Google and Microsoft have donated $1m every to Donald Trump’s inauguration fund, following within the footsteps of different main corporations together with Amazon, Meta, OpenAI and Uber.
“Google is happy to assist the 2025 inauguration, with a livestream on YouTube and a direct hyperlink on our homepage. We’re additionally donating to the inaugural committee,” Karan Bhatia, Google’s international head of presidency affairs and public coverage, confirmed in an announcement to the Guardian on Thursday.
The tech large made the donation on Monday, CNBC reported. José Castaneda, a Google spokesperson, advised the outlet that the corporate has donated to earlier inauguration funds and beforehand hosted livestreams of inauguration ceremonies.
A Microsoft spokesperson confirmed the corporate’s donation to Trump’s inaugural fund in an announcement to Bloomberg on Thursday. The corporate donated $500,000 every to Trump’s inauguration in 2017 and Joe Biden’s inauguration in 2021, Bloomberg experiences.
A slew of different main corporations made hefty donations to Trump’s inauguration fund within the final month; the fund will cowl features and actions related with the ceremony. Amazon, Meta and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman have all made donations of $1m, in addition to Toyota and Uber.
The contributions, which have helped Trump’s inaugural committee increase a document $170m in donations, look like an try by tech giants to curry good favor with Trump forward of his second time period. By comparability, Joe Biden’s inauguration raised $63m in 2021 whereas Barack Obama’s inaugurations raised $53m in 2009 and $42m in 2013.
Trump has had a fraught relationship over time with main tech oligarchs and their companies who he has accused of liberal bias and politically-motivated content material suppression. In September, Trump threatened to order the justice division to hunt prison fees in opposition to Google over claims that it elevated unfavorable tales about him throughout his presidential marketing campaign.
But, along with his inauguration across the nook, each Trump and varied tech giants have skilled a tonal shift – a noticeable departure from their criticisms of Trump throughout his involvement in January 6.
After Trump’s win in November, Google’s CEO Sundar Pichai – who beforehand known as the January 6 riots “the antithesis of democracy” – congratulated Trump for his “decisive victory”.
Then, throughout a press convention final month, Trump mentioned: “The primary time everyone was combating me… This time everybody needs to be my buddy.”
Elsewhere within the tech world this week, Meta’s chief Mark Zuckerberg – who in 2021 mentioned Trump “ought to be answerable for his phrases” – introduced that the corporate shall be eliminating factcheckers and “dramatically cut back the quantity of censorship” throughout its platforms.
Zuckerberg mentioned Meta will even be recommending extra political content material throughout its platforms together with Fb, Instagram and Threads.
Chatting with CNBC final December about main tech executives, Brendan Glavin, director of analysis for OpenSecrets, a Washington DC-based money-in-politics non-profit, mentioned Trump’s inauguration poses a “nice alternative for them to curry favor with the incoming administration”.
“None of those individuals, they don’t need to be Trump’s punching bag for 4 years,” he added.
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