Trump’s Ballroom Donors: Companies Facing Court, Regulatory Issues And Currying Favor

Image: Public Citizen
India-West News Desk

WASHINGTON, DC — Corporate and billionaire donors backing Donald Trump’s planned White House ballroom have extensive business interests before the federal government, including billions in contracts and multiple regulatory disputes, according to a new report by the watchdog group Public Citizen.

The report found that two-thirds of the 24 corporate contributors to the lavish project have received federal contracts totaling $279 billion over the past five years. Defense giant Lockheed Martin alone accounted for $191 billion of that sum, making it the largest government contractor among the group.

Fourteen of the companies are either currently facing federal enforcement actions or have seen such actions suspended under the Trump administration, Public Citizen said. The cases include antitrust investigations involving Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia and T-Mobile; labor rights cases against Amazon, Apple, Caterpillar, Google, Lockheed Martin and Meta; and Securities and Exchange Commission proceedings involving Coinbase and Ripple.

The donors collectively have spent more than $1.6 billion on lobbying and campaign contributions during the same period. Public Citizen said the companies’ stated lobbying interests span a wide range of federal issues, from tax and trade policy to defense procurement, privacy, cybersecurity and infrastructure regulation.

Public Citizen Co-President Robert Weissman, one of the report’s authors, said the donations were a clear attempt to curry favor with Trump’s administration.

“These giant corporations aren’t funding the Trump ballroom debacle out of a sense of civic pride,” Weissman said in a statement. “They have massive interests before the federal government and they undoubtedly hope to receive favorable treatment. Millions to fund Trump’s architectural whims are nothing compared to the billions at stake in procurement, regulatory and enforcement decisions.”

Weissman warned that the ballroom project represented more than routine influence-seeking, calling it a sign of corporate complicity in what he described as Trump’s “authoritarian project.”

“They should withdraw their contributions,” he added.

Read full report here: https://www.citizen.org/article/banquet-of-greed-trump-ballroom-donors-feast-on-federal-funds-and-favors/