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Graphic Truth: Trump’s inauguration shatters records
Corporate America is showing unprecedented support for Donald Trump’s inauguration, donating record-breaking amounts. Many companies from the tech, fossil fuel, financial services, and automotive industries have doubled their donations since Trump’s first term in 2017.
Not only are companies giving larger amounts than they did for Trump’s first inauguration, but they are also announcing their contributions months before required federal reporting – a contrast from 2017, when many companies tried to distance themselves from the president-elect, or in 2021, when many companies publicly cut ties with Trump following the Jan. 6 insurrection.
Top donating companies include the world's five biggest tech firms like OpenAI and Uber, major auto manufacturers like Toyota, Ford, and GM, healthcare companies like Pfizer, and financial services like Robinhood and Intuit – all of which have each donated at least $1 million. Microsoft doubled its usual contribution to $1 million, while Google more than tripled its previous donations to $1 million as well.
Government watchdogs question how this money will be spent. While the inaugural committee must disclose donors who give more than $200 within 90 days of taking office, there are no restrictions on contribution amounts or requirements to disclose how the money is spent. Trump also has an allied super PAC and a 501(c)4 group accepting donations which do not need to be disclosed. Between the private donations to the inaugural fund and the PACs, Trump is expected to rake in $250 million before taking office.
The logic: Companies don’t give unless they expect to get something in return, and the writing on the wall right now – from the inauguration’s overflowing coffers to dinners costing $250 thousand a plate – is that companies believe they can, or need to, pay up if they want to influence or enjoy favorable policies under the incoming administration.Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, on Inauguration Day, 1933.
HARD NUMBERS: Term limits, Day fit for a King and a president, Benefits of brevity, Presidential addresses clarified
22: Franklin Delano Roosevelt was the only American president to be inaugurated four times, serving from 1933 to 1945. In 1951, the United States Congress ratified the 22nd Amendment to the US Constitution, limiting future presidents to a maximum of two terms in office.
2: For only the second time in history, Inauguration Day coincides with Martin Luther King Jr. day, a federal holiday that honors the slain civil rights leader on the third Monday of January. Many liberal and progressive groups have pledged to focus on traditional days of service to mark the King holiday rather than inauguration day itself, while some protest marches against Trump are expected as well.
8,445: The longest inaugural address in US history was delivered by William Henry Harrison, whose speech ran to 8,445 words. After speaking for nearly two hours without a coat or hat on a wet and chilly Washington day in January 1841, Harrison fell ill, developed pneumonia, and died a month later. The shortest inaugural was George Washington’s second, which ran to just 135 words, half the length of this Hard Numbers section.
40: Trump is the 47th president, but how many have given inaugural addresses? Only 40, as it turns out. Four US presidents were actually vice presidents who ascended to office due to death or assassination and never won an election of their own, so they didn’t get the chance to give an inaugural address. Two US presidents have been counted twice because they served nonconsecutive terms – Grover Cleveland was the first, and Donald Trump is the second.