WASHINGTON — Firms hoping for favorable outcomes from the Trump administration have pledged to offer at the least $63 million to Donald Trump’s future presidential library, in response to a brand new evaluation from Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.).
Past that, different promised presents and in-kind donations from particular curiosity teams deliver the overall worth of presents pouring into Trump’s future library to at the least half a billion {dollars}.
“The timing of these donations – coming while Trump sits in office and makes critical decisions that may impact the same donors – raises serious ethical concerns about potential bribery and Influence-peddling,” reads Warren’s report, first obtained by HuffPost. “Many of the gifts came in the form 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 doable 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 establishing libraries for themselves because the 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. Attorneys had dismissed Trump’s lawsuit as baseless, however Paramount agreed to this settlement because it’s been attempting 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 rebel on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. However since Trump gained 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 robust case, however the media firm settled in late 2024, simply earlier than Trump’s second time period started. ABC Information clearly desires entry to his administration for its reporting, and its guardian firm, Disney, has a number of enterprise pursuits which will require evaluate 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 rebel. 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 Immediate 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 can later be transferred to Trump’s library. Why would Qatar care a few U.S. president’s future library? Possibly 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 creating.
You’ll be able to learn Warren’s full report right here.
“We could be seeing giant companies like Paramount and Meta and foreign countries like Qatar pay Trump off in plain sight,” the senator stated in an announcement to HuffPost. “Government should work for the American people, not just whichever giant company or foreign government can dump the most money into the president’s future library.”
