US President Donald Trump’s inaugural committee raised an unprecedented $239 million for the events surrounding his 2025 swearing-in — shattering past records and drawing scrutiny over the outsize influence of billionaires and corporate giants.
According to a Federal Election Commission filing, the top donor was Colorado-based poultry giant Pilgrim’s Pride, which contributed $5 million. Major cryptocurrency players Ripple Labs and Robinhood followed with donations of $4.9 million and $2 million, respectively.
Several top donors have since been tapped for prominent government posts. Arkansas financier Warren Stephens, who gave $4 million, was nominated as US ambassador to the UK, while billionaire Jared Isaacman — awaiting Senate confirmation to lead NASA — contributed $2 million. Education Secretary Linda McMahon and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent also appeared on the donor list with $1 million and $250,000 contributions, respectively.
Among corporate donors, Meta and Amazon each gave $1 million, reportedly securing prime seats at the January 20 ceremony in the Capitol Rotunda for CEOs Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos. Chipmaker Nvidia, facing trade restrictions with China, also gave $1 million.
The Trump Vance Inaugural Committee reported taking in $245.3 million and refunding just over $6 million. Roughly 60% of the total came from more than 130 individual million-dollar donations, underscoring the heavy reliance on high-dollar donors to finance the lavish events.
Notably, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, hedge fund manager Paul Singer, and Trump political ally Miriam Adelson were among those contributing $1 million personally.
Steve Kerrigan, who produced inaugural events for Barack Obama and Joe Biden, said Trump’s figures are far beyond what is required. “There’s simply no need for that level of spending unless it’s intended to buy access,” he told CNN.
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Two of China’s biggest electric-vehicle makers may have to return a combined 373 million yuan (about $53 million) in state aid after a government audit said nearly 22,000 cars sold up to 2020 should never have qualified for clean-energy incentives.
China said it is ready to "continuously" boost strategic coordination with Moscow. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday that Beijing is prepared to help safeguard both countries’ security and development interests.
Russia’s health watchdog said on Friday it is monitoring an anthrax outbreak in Kazakhstan’s Akmola region, where two villages were quarantined after infections in cattle and local residents.
Belarus will play an active part in next month’s United Nations conference for landlocked developing countries in Turkmenistan, Foreign Minister Maksim Ryzhenkov told his Turkmen counterpart Rashid Meredov during a telephone call on Thursday.
Australian researchers have pioneered a low-cost and scalable plasma-based method to produce ammonia gas directly from air, offering a green alternative to the traditional fossil fuel-dependent Haber-Bosch process.
A series of earthquakes have struck Guatemala on Tuesday afternoon, leading authorities to advise residents to evacuate from buildings as a precaution against possible aftershocks.
A deadly mass shooting early on Monday (7 July) in Philadelphia's Grays Ferry neighbourhood left three men dead and nine others wounded, including teenagers, as more than 100 shots were fired.
On July 4, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Khankendi, reaffirming the deep-rooted alliance between the two nations.
The 17th Summit of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) was successfully held in Khankendi, Azerbaijan, highlighting the region’s revival and the deepening economic cooperation among member states.
France recorded over 100 drowning deaths in just one month — a 58% rise from last year — as unusually high temperatures drove more people to water, public health officials say.
Germany’s public debt is projected to climb from 62.5% to 74% of GDP by 2030, driven by record defence and infrastructure spending, according to a report by the European rating agency Scope.
Migration offset natural decline for the fourth consecutive year, pushing the European Union’s population to an historic high of 450.4 million in 2024, according to Eurostat figures released on Friday.
The global oil market may be tighter than headline supply-demand figures suggest, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said Friday, citing rising refinery activity and seasonal summer demand as key drivers of short-term market pressure.
China’s exports are expected to have grown 5% in June as manufacturers hurried goods abroad ahead of a 12 August deadline that could see the U.S. restore punitive tariffs, a Reuters survey of economists indicates.
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