Amazon donates $1 mn to Donald Trump's inaugural fund as Bezos plans visit

By Magan Crane and Matt Day

 

Amazon.com Inc. is donating $1 million to President-elect Donald Trump’s inaugural fund, a company spokesperson said, joining Meta Platforms Inc. in contributing to the festivities as tech companies look to build positive relationships with the administration. 

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is also meeting with Trump next week, the president-elect said Thursday, highlighting his contacts with tech titans. 

 

“Bezos is coming up next week,” Trump said in an interview with CNBC after he rang the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange. 

 

Besides the direct donation, Amazon is also streaming the inauguration as an in-kind donation worth $1 million, the spokesperson said Thursday. The Wall Street Journal earlier reported the donations, which are from company coffers and not funded by Bezos, Amazon said.

 

Trump said Thursday Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg had met with him as well and noted his extensive contact with Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk. Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, has also donated $1 million to the Republican’s inaugural fund.

 

“I want to get ideas from them,” he said of business leaders. “Look, we want them to do well.” 

 

Bezos has a range of business interests that touch on the federal government. Blue Origin, his rocket company, has contracts with Nasa. Amazon, mostly through its cloud computing arm, is a major contractor for defense, intelligence and other federal agencies. And during Trump’s first term, the president lashed out at the billionaire over coverage of his administration by the Bezos-owned Washington Post. The newspaper opted not to endorse a candidate for president this election.

 

Bezos said he was “very optimistic” about Trump’s second term during an appearance at The New York Times’ DealBook summit earlier this month.

 

“I am very optimistic this time around, I am very hopeful, he seems to have a lot of energy around reducing regulation, and if I can help him do that, I am going to help him,” Bezos said.

 

Musk, also a sizable federal contractor, has been a frequent guest of Trump’s since the November election. Musk was also asked to help run a federal cost-cutting initiative called the Department of Government Efficiency.