President Donald Trump’s primary Super PAC has raked in over $200 million this year, with the donations ranging from unseemly to objectively funny.
Perhaps the most notable donor to the group, MAGA Inc., is Elon Musk, who gave $5 million in late June despite publicly feuding with the president ever since he left his role leading Trump’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency. The world’s richest man made his contribution on June 27, several days before Trump publicly mulled deporting him.
Another comical name: Jared Isaacman, who had been Trump’s nominee to lead NASA. The president decided to pull his nomination because he previously donated to Democrats, yet Isaacman gave $1 million a month later.
It’s not all fun and games, though. There was plenty of money to be found from billionaires, fossil fuel companies and executives, cryptocurrency firms and investors, health care behemoths, big banks, and other businesses with vested financial interests in policy decisions coming out of Trump’s administration, according to MAGA Inc.’s filing on Thursday. (Musk, for his part, remains a massive government contractor.)
The single biggest donor to MAGA Inc. since the start of the year is Jeff Yass, who gave $15 million in March. Yass’ financial firm owns a big stake in the Chinese parent company of TikTok. Trump has allowed the platform to continue operating in the U.S. despite Congress passing legislation last year banning TikTok from doing so unless it’s sold. Trump has twice signed executive orders extending the deadline.
MAGA Inc. received a combined $25 million in February from pipeline giant Energy Transfer LP and its CEO Kelcy Warren. On the first day of his second term, Trump rescinded Joe Biden’s executive order blocking the permit for Energy Transfer’s controversial Keystone XL Pipeline. “We want the Keystone XL Pipeline built!” Trump posted on Truth Social a few days after the donations.
America’s largest health insurer, UnitedHealthcare, donated $5 million to MAGA Inc. in January, days before Trump took office. The embattled insurer, which has been reeling in the wake of the murder of its CEO, is being investigated by the Trump Justice Department over its Medicare billing practices.
The Super PAC received $5 million in February from Extremity Care, a company that sells so-called skin substitute bandages. In April, the Trump administration delayed a Biden administration policy that would limit Medicare spending on the wildly expensive bandages, which cost the essential health program billions of dollars each year.
As Trump and his family build a massive crypto fortune, he has aggressively pushed the industry’s interests in Washington and sought to deregulate the exceedingly risky assets. He recently signed legislation creating new, light-touch regulations for so-called stablecoins, crypto assets with a price pegged to the U.S. dollar.
Crypto interests have poured money into his Super PAC. Foris DAX Inc., better known as crypto.com, donated $10 million. Blockchain.com gave $5 million.
Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, the crypto investors who lead the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, have each donated $3 million. Gemini Trust Company, a crypto exchange launched by billionaire twins Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, has donated $1.4 million; the twins kicked in another $1 million together. Crypto investment firm Paradigm Operations gave $1.2 million.
Kelly Loeffler, Trump’s Small Business Administration chief, donated $2.5 million to MAGA Inc. Warren Stephens, Trump’s ambassador to the United Kingdom, gave $1 million to the Super PAC in February, two weeks after his nomination was formally submitted to the Senate.
Health care entrepreneur Elizabeth Fago contributed $1 million to MAGA Inc. in April. Weeks later, Trump granted her son, who had pleaded guilty to tax crimes, a full and unconditional pardon.
Tools for Humanity, an eyeball-scanning company co-founded by OpenAI’s Sam Altman, is another major donor to MAGA Inc., giving $5 million. Tools for Humanity has reported lobbying the Trump administration on issues related to digital identification, artificial intelligence, privacy, and cybersecurity.
Other donors to MAGA Inc. include Estée Lauder heir Ronald Lauder ($5 million); Intercontinental Exchange chair Jeffrey Sprecher ($5 million); sugar giant Florida Crystals ($2 million); tobacco firm Reynolds American Inc. ($2 million); Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones ($1 million); and big bank JPMorgan Chase ($964,000).
MAGA Inc. also received nearly $14 million in dark money from Securing American Greatness, a pro-Trump nonprofit that does not disclose its donors.
