WASHINGTON — Corporations hoping for favorable outcomes from the Trump administration have pledged to present not less than $63 million to Donald Trump’s future presidential library, based on a brand new evaluation from Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.).
Past that, different promised presents and in-kind donations from particular curiosity teams carry the entire worth of presents pouring into Trump’s future library to not less than half a billion {dollars}.
“The timing of those donations – coming whereas Trump sits in workplace and makes essential selections that will influence the identical donors – raises severe moral issues about potential bribery and Affect-peddling,” reads Warren’s report, first obtained by HuffPost. “Most of the presents got here within the type of settlements to Trump-filed lawsuits.”
The Massachusetts senator is barely spotlighting the identified presents and cash being pledged for Trump’s library; it’s attainable there are different corporations promising donations that aren’t but public. However her report marks the primary time that all the identified cash and presents flowing into the president’s future library are specified by one place.
There are just about no restrictions on donations to presidential libraries. U.S. presidents have been organising libraries for themselves because the Nineteen Thirties to honor their legacies as soon as they’re out of workplace and to let the general public study what they did.
What units Trump aside from his predecessors, as Warren notes, is the magnitude of questionable donations he’s been taking whereas in workplace.
Paramount, for one, is donating $16 million to Trump’s future presidential library as a part of a settlement over a “60 Minutes” phase. Legal professionals had dismissed Trump’s lawsuit as baseless, however Paramount agreed to this settlement because it’s been making an attempt to finish a multibillion-dollar merger with the Hollywood studio Skydance, a deal that requires the Trump administration’s sign-off.
Meta is donating $22 million to Trump’s library. Trump beforehand sued the corporate for banning his Fb and Instagram accounts after he incited an riot on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. However since Trump received reelection in 2024, the corporate’s proprietor, Mark Zuckerberg, has been blatantly sucking up to him. Zuckerberg gave $1 million to Trump’s inauguration and even attended the ceremony, sitting with a few of Trump’s Cupboard members. Zuckerberg has additionally rolled again content material moderation guidelines on his firm’s platforms.
ABC Information is donating $15 million to Trump’s library after settling a defamation swimsuit with him. A number of media attorneys believed ABC Information had a strong case, however the media firm settled in late 2024, simply earlier than Trump’s second time period started. ABC Information clearly needs entry to his administration for its reporting, and its mum or dad firm, Disney, has a lot of business interests that will require assessment by the Trump administration.
Even X, the social media platform owned by Trump’s ex-buddy Elon Musk, is giving $10 million to his future library. Like Zuckerberg, Musk settled a lawsuit with Trump after beforehand banning him from the platform over the Jan. 6 riot. His corporations Tesla and SpaceX have tens of billions of dollars in federal contracts that Trump may finish.
Past all the company settlements pouring in from media entities, corporations like Prompt Pot and Lenox Company have pledged to donate all proceeds from their Trump-themed merchandise to the president’s future library.
There’s even a international authorities promising presents: The Qatari authorities is donating a $400 million jet that may later be transferred to Trump’s library. Why would Qatar care a few U.S. president’s future library? Perhaps as a result of it’s hoping the Trump administration will protect the U.S. army base within the nation, which Qatar has spent billions developing.
You possibly can learn Warren’s full report here.
“We might be seeing big corporations like Paramount and Meta and international nations like Qatar pay Trump off in plain sight,” the senator stated in a press release to HuffPost. “Authorities ought to work for the American individuals, not simply whichever big firm or international authorities can dump probably the most cash into the president’s future library.”
