Why business leaders spend big

Top CEOs and their companies are pledging millions of dollars to the president-elect Donald Trumpinaugural committee as they try to get on his good side and get through before he takes office.

Some of planned donations apparently include $1 million each Jeff Bezos' AmazonOpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Facebook's parent company Metahosted by Mark Zuckerberg. Others include $2 million Robinhood Markets and $1 million from both Uber and its CEO, Dara Khosrowshahi.

Ferry Is apparently combining your own $1 million donation with a fleet of vehicles.

Hedge fund manager Ken Griffin also said he plans to donate $1 million to the inaugural committee on a tax-free basis, Bloomberg reported. There are also reports of other donations from financial leaders in the works.

Bolstered by his decisive election victory, Trump has vowed to revamp U.S. economic policy in a way that could greatly benefit a few favored industries, such as fossil fuels.

At the same time, he telegraphed the value, both personal and political, that he placed on face-to-face meetings and public praise from the CEOs of the world's largest companies.

“EVERYONE WANTS TO BE MY FRIEND!!!” Trump wrote in a post on Thursday about the topic Social truththe social media application he runs technology company.

Many of these CEOs have already made or plan to make trips to Mar-a-Lago, Trump's Palm Beach, Florida, resort and de facto transition headquarters in a bid to gain influence and access to the new administration.

To that end, Trump's inaugural committee presents a “unique opportunity,” Brendan Glavin, director of research at the money-in-politics nonprofit OpenSecrets, said in an interview.

Inaugural committees appointed by presidents-elect plan and finance much of the pomp and events that traditionally accompany the transition of power from one administration to the next.

While the money ultimately goes to a recent political candidate's benefit, it does not carry the same connotations as a donation to, say, a super PAC, which can fund partisan political activities that could cause controversy.

And unlike directly contributing to a candidate's campaign, there are no limits on how much an individual – a corporation or labor group – can donate to the inaugural committee.

Moreover, because Trump has already won the election, the inaugural contribution carries no risk that an influential board member will support the losing candidate.

“This is a really great opportunity for them to curry favor with the new administration,” Glavin said.

While it's nothing new for corporations and power brokers to shower inaugural committees with big money, experts told CNBC that the Trump factor is changing the calculus.

“It's all escalated now,” Glavin said. “None of these people want to be Trump's punching bag for four years.”

Trump's inaugural committee and his transition team did not respond to requests for comment.

Trump's 2017 inaugural committee earned about $107 million, by far the most in U.S. history. The previous record was set in 2009 during the first inauguration Barack Obamawhose committee raised $53 million.

Trump's second inauguration is on track to break that record, with pledges already exceeding its $150 million fundraising goal. The case was reported by ABC News.

President Joe BidenBy comparison, the inaugural committee gathered almost $62 million.

“One of the oldest sayings in Washington is that if you're not at the table, you're on the menu, and the price of a seat at the table keeps going up,” said Michael Beckel, research director at Issue One, a political reform group. .

The boost in funding for Trump's second inaugural committee comes in part from tech giants, many of which largely avoided supporting his first inauguration.

In addition to GoDaddy.com founder Robert Parsons, who donated $1 million, several other Big Tech leaders have donated to The Trump Committee in 2017.

Trump once openly clashed with some of them, including Zuckerberg and Bezoswho also owns the Washington Post, a frequent target of the president-elect's ire.

This time it's not like that. As Trump promises to tear up tons of federal regulations, he continues to accuse Big Tech of stifling competition, and industry leaders may become more dependent on their relationship with the White House than ever before.

“I'm actually very optimistic.” – said Bezos Trump's second presidency in an interview given on December 4 during The New York Times' DealBook conference. “I am full of hope. He seems to have a lot of energy in reducing regulations. And from my point of view, if I can help him with that, I will help him. Because we have too many regulations in this regard in the country.”

The comments came after The Washington Post scandal in October, when the newspaper reported it Bezos has decided not to publish his editorial office's support for the vice president Kamala Harris over Trump. Bezos v op-ed defended the newspaper's decision to stop supporting presidential candidates, but the change caused an outflow of subscribers and prompted many employees to resign in protest.

Nowhere is Trump's newfound friendliness toward the tech world more evident than in his blossoming relationships with Tesla and the SpaceX CEO Elon Muskwho spent more than $250 million to help elect Trump.

Musk, the world's richest man, frequently appeared at Trump's side before and after his election victory and was reportedly involved in all aspects of Trump's transition planning. He and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy were appointed to head an advisory group tasked with reducing government costs.

This could put Altman in charge of OpenAI, which he currently is embroiled In lawsuit for breach of contract brought by Musk in an awkward situation.

In addition to his inaugural $1 million donation, Altman praised Trump earlier this month. “President Trump will lead our country into the era of artificial intelligence, and I am eager to support his efforts to keep America ahead,” he said.

Craig Holman, a government affairs lobbyist at the progressive nonprofit Public Citizen, told CNBC that the numbers were “very fearful that Donald Trump might retaliate against them.”

“So they throw money at him” to gain favor, Holman said.

Four days after the presidential election, Trump announced the formation of the Trump Vance Inaugural Committee, Inc., a 501(c)(4) nonprofit organization. It is co-chaired by real estate investor Steve Witkoff and a former Republican senator. Kelly Loeffler Georgia, who is also Trump's pick to head the Small Business Administration.

Reince Priebus, who was one of Trump's White House chiefs of staff during his first term, said in a speech Post X that he was elected chairman of the finance committee.

Priebus also shared a screenshot of the invitation, which listed the names of other finance chairs. They include Miriam Adelson, a GOP megadonor who spent the money This year, $100 million on pro-Trump super PAC and billionaire donor Trump Diana Hendricks.

Inaugural committees are required to publicly disclose the names of donors who have given $200 or more, but these reports are not due until 90 days after the inaugural ceremony.

If the committee has a surplus after all the festivities, determining how much is left can be a challenge.

Trump's 2017 inauguration was a smaller event than Obama's 2009 inauguration, although Trump raised more than twice as much money for it as Obama. As a result, it was widely expected that the Trump committee would be left with tens of millions of dollars after paying for balls and hotels.

But years later it was true no one knows what happened too much of this money.

Federal records show that roughly a quarter of all funds raised, or $26 million, were paid to: newly established company led by an adviser to first lady Melania Trump.

“We look at the history of inauguration funding and it's clear that it comes from very large donors, wealthy special interests and corporations, almost all of which have issues to answer to the federal government,” said Public Citizen's Holman.

He added: “It's a real cesspool of buying favors.”