FRIENDS WITH BENEFITS

Trump Suck-Ups’ ‘Mind-Blowing’ Jackpots Revealed

A new report has laid bare the benefits enjoyed by Trump’s biggest donors.

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The “mind-blowing” windfalls enjoyed by Donald Trump’s biggest donors have been revealed in a new report.

More than 75 entities and individuals who have given a total of nearly $1.7 billion to the president’s political groups, inauguration fund, pet projects such as his ballroom, and family businesses since 2023 are identified in The Center for American Progress’ (CAP) report, which it first shared with the Daily Beast.

The tally also includes the estimated $400 million luxury Boeing 747-8 jet that Qatar gave the U.S. government as an “unconditional” gift in 2025, which has served as a temporary Air Force One.

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The policy institute’s findings suggest those parties have received, or are set to receive, more than $182 billion in government-related benefits since Trump returned to office, based on conservative estimates.

Those benefits include federal contracts, advantageous government policy, and tariff and trade exemptions, but the report does not allege a criminal quid pro quo between the Trump administration and any of his donors.

“We’re documenting money and timing and benefits received, but we can’t read minds. We can only follow the data,” senior director of research at CAP Ryan Koronowski told the Beast, adding that the scale was “mind-blowing.”

Among the report’s biggest winners are defense titan Lockheed Martin, which is reported to have donated $16 million to Trump-related causes, including $5 million from its subsidiary Sikorsky for the new White House helipad. Lockheed has secured $44.8 billion in new or expanded contracts since Trump returned to the White House, the report states.

Donors from the fossil fuel industry have injected $65.7 million into Trump’s political groups, his inauguration committee, and funding for his ballroom, according to CAP. Its report says the industry will benefit by $31.2 billion from the administration’s policies and tax benefits.

Other major firms named in the report include tech titans Apple, MAGA bro Elon Musk and his various companies, and AI firm Palantir and its executives.

Apple donated $25 million towards Trump’s ballroom, the Washington Post reported, and then-CEO Tim Cook personally put $1 million into the president’s inauguration fund. After Cook met with Trump, the administration issued a tariff exemption on Chinese electronic components that the report claims saved Apple $21 billion.

Musk and his firms are reported to have plowed $394.9 million into MAGA-affiliated causes, including $388.9 million funding the world’s richest man’s pro-Trump America PAC. CAP attributes more than $14 billion in benefits to Musk-associated companies, including a dropped DoJ discrimination suit against SpaceX, which has also received several government contracts under the Trump administration.

Palantir and its executives contributed $12 million to Trump-linked causes, including the ballroom, the report notes. Later, the Army consolidated dozens of existing Palantir software contracts into a deal with a ceiling of up to $10 billion over a decade, which the military said at the time would save money. The report does not suggest the executives personally benefitted from this sum.

Among the other major players is Reynolds American, a subsidiary of British American Tobacco and the U.S.’s second-biggest tobacco firm. The report states that the company donated $20.5 million to Trump entities, including $2.5 million towards the White House ballroom.

The Trump administration withdrew the FDA’s proposal to ban menthol cigarettes the day after the president returned to office, allowing Reynolds American to continue selling Newport—the U.S.’ most popular menthol cigarette brand. The company stands to preserve around $6 billion in revenue as a result of the proposed ban being dropped.

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“Money gains you influence, which gives you more money, which gives you more influence, which gives you more money. And it’s very circular,” said Devon Ombres, a CAP senior director and co-author of the report. He acknowledged that such dynamics exist beyond Trump but have been “supercharged to a degree that we’ve never seen before.”

Will Ragland, vice president of research at CAP, called the matter “a pocketbook issue” and described policymaking as “for and by the highest bidder.”

“They are leaving families out to dry,” he added.

The authors told the Beast they cut off contributions after September 30, 2026, and acknowledged that they excluded indirect finances, including those associated with Trump’s daughter Ivanka and her husband Jared Kushner.

The Daily Beast has contacted the White House, the Army, Apple, SpaceX, Tesla, Palantir, Lockheed Martin, and British American Tobacco for comment.

The report was written by Ombres, Koronowski, Ragland, and Jackie Lewis. You can read the full version, which includes a searchable table of the data, here.

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