Business leaders and wealthy donors are surrendering to President Donald Trump’s demands for more money, and his team said it expects to amass an eye-popping $500 million by summer.
According to Axios, Trump is hoarding cash partly because he doesn’t want his second administration to be seen as a lame duck, even though he’s constitutionally prohibited from running again. Of course, the fundraising efforts will benefit Trump first and foremost. With half a billion dollars in his coffers, Trump could surely continue wielding control over the GOP, using the money to punish his dissenters.
“The money is just pouring in at Mar-a-Lago. Trump doesn’t have to lift a finger. Everyone’s coming to him,” one anonymous Trump adviser told Axios. The adviser added that Trump’s team is “on track” to raise $500 million by June. “It’s sort of a target but it’s just a realistic projection of what’s happening.”
The money is feeding into several accounts, including Trump’s inauguration fund, the MAGA Inc. super PAC, the Securing American Greatness nonprofit, the Republican National Committee, and the fund for Trump’s future presidential library.
While it’s been thoroughly reported that business and tech moguls are major Trump donors and were being rewarded with plum seats at Trump’s Jan. 20 inauguration, people from the cryptocurrency industry are blowing them out of the water. A Trump adviser told Axios that “crypto guys” were giving as much as $20 million.
Notably, it’s not just tech and crypto bros added to Trump’s treasure trove of cash. The donors come from a wide range of industries—from agriculture and insurance to finance to health care.
These donations are a stark change from what we saw four years ago, when some companies pledged to rethink or withhold their donations from Republican lawmakers who voted to overturn the results of the 2020 election. While many of those companies later resumed their donations, Trump apparently kept a list of those who didn’t and is reminding them that they’ll only get richer once he’s back in the White House.
“You guys made this amount of money last year and you’re gonna make so much more now because of me,” Trump told the representatives of one company, according to Axios.
Trump is also apparently holding a grudge over the fact that some of the donors now knuckling under were nowhere to be found during his 2024 presidential campaign. One company’s consultant told Axios that Trump was “raking [a client and future donor] over the coals” after they paused donations.
“When I needed you, where the fuck were you? You weren’t with me and maybe you were with [Vice President Kamala Harris],” Trump reportedly said.
But he has made clear that his newfound treasure trove of cash won’t go toward benefitting those who donated. A second Trump adviser put it plainly: “He’ll take your money and then tell you, ‘I don’t give a fuck what you want.’ He did that during the campaign. … He’s going to do what he wants, what the base wants.”
Vivek Ramaswamy, who is set to co-lead the planned advisory commission known as the Department of Government Efficiency
This hasn’t stopped the donations from pouring in, however. Axios reported that some donors are holding out hope that getting back on Trump’s good side—even if they don’t get any tangible legislative rewards for their giving—is worth it. After all, getting on Trump’s bad side is known to negatively affect companies, just look at Meta, the parent company of Facebook.
Plus, in the words of one anonymous lobbyist who spoke with Axios, these companies don’t want to “get DOGE’d” by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, who have threatened to cut an unspecified amount of federal spending once they’re co-leading the toothless advisory commission known as the Department of Government Efficiency.
With all this money stockpiled—and the ability to keep raking it in—Trump will surely use it to punish his enemies, reward those who are loyal to him, and help Republicans keep power in Washington, D.C., where they hold slim majorities in both the House and Senate.
In life, and in politics especially, money is power. With this, Trump can continue his reign as de facto leader of the GOP for not only his next four years in the White House but also long afterward.
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