A viral post that originated on the Bluesky social media platform on January 4 and made its way to Instagram and Threads claims that Meta, Google, Amazon, Apple CEO Tim Cook, and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman all donated $1 million to Donald Trump’s inaugural fund, while the same donors gave significantly less—or nothing at all—to Joe Biden’s inauguration. “The oligarchy is here,” the post says.
The post is mostly true, but is missing important context. Trump’s 2025 inaugural fund has raised more than $150 million so far, including from four of the five donors listed in the post. Biden, however, also received large commitments from corporations and billionaire donors, many of whom haven’t donated to Trump’s 2025 inauguration. The post also erroneously includes Google—which has not donated to Trump’s inauguration—on the list of donors to the incoming president.
In December, Meta confirmed that it had donated $1 million to Trump’s inaugural fund, and shortly afterward both Amazon and Altman confirmed that they would each donate $1 million. On January 3, Axios reported that Apple CEO Tim Cook had also donated $1 million of his personal money to Trump’s inaugural fund. Google, however, is yet to announce any donations. The Dispatch Fact Check has contacted Google for comment.
Biden’s 2021 inaugural fund received $61.8 million in total donations. This included $1 million donations from several large corporations, including Pfizer, AT&T, Bank of America, Boeing, Uber, Lockheed Martin, Qualcomm, and PepsiCo. Google, which has not yet donated to Trump’s inaugural fund, donated about $337,000 to Biden’s fund, while Amazon gave around $276,000. Microsoft, another tech giant that has not donated to Trump’s fund, gave $500,000 to Biden. Several billionaire donors, including both former Microsoft CEO Bill Gates and then-wife Melinda Gates, also gave significant sums.
All modern presidents have received donations for their inaugural ceremonies, but the more than $150 million raised so far by Trump’s 2025 inaugural committee is the most received by an incoming president, eclipsing the then-record $107 million brought in by Trump in 2017. Barack Obama, by comparison—who refused corporate and individual donations exceeding $50,000 for his first inauguration—raised $53 million in 2009. Obama reversed his policy on big-money donors for his second inauguration, but raised only $47 million, including $4.6 million from AT&T and $2.1 million from Microsoft in 2013. George W. Bush—who also imposed a limit on maximum donations—raised around $35 million for his 2001 inauguration and nearly $43 million for his 2005 ceremonies.
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