Amazon and Meta set to give whopping sum to Trump’s inauguration fund

Major tech companies are seeking to improve their relationship with the incoming president.

Amazon is planning to donate $1 million (€950,000) to President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration fund, a company spokesperson confirmed on Thursday evening.

The e-commerce giant will also stream Trump’s inauguration on its Prime Video service, which is viewed as a separate in-kind donation – worth another $1 million.

Amazon’s announcement came after Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, said earlier in the day that it had donated $1 million to Trump’s inauguration fund.

It also followed a confirmation from Trump on Thursday morning that Jess Bezos, Amazon’s founder, was planning to visit him next week.

Feuds forgotten?

The meeting marks a change in relations, as the two men haven’t always seen eye to eye.

Bezos has criticised Trump’s rhetoric – while Trump criticised political coverage at The Washington Post during his first term. Bezos has owned the paper since 2013.

In 2019, Amazon also argued in a court case that Trump’s bias against the company harmed its chances of winning a $10 billion Pentagon contract.

The Biden administration later pursued a contract with both Amazon and Microsoft.

Bezos has recently struck a more conciliatory tone.

Last week, he said at The New York Times’ DealBook Summit in New York that he was “optimistic” about Trump’s second term, while also endorsing the president-elect’s plans to cut regulations.

In October, Bezos did not allow the Post to endorse a presidential candidate.

The move led to tens of thousands of people cancelling their subscriptions and sparked protests from journalists at the newspaper.

At the time, Bezos wrote in an op-ed in the newspaper that editorial endorsements create a perception of bias at a time when many Americans don’t believe the media.

Meta’s donation

The donation from Meta, meanwhile, came just weeks after CEO Mark Zuckerberg met with Trump privately at Mar-a-Lago.

The tech CEO has been seeking to mend a rocky relationship with Trump.

Trump was kicked off Facebook following the attack on the US Capitol on 6 January 2021. The company restored his account in early 2023.

During the 2024 campaign, Zuckerberg did not endorse a candidate for president, but he has voiced a more positive opinion of Trump.

Earlier this year, for instance, he praised the president-elect’s response to his first assassination attempt.

Still, Trump continued to attack Zuckerberg publicly during his election campaign. In July, he posted a message on his own Truth Social platform threatening to send election fraudsters to prison in part by citing a nickname he used for the Meta CEO. “ZUCKERBUCKS, be careful!” Trump wrote.

Past inaugurations

Corporations have traditionally made up a large share of donors to presidential inaugurals, with an exception in 2009, when then-President-elect Barack Obama refused to accept corporate donations.

He changed his stance for his second inaugural in 2013.

Facebook did not donate to either Biden’s 2021 inaugural or Trump’s 2017 inaugural.

Google donated $285,000 (€271,000) each to Trump’s first inaugural and Biden’s inaugural, according to Federal Election Commission records. Inaugural committees are required to disclose the source of their fundraising, but not how they spend the money.

Microsoft gave $1 million to Obama’s second inaugural, but only $500,000 (€475,000) to Trump in 2017 and Biden in 2021.

Amazon had donated roughly $58,000 (€55,000) to Trump’s 2017 inaugural, much lower than the $1 million it now plans to donate.

The company also streamed Biden’s inauguration on Prime Video in 2021.