WASHINGTON—A handful of capitalist billionaires have bought themselves control not only of Monday’s inauguration of the re-elected criminal Trump but also control of his Cabinet, control of the policies of his incoming administration and control of the incoming president himself.
The figure of $200 million the billionaires have spent on the inauguration is only a preliminary one that is expected to grow, according to Public Citizen which has kept a running tally of the expenses. The brazen buying of a president, his administration and numerous other lawmakers will be a major concern of people descending in protest this weekend upon the nation’s capital.
The billionaire money and the things on which it is being spent pose a major problem for workers and their allies. The dollars corporations spend on Trump’s blowout exceed recent normal, non-election yearly budgets for the AFL-CIO, the largest labor federation in the country, for example. And the capitalist oligarchs forking over all that cash expect a big return on their investment. They are expecting they can drown out the efforts of labor and allied organizations that represent 99 percent of the people in the country.
By contrast, regular citizens are paying their own way to D.C. for counter-protests, with the top one being a Women’s March scheduled for January 18.
Trump will take the oath of office in a ceremony at the U.S. Capitol on January 20. Taxpayers will pick up much of the tab for that.
Further spending by D.C., for extra security, imported cops, high steel fences closing blocked-off streets and maybe National Guard troops, will stick the Nation’s Capital with a multimillion-dollar bill, too. D.C. later invoices the federal government for its extra expenses, but Congress can dilly-dally about paying up. Regardless, all of those major expenses will be on the backs of the taxpayers, not the billionaires. Their money goes entirely for political control and influence over the president and his administration. Not a dime is going to help the public.
When it comes to inaugural balls, a big private bash at the city’s Capital One basketball-hockey arena, days of fireworks beforehand and various parties are the places where the capitalist billionaires and corporate moguls step in, Public Citizen reports.
They fork over the funds, the organization adds, and demand their favors in return–deregulation, worker repression, sweetheart contracts and the like.
The actual contributions don’t have to be reported until 90 days after the inaugural, but some of the big givers have already gone public with their sums, and Public Citizen has been compiling them. The late reporting rules guarantee that reports on what the billionaires are thus far well below what the final totals will be.
Most of the contributions of the rich and famous start at $1 million—and go up from there. If you want to be “cheap,” and donate perhaps only $100,000 all you get is a seat in the back of the church on January 19, the service the Trumps will attend. Tetzel, the German monk who sold indulgences in the 1500’s said that the more money that jingles in the church collection box, the higher your soul jumps into heaven. There is no word, however, on whether the $100,000 donations required to gain entrance to the church will buy the donors any assurance of heavenly bliss in the next life.
Relishing his ability to almost literally roll in all the money Trump himself trumpeted earlier on his Truth Social media account: “EVERYBODY WANTS TO BE MY FRIEND!!!” The capitalization and exclamation points are his.
Million-dollar donors get much more thatn just a seat in the back of the church: “An exclusive Cabinet Reception” with top Trump appointees, almost all of whom hail from the billionaire capitalist and corporate class, an “intimate dinner” with Vice President-elect J.D. Vance and a candlelight dinner with Trump. That costs $250,000 more.
Long and troubling precedent
“While the self-serving motivations of inaugural donors have a long and troubling precedent, the scope of donations and, in many cases, the fear of retribution driving the donations to the Trump-Vance Inaugural Committee represents a worrying shift,” Public Citizen says.
The “fear of retribution,” by the way, refers to firms that swore off giving to Trump after he incited and ordered the U.S. Capitol insurrection, invasion and attempted coup d’etat four years ago. Now, remembering Trump holds grudges, they’ve come crawling back, Public Citizen adds.
Its solution to such largesse and accompanying quid pro quos is sunshine: Campaign finance reform, featuring dollar limits on donors and full disclosure of their identities and motives, backed by tough enforcement and fines.
With Congress now under total Republican control, and with the party’s historic hate of campaign contribution limits and disclosure, stretching back to the days of Ohio industrialist Mark Hanna and his puppet President William McKinley more than a century ago, don’t bet on it.
Meantime, all the group can do is compile the list and shine light on it.
“Cryptocurrency firms and their CEOs have come out of the woodwork to embrace” Trump, who nominated a cryptocurrency CEO to be Commerce Secretary. The industry, which has nothing solid—like gold, silver or the U.S. Treasury—to back its funny money, expects “complete deregulation,” Public Citizen says.
“Ripple has pledged $5 million for the inauguration, followed by $1 million each from Coinbase, Moonpay, Kraken and others,” it reports.
Some pre-Elon Musk, Silicon Valley moguls backed Democrats even while they oppressed their own workers. Now Meta/Google CEO Mark Zuckerberg and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman have shelled out $1 million each to pay for Trump’s big bash. They still oppress workers, too, of course. Expect a Trump-named NLRB majority to allow it.
Another $1 million came from Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos. He battles his workers, who are unionizing due to dangerous conditions in his warehouses. Bezos also gave Trump a pre-election “gift,” ordering the editorial board of the capital’s leading newspaper, the Washington Post, to stay neutral in the presidential race. And now the Washington-Baltimore News Guild, which represents the paper’s workers, is battling a round of layoffs the new Bezos-installed editor ordered.
The financiers of Wall Street, such as hedge fund manager Ken Griffin, the Bank of America, Goldman Sachs and Ondo Finance, kicked in $1 million each. That crowd brought you the 2008 Great Recession which threw millions out of work and tossed multi-employer pension plans into financial toilets.
“The record-breaking cesspool of special interest financing for the Trump-Vance Inaugural Committee, Inc., raises serious concerns about the ability of corporations and wealthy special interests to purchase influence over public policy or lucrative government contracts,” says Craig Holman, a government ethics expert at Public Citizen.
There may be one element that could crimp the festivities, if not the cash flow: Snow. It’s expected for Sunday, January 19. The 20th will be clear, but bitterly cold, with a high of 23 degrees and a low of 11.
John Wojcik contributed to this story.
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