ICYMI: WSJ – Inside Big Tech's Multi-Million-Dollar Bid to Buy Trump's Favor

The Tech Oversight Project

The Tech Oversight Project

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WASHINGTON, DC – Today, The Tech Oversight Project blasted Big Tech CEOs for funneling millions into President Trump's personal and political projects in exchange for access and favorable treatment, on the heels of the Wall Street Journal’s new bombshell investigation into how Trump personally turns corporate donations into government favors.

"Meta got caught cutting Trump a $10 million check for one of his personal dark money organizations – then the White House helped Mark Zuckerberg avoid testifying to Congress under oath about the mounting evidence his company and its platforms have been knowingly harming our kids for years. OpenAI CEOs give $25 million to Trump’s superPAC while they’re lobbying the government for immunity for catastrophic risk. That's the kind of deal Big Tech is buying with these donations – and that the Trump administration is selling: write a check, dodge accountability, deny kids and families a fair say, block any and all rules, and keep looting the store no matter how much damage they cause," said Sacha Haworth, Executive Director of The Tech Oversight Project.

Highlights from WSJ’s bombshell reporting:

How the operation works

  • Trump runs it personally. He has raised more than $800 million since returning to office – calling his fundraiser, Meredith O'Rourke, nightly and handing her the names of people he's just met with. He often tells her to ask for far more than she planned, pushing some requests to $25 or $50 million. On calls, she has told companies "the boss wants this money."
  • The money hides in plain sight. Millions in corporate donations flow through entities that don't have to disclose donors – the White House ballroom nonprofit, Trump's presidential library, and political committees like Securing American Greatness, a Trump-aligned 501(c)(4).

Big Tech’s central role

  • Meta: Donated a previously unreported $10 million to Securing American Greatness, on top of a multi-million-dollar ballroom gift and $22 million to the presidential library – the library money coming after Meta settled Trump's lawsuit over his suspended accounts. Recently, Meta executives held a series of internal calls to strategize after being repeatedly hit up for money.
  • Apple: Donated roughly $25 million toward the White House ballroom.
  • Microsoft: Donated roughly $10 million toward the ballroom.
  • Amazon: Donated roughly $5 million toward the ballroom.
  • TikTok: Donated roughly $2 million toward Freedom 250.
  • OpenAI: Sam Altman is a regular at Trump's $1 million-per-head donor dinners; co-founder Greg Brockman and his wife personally gave $25 million to Trump's super PAC last year.
  • Google: Paid $24.5 million to settle Trump's lawsuit over his suspension from YouTube – with $22 million earmarked for the White House ballroom. The WSJ reports co-founder Sergey Brin sat next to White House chief of staff Susie Wiles at a recent Rose Garden dinner.

How the money shapes policy

  • “The Trump Transaction Tax.” That’s the new Wall Street shorthand for the price companies now pay to stay in the president's good graces on top of the normal cost of doing business.
  • Donor events buy access. At $1 million-a-head candlelight dinners, donors are given “extraordinary access” to the president.
  • O'Rourke is the conduit. She attends the dinners and takes notes on what Trump promises donors and what donors want, then routes those notes to other White House officials. Trump tells donors to follow up with her, and she sits in on his meetings with executives about the issues affecting their companies, even though she is not a federal employee or appointee.
  • Meta donated big, then secured White House intervention with Congress. According to Politico, when the Senate Judiciary Committee moved to put Mark Zuckerberg under oath over what Meta's platforms do to kids, the White House intervened so a lower-profile executive would testify in his place.  
  • Meta and OpenAI are lobbying for immunity from lawsuits. Meta has lobbied Congress for immunity from child safety lawsuits. OpenAI has pushed for rules that would limit when AI labs can be held liable — even in cases where their products cause “critical harm.” Big Tech is trying to create a permanent legal shield and is greasing government wheels to get it.
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