Lawmakers are pressing Meta, Apple, Google and others over Trump’s massive donations

Sense. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Michael Bennet (D-CO) are pressuring large tech companies to explain their motives for donating to President-elect Donald Trump’s inaugural fund. In letters to Amazon, Apple, Google, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI and Uber, lawmakers raise concerns about companies that facilitate “evade scrutiny, limit regulation and buy favors.”

Over the past few weeks, Google, Microsoft, Apple CEO Tim Cook, Meta, Amazon and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman each donated $1 million to Trump’s inauguration, and Uber and its CEO Dara Khosrowshahieach contributed $1 million. Many of these tech executives have already met with Trump, and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is even hosting a launch party for the fresh president, According to New York Times.

These significant donations dwarf the amount most of these companies contributed to President Joe Biden’s 2021 inaugural fund. submitting an application to the Federal Election Commission shows that Uber donated $1 million to the event, followed by Microsoft’s donation of $500,000, Google’s donation of $337,500, and Amazon’s donation of $276,509. Apple contributed just $43,200 to Biden’s inauguration, while Meta and OpenAI contributed no support at all.

In his writings, sense Warren and Bennet point to the regulatory scrutiny the Biden administration has directed at large tech companies. “You have a clear and direct interest in obtaining favors from the new administration: Your company and many other Big Tech donors are already the subject of ongoing federal investigations and regulatory actions,” the lawmakers write. “These donations raise questions about corruption and the influence of corporate money in the Trump administration, and Congress and the public deserve answers.”

Biden echoed those concerns in his farewell message this week, saying he was particularly concerned about “the potential rise of a technological-industrial complex that could pose a real threat to our country.”

Sense. Warren and Bennet asked Amazon, Apple, Google, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI and Uber several questions, asking for “justification” for their comments and “when and under what circumstances” the companies decided to make the donation. They are giving companies until January 30 to respond.