to settle charges that he bribed Puerto Rico\u2019s then-governor in 2020.<\/p>\n Another $2.5 million pledged donation \u2014 this one to Mr. Trump\u2019s White House ballroom project \u2014 came from Parsons Corporation, an engineering firm that has won government contracts for years, including under Mr. Trump, and is jockeying<\/a> for some of the <\/a>more than $1 trillion<\/a> in contracts that could be awarded to build a missile defense system proposed by the president<\/a> called the \u201cGolden Dome.\u201d Also giving $2.5 million to the ballroom project was the chief executive of Roblox, a popular online video game company that has applauded<\/a> a Trump executive order<\/a> and other initiatives<\/a> involving children\u2019s use of artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n A couple who donated $1 million to Mr. Trump\u2019s inaugural committee and $500,000<\/a> to MAGA Inc., as well as an undisclosed amount to the ballroom fund, saw Mr. Trump nominate their son<\/a> to be U.S. ambassador to Finland.<\/p>\n And a company that was accused<\/a> last year by the Justice Department of colluding over ticket prices<\/a> donated $250,000 to Mr. Trump\u2019s inauguration. The president pardoned the company\u2019s co-founder<\/a> in a separate case this month.<\/p>\n In other cases, The Times was able to quantify large donations for which the amounts were previously unknown. Those included gifts from the technology firm Palantir, which donated $10 million to the ballroom project and $5 million to America250. Additionally, the Palantir co-founder Alex Karp donated $1 million each to the inauguration and to MAGA Inc<\/a>. In Mr. Trump\u2019s second term, Palantir has secured federal contracts<\/a> worth hundreds of millions of dollars, including to develop software to help Immigration and Customs Enforcement deport people. But a Palantir official said in a previously unpublished response to an inquiry from Senator Richard Blumenthal<\/a>, Democrat of Connecticut, that the company did not seek and was not offered any special consideration for its donation to the ballroom project.<\/p>\n While a foundation funded by Miriam Adelson<\/a>, a casino magnate, mostly supports Jewish and Israeli causes, it pledged to donate $25 million to the ballroom project, according to two people familiar with the donation. In a speech at a White House <\/a>Hanukkah<\/a> party<\/a> last week, Mr. Trump praised Dr. Adelson, a physician by training, for donating tens of millions of dollars to help his campaigns<\/a> and using her access to lobby for greater U.S. backing for Israel. Calling her to the lectern, Mr. Trump said, \u201cWhen somebody can give you $250 million, I think that we should give her the opportunity to say hello.\u201d The two embraced and bantered about how Dr. Adelson would be willing to donate $250 million more to help Mr. Trump seek an unconstitutional third term.<\/p>\n Mr. Trump\u2019s continued fund-raising is all the more striking given his boasts during his first presidential campaign a decade ago that he was an outsider whose personal wealth made him impervious<\/a> to Washington\u2019s pay-to-play politics<\/a> and the manipulation of major donors, including Dr. Adelson\u2019s late husband<\/a>.<\/p>\n Liz Huston, a White House spokeswoman, rejected the suggestion that donors were getting special treatment. She said in a statement that Mr. Trump\u2019s \u201conly motivation as the president of the United States is improving the lives of the American people and making our country greater than ever before.\u201d Donors who support him \u201cshould be celebrated, not attacked,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Donors who received administration jobs, government contracts, partnerships and approvals<\/p>\n Hover to see donor details<\/p>\n While the donations far exceed most Americans\u2019 means, the sums pale in comparison to the contracts being sought from the Trump administration.<\/p>\n Take Mr. Trump\u2019s \u201cGolden Dome\u201d missile defense project, which could yield lucrative work for a number of contractors. Palantir has already held discussions<\/a> about being involved. Firms including Lockheed Martin and Boeing also are expected to compete for pieces of the work; each company donated $1 million to Mr. Trump\u2019s inaugural committee. That is the same amount they gave to President Joseph R. Biden Jr.\u2019s inaugural committee<\/a>.<\/p>\n But Lockheed Martin also donated $10 million to the Trust for the National Mall for Mr. Trump\u2019s ballroom project and $5 million to America250, according to two people familiar with the sums. Lockheed is the primary maker of F-35 fighter jets, which cost about $80 million to $110 million each. While some national security officials have expressed concern about selling the jets to Saudi Arabia, Mr. Trump announced last month<\/a> that he planned to approve such sales. The next day, Lockheed\u2019s chief executive attended a black-tie dinner at the White House honoring Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia, which was also attended by executives for other defense contractors.<\/p>\n As for Boeing, two months after the inauguration, Mr. Trump announced that the company would be paid to build more than 180 new advanced fighter jets<\/a> for the Air Force.<\/p>\n Major defense contracts can take years to develop, bid and execute<\/a>, and there is no evidence that any such contracts were awarded as a direct result of donations.<\/p>\n Boeing\u2019s ability to pursue federal contracts could have been hindered by criminal charges stemming from two fatal crashes<\/a> of its planes during Mr. Trump\u2019s first term. But this year, the Trump Justice Department dropped the case<\/a>, entering into a settlement that required the company to improve its safety and compliance programs and pay hundreds of millions of dollars into a fund for victims.<\/p>\n Presidents have long awarded their campaigns\u2019 top donors with ambassadorships, jobs and appointments to boards and commissions. Mr. Trump appears to have taken that tradition to a new level, tapping at least 32 people for an array of positions \u2014 including in his cabinet \u2014 who have donated at least $250,000 each to his causes after the election, or whose companies or families have made such donations.<\/p>\n Among them is Howard Brodie, now the U.S. ambassador to Finland. His parents, Elizabeth and Stefan Brodie, donated to the Trump inauguration, MAGA Inc. and the ballroom project after Mr. Trump\u2019s victory in the 2024 election. The elder Brodies were invited to the White House dinner last month honoring the Saudi crown prince, and Stefan Brodie attended a dinner the month before for major donors who gave at least $2.5 million for the ballroom.<\/p>\n Another Trump ambassador nominee, the Miami mortgage lender Bernie Navarro, gave a little-noticed $1 million donation<\/a> to the inaugural committee through an obscure company registered in Puerto Rico<\/a>. Mr. Navarro, a close ally of Secretary of State Marco Rubio, said in a statement that the donation was unrelated to his interest in becoming an ambassador. \u201cIn retrospect, he is doing such an amazing job that I wish I would have done more,\u201d Mr. Navarro said of Mr. Trump.<\/p>\n In all, more than a dozen donors have been nominated or confirmed for ambassadorships.<\/p>\n Where donors received ambassadorships <\/p>\n DonorNominated or Warren Stephens<\/p>\n Gave $6 million<\/p>\n United Kingdom<\/p>\n Melissa Argyros<\/p>\n Gave $2 million<\/p>\n Latvia<\/p>\n Dan Newlin<\/p>\n Gave at least $1.5 million<\/p>\n Colombia<\/p>\n Howard Brodie<\/p>\n Parents gave at least $1.5 million<\/p>\n Finland<\/p>\n Benjamin Le\u00f3n Jr.<\/p>\n Gave at least $1 million<\/p>\n Spain<\/p>\n Melinda Hildebrand<\/p>\n Gave combined $1 million together with her husband<\/p>\n Costa Rica<\/p>\n Ken Howery<\/p>\n Gave $1 million<\/p>\n Denmark<\/p>\n Tilman Fertitta<\/p>\n Gave $1 million<\/p>\n Italy<\/p>\n Bernie Navarro<\/p>\n Gave $1 million<\/p>\n Peru<\/p>\n Anjani Sinha<\/p>\n Gave $1 million<\/p>\n Singapore<\/p>\n Peter Lamelas<\/p>\n Gave $250,000<\/p>\n Argentina<\/p>\n Nicole McGraw<\/p>\n Gave $250,000<\/p>\n Croatia<\/p>\n John Breslow<\/p>\n Gave $250,000<\/p>\n Cyprus<\/p>\n Benjamin Landa<\/p>\n Gave $250,000<\/p>\n Hungary<\/p>\n Joseph Victor Popolo Jr.<\/p>\n Gave $250,000<\/p>\n Netherlands <\/p>\n It is not possible to definitively link donations to nominations.<\/p>\n Tommy Pigott, a spokesman for the State Department, in a statement called Mr. Trump\u2019s ambassadors \u201can America first diplomatic A-team,\u201d adding that they \u201cwere chosen to help drive forward historic wins for the American people, and they have done exactly that.\u201d<\/p>\n Four of Mr. Trump\u2019s cabinet officials made personal or corporate donations of more than $250,000.<\/p>\n They include Kelly Loeffler, the administrator of the Small Business Administration. She and her husband, Jeffrey C. Sprecher, the chief executive of the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange, donated a combined total of $11 million to groups Mr. Trump favors, including $1 million to the inaugural committee and $5 million to MAGA Inc., as well as previously unreported donations totaling $5 million for the ballroom, according to records and a person familiar with the fund-raising.<\/p>\n Donors who received pardons, relaxed enforcement and other relief<\/p>\n Hover to see donor details<\/p>\n Getting a reprieve from adverse state action can be just as valuable as winning a government contract or appointment.<\/p>\n Extremity Care, a company that makes a pricey form of bandages known as skin substitutes, donated $5 million to MAGA Inc. An executive from the company then attended a donor dinner in March at Mar-a-Lago where he lobbied Mr. Trump<\/a>, whose administration announced<\/a> the next month that it would delay a Biden-era plan to limit Medicare\u2019s coverage of the bandages. Extremity Care or one of its affiliates subsequently donated $2.5 million to the ballroom.<\/p>\n And Mr. Trump has entered into deals<\/a> with a number of drug makers, including several that donated to groups he supports, to lower prices in exchange for avoiding punitive measures including threatened tariffs.<\/p>\n In two instances, Mr. Trump pardoned people whose companies or families made donations.<\/p>\n In January, amid scrutiny from the Justice Department\u2019s antitrust division, which had identified \u2014 but not charged \u2014 the venue management company Oak View Group in a lawsuit against Ticketmaster\u2019s parent company, Oak View donated $250,000 to Mr. Trump\u2019s inauguration.<\/p>\n The donation did not eliminate legal exposure for Oak View\u2019s co-founder and then-chief executive, Timothy J. Leiweke. Months later, the antitrust division charged him in an unrelated case. He stepped down as head of Oak View, and the company agreed to pay $15 million in penalties. Mr. Leiweke pleaded not guilty. But this month, before the case went to trial, Mr. Trump pardoned him<\/a>.<\/p>\n David B. Gerger, a lawyer for Mr. Leiweke, rejected a question about whether the donation was intended to avoid legal trouble.<\/p>\n \u201cAny such innuendo \u2014 whether coming from ill will or just ignorance \u2014 is false,\u201d he said in a statement.<\/p>\n In another case, the former health care entrepreneur Elizabeth Fago, after donating $1 million to MAGA Inc., attended a donor dinner with the president<\/a>. Mr. Trump pardoned her son<\/a>, Paul Walczak, less than three weeks later, sparing him from having to pay nearly $4.4 million in restitution and from reporting to prison for an 18-month sentence<\/a> for employment tax crimes.<\/p>\n Another donor with an interest in the outcome of a criminal case was Isabela Herrera, who donated $2.5 million to MAGA Inc.<\/a> late last year. At the time, her father, Julio Herrera Velutini, a Venezuelan-Italian banker, was being prosecuted by the Justice Department for trying to bribe the governor of Puerto Rico.<\/p>\n Mr. Herrera hired a former personal lawyer for Mr. Trump, who alleged that the case was an example of the political weaponization of the criminal justice system. Top Justice Department officials appeared to agree, authorizing a misdemeanor plea deal<\/a> to settle the case and overruling career prosecutors who had pushed for a harsher sentence.<\/p>\n Mr. Herrera could still face a year in prison at sentencing, which is scheduled for next month.<\/p>\n Ms. Herrera and a lawyer for Mr. Herrera declined to comment.<\/p>\n A Justice Department spokeswoman said \u201cthe decision to settle this case was made through the proper channels and was not influenced by any donation to MAGA Inc.\u201d<\/p>\n But John D. Keller, who oversaw the Justice Department division that handled the case, said in an interview that the difference between the deal and the more than 20 years Mr. Herrera could have faced if convicted of the original charges was \u201cstriking.\u201d Mr. Keller, who resigned in protest<\/a> when he was directed by Mr. Trump\u2019s appointees to drop another politically fraught prosecution, said the Herrera case \u201cappears to be another example of political considerations dictating the outcome in an individual criminal case.\u201d<\/p>\n A broader relaxation of federal scrutiny has benefited cryptocurrency companies and other corporate interests that have showered donations on Mr. Trump\u2019s groups.<\/p>\n The Securities and Exchange Commission largely abandoned its hard-line approach<\/a> to crypto trading platforms, ending lawsuits against Coinbase<\/a>, Kraken<\/a> and Ripple<\/a> after the companies each donated $1 million or more to Mr. Trump\u2019s inaugural committee, and ending an investigation into Robinhood<\/a> after it donated $2 million to the committee. Coinbase and Ripple also donated to the ballroom, while Coinbase gave to America250.<\/p>\n A spokesman for the S.E.C. said that \u201cpolitics have had nothing to do with S.E.C. actions\u201d on the cases. \u201cDecisions on these cases turn on long held publicly expressed legal and policy views,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n Donors in industries that benefited from administration policies <\/p>\n Hover to see donor details<\/p>\n In addition to specific benefits enjoyed by individual companies and people, Mr. Trump has also enacted sweeping tax cuts and taken other actions that more broadly advantage a wide range of industries, major corporations<\/a> and wealthy individuals<\/a>.<\/p>\n Last week, Mr. Trump signed an executive order<\/a> to downgrade cannabis from the most restrictive category of drugs, easing some limitations and allowing for more research. It was a major victory for a burgeoning industry that has spent heavily since the election<\/a> on lobbying and donations, including a $1 million donation to MAGA Inc. from American Rights and Reform PAC, a pro-cannabis political committee; and a $750,000 donation to the inaugural committee from Trulieve, a leading marijuana retailer. Kim Rivers, Trulieve\u2019s co-founder and chief executive, urged Mr. Trump to make the move during multiple meetings with him, including a donor dinner at his New Jersey golf club in August, according to a person familiar with the event, which was first reported by the Wall Street Journal<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are really thankful for the president,\u201d Ms. Rivers said in an interview on Thursday. \u201cHe has been consistently supportive,\u201d she added. She declined to comment when asked if she would have been granted the presidential audiences without donating.<\/p>\n The crypto industry writ large has benefited from Mr. Trump\u2019s cheerleading, as well as his championing and signing into law a bill creating the first federal rules for stablecoins<\/a>, a popular form of digital currency. At least 27 companies or executives with interests in crypto gave a total of at least $58 million to groups Mr. Trump favors after the election, The Times found.<\/p>\n Mr. Trump has also favored the fossil fuel industry, directing tens of billions of dollars in incentives<\/a> to companies, allowing drilling in the Alaska wilderness, and repealing environmental regulations. About two dozen companies with interests in oil, gas and coal donated at least $41 million.<\/p>\n Likewise, the administration has pushed regulatory changes and other executive actions that benefit Big Tech, tobacco interests, private equity firms and the defense and aerospace industry. (In all of the industries discussed here, individuals and firms may have benefited to different degrees from these actions.)<\/p>\n Danielle Alvarez, a spokeswoman for the R.N.C., said Mr. Trump \u201chas governed and delivered results for every American,\u201d citing his efforts to secure the Southern border and crack down on fentanyl trafficking, among other initiatives. She said Mr. Trump \u201cis grateful to his donors, but unlike the politicians of the past, he isn\u2019t bought by anyone.\u201d<\/p>\n Donors who received invitations, access and praise<\/p>\n Hover to see donor details<\/p>\n Since retaking office, the president has lavished his post-election donors with praise and access to himself and his inner circle. In some cases, the attention can provide a competitive business advantage. In others, it may only mean bragging rights.<\/p>\n At least 100 donors have attended exclusive dinners and events with Mr. Trump at the White House, accompanied him on overseas trips that include meetings with foreign dignitaries and prospective business partners \u2014 or both. About half have popped up at multiple events. Regular visitors to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue include Jensen Huang, chief executive of Nvidia; Lisa Su, chief executive of AMD; Tim Cook, chief executive of Apple; and others.<\/p>\n Mr. Trump is fond of using these presidential forums to call out friends and donors in the room.<\/p>\n \u201cSo many of you have been really, really generous,\u201d Mr. Trump told donors to the ballroom project he convened at the White House for a thank-you dinner in October<\/a>. He singled out defense contractor donors (representatives for Booz Allen Hamilton, Lockheed Martin and Palantir were in the room), saying the United States was \u201cthe greatest manufacturer of weapons.\u201d<\/p>\n And it\u2019s not just Mr. Trump.<\/p>\n The White House has used government platforms to praise major donors to a wider audience. At least 67 post-election donors have been positively featured, often multiple times, in official press releases, social media posts and other communications.<\/p>\n There is a flip side to Mr. Trump\u2019s willingness to reward loyalty. His efforts to punish perpetrators of perceived slights<\/a> have been an animating theme of his second term \u2014 and a motivating factor for at least some of the donors to his favored causes, according to three people familiar with the fund-raising.<\/p>\n They said that major donors and corporations fear incurring Mr. Trump\u2019s wrath by not giving, or not giving as much as their rivals, and that they donate out of concern that he might publicly attack them or even use the levers of government against them. Donations, they said, serve as a form of protection \u2014 or, if things have already soured, as an olive branch.<\/p>\n But it\u2019s no guarantee. For some companies that have given large sums since the election, Mr. Trump and his administration\u2019s actions have not been exclusively helpful.<\/p>\n Pilgrim\u2019s Pride, a massive poultry producer, donated $5 million to Mr. Trump\u2019s inaugural committee, making it the biggest donor. Good news for the poultry industry followed: In April, the Trump administration withdrew a Biden-era proposal that would have required poultry companies to keep levels of salmonella bacteria under a certain threshold and to test for six dangerous salmonella strains.<\/p>\n And in June, after years of attempts, federal regulators approved a public listing<\/a> on the New York Stock Exchange for JBS, the Brazilian firm that owns Pilgrim\u2019s Pride. But then last month, Mr. Trump directed the Justice Department<\/a> to investigate JBS and three other meat packing giants, accusing them of \u201cdriving up the price of beef through illicit collusion, price fixing and price manipulation.\u201d<\/p>\n In another example, Mr. Trump\u2019s relationship with Mark Zuckerberg has been a mixed bag over the years. But when Mr. Trump won last fall, Mr. Zuckerberg and Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and other platforms, took steps that seemed designed to appease<\/a> the incoming president. Meta donated $1 million to his inauguration, as did other tech companies and executives<\/a> that had occasionally been crosswise with Mr. Trump, including Amazon<\/a>, Google<\/a> and Apple\u2019s chief executive<\/a>, Mr. Cook. The companies\u2019 executives were given prominent places<\/a> behind Mr. Trump inside the Capitol rotunda as he was sworn in.<\/p>\n Days after the inauguration, Meta announced that it had agreed to pay $22 million<\/a> to Mr. Trump\u2019s library foundation to settle a lawsuit. Google agreed to donate a similar sum<\/a> for the ballroom project to settle a similar suit. (Those settlement amounts are not included in the analysis presented in this article, nor are payments to the Trump library foundation by Paramount Global and ABC News to settle separate lawsuits<\/a> brought by Mr. Trump.) Meta also donated at least $2.5 million for the ballroom project, according to a person familiar with the fund-raising.<\/p>\n And Amazon, Meta and Google each donated at least $200,000 to the White House Historical Association to sponsor the annual Easter Egg Roll<\/a>. While Meta and Google had sponsored the event during the Biden administration, top sponsors have not traditionally been expressly offered access to a pre-event brunch with the first lady as a donor perk<\/a>, according to a person familiar with the event.<\/p>\n The offer came from a private event production firm on contract with the association, and not the association itself, which does not offer access to the White House or first family as an inducement for donations, according to a person familiar with previous fund-raising efforts.<\/p>\n Mr. Zuckerberg unsuccessfully lobbied Mr. Trump<\/a> and his aides to derail a federal antitrust lawsuit against Meta. (A judge dismissed the case<\/a> on its merits last month.) But the company has won other victories from the administration. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau ended an investigation<\/a> into Meta\u2019s advertising for financial products in September, amidst a Trump-led push to kill the agency<\/a>. And Mr. Trump this month signed an executive order<\/a> to neuter state laws that limit the artificial intelligence industry \u2014 a major growth area for Meta, Google and other tech companies.<\/p>\n (The New York Times has sued three tech companies that are among, or whose executives are among, the donors in this analysis \u2014 Microsoft, OpenAI<\/a> and Perplexity<\/a> \u2014 claiming copyright infringement of news content related to A.I. systems. The companies have denied the suits\u2019 claims.)<\/p>\n As Mr. Trump\u2019s term moves into its second year, there are signs that the president and his allies intend to continue the fund-raising push.<\/p>\n MAGA Inc. has already announced dinners for donors who give $1 million or more, with Mr. Trump at his golf club in the Virginia suburbs of Washington in January and at his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Fla., in February, according to invitations reviewed by The Times<\/a>.<\/p>\n And the Donald J. Trump Presidential Library Foundation has indicated in filings<\/a> that it intends to raise $950 million before the beginning of Mr. Trump\u2019s final year in office.<\/p>\n If anything, the buffet of options to which donors can give appears to be expanding.<\/p>\n Last week, Mr. Trump announced<\/a> the creation of a new initiative called Freedom 250, which will raise money from corporations and donors to fund events and projects dear to him as part of the celebration of the 250th anniversary of the country\u2019s independence. Those include an arch overlooking Washington<\/a> in the style of the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, a National Garden of American Heroes<\/a>, a prayer event on the National Mall and a four-day competition for high school athletes.<\/p>\n Freedom 250 will be housed inside the National Park Foundation, a nonpartisan nonprofit group. Last month, at the behest of the Trump administration, the foundation quietly added to its board Ms. O\u2019Rourke, who will raise money for Freedom 250, and Chris LaCivita, who helped run Mr. Trump\u2019s 2024 presidential campaign.<\/p>\n Ms. O\u2019Rourke did not respond to a request for comment. Mr. LaCivita declined to comment.<\/p>\n Methodology<\/p>\n The Times created a database of every person, company and organization that Federal Election Commission filings indicated had donated at least $250,000 to the inaugural committee or MAGA Inc. after the 2024 election. After establishing this initial universe, The Times, through interviews and other reporting, expanded the database to include donors to Trump-supported groups and projects that \u2014 unlike the inaugural committee and MAGA Inc. \u2014 are not required to disclose their donors, including the White House ballroom project, the White House Easter Egg Roll and America250.<\/p>\n Reporters combed through documents and interviewed dozens of people to determine the donors behind each contribution (some of their identities were obscured in public filings by corporate structures), as well whether and how each donor may have benefited from actions by Mr. Trump or his administration. This involved reviewing lobbying disclosures; campaign finance and corporate filings; Securities and Exchange Commission reports; agency memos; government contracting databases; corporate and government press releases; White House pool reports; social media posts; transcripts, photographs and video from White House events; and other documents. The Times reached out to everyone identified as having benefited from actions by Mr. Trump or his administration. Some people and companies did not respond or declined to comment. Others said they did not benefit from the administration\u2019s actions. And others did not dispute the characterization.<\/p>\n In some cases, companies had existing contractor relationships with the federal government; this analysis included new contracts and renewals only, not those awarded in previous administrations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Illustration by the New York Times. Photos by Haiyun Jiang for The New York Times; Kevin Lamarque\/Reuters; The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":77862,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[128,1452,38798,9,24,63,10867,129,131,130,1069,1876],"class_list":{"0":"post-77861","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-the-bronx","8":"tag-bronx","9":"tag-donald-j","10":"tag-make-america-great-again-maga-inc","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-city","13":"tag-nyc","14":"tag-philanthropy","15":"tag-the-bronx","16":"tag-the-bronx-headlines","17":"tag-the-bronx-news","18":"tag-trump","19":"tag-united-states-politics-and-government"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77861","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77861"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77861\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77862"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77861"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77861"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77861"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
confirmed ambassador to…<\/p>\n