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This week, we take a long look at the intersection of Big Tech, the White House ballroom project, AI and the potential for new government contracts. Plus, civil rights groups are increasing their lobbying expenditures while President Trump makes sweeping changes race-related policies. |
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Trump ballroom donors poised to benefit from AI plan they helped shape |
Eight days before the White House announced plans to build a 90,000-square-foot ballroom for state dinners and special events, President Donald Trump launched his AI Action Plan, a sweeping effort with more than 90 federal policy actions to accelerate artificial intelligence development across the U.S. government and American businesses. The plan included executive orders aimed at easing permitting for massive data centers, expanding federal support for AI exports and reducing regulatory barriers for a tech industry racing to scale. When Trump publicly announced the ballroom project on July 31, 2025, he said the construction would be funded entirely by private donations, including his own, and pegged the cost at $200 million. He has since doubled that estimate to $400 million and voluntarily disclosed the names of 37 private donors backing the project. Major technology and AI firms make up roughly a quarter of those reported donors, which include cloud giants such as Amazon, Microsoft and Google; data and analytics contractors like Palantir and Booz Allen; and consumer tech companies such as Apple and Meta. A smaller number of defense contractors, including Lockheed Martin, and cryptocurrency companies such as Coinbase and Ripple also appear on the list. AI chipmaker Nvidia, which is not on the White House list, has also donated, according to CEO Jensen Huang, and Alphabet, Google’s parent company, contributed $22 million toward construction of the ballroom as part of a settlement after YouTube banned Trump following the Jan. 6, 2021, storming of the Capitol. Emma Sullivan did a deep dive into lobbying and federal contracts data to see how those companies are already benefiting from influence campaigns. |
- Several of the ballroom donors — including Microsoft, Palantir, and Amazon Web Services — receive billions in federal contracts. Google’s public sector arm claimed it signed a $200 million contract last year.
- These companies also rank among the top spenders on lobbying, with Meta, Amazon and Alphabet reporting $19.8 million, $14 million and $12.3 million, respectively, during the first three quarters of 2025.
- Recent OpenSecrets reporting found that the number of lobbyists for AI and data center companies has surged alongside the construction of new facilities, including a seven-fold increase at OpenAI and dozens of new hires at Meta.
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Several of these ballroom donors — including Alphabet, Amazon, Microsoft, Nvidia and Palantir — are major tech companies that stand to benefit from the AI Action Plan, and some were involved in shaping the plan itself: In February 2025, the White House’s Office of Science and Technology Policy solicited input from industry and academia, with Alphabet, Microsoft and Palantir among those submitting recommendations before the March 15 deadline. Some ethics experts warn that the White House’s unprecedented reliance on private funding could give those donors undue influence over the president, particularly over policies that directly affect their businesses, including on artificial intelligence. |
- “There is a concern that when companies give to a favored project of the president, they’re going to get more favorable treatment in decisions about grants, contracts and procurement, regulation, enforcement or non-enforcement of existing rules, or about the writing of rules that would affect how these companies do their business,” said Richard Briffault, a professor at Columbia Law School who formerly served as chairman of the New York City Conflicts of Interest Board. “Without any evidence or allegations of quid pro quo of any specific details, there’s this general sense that you’re kind of buying favorable treatment.”
- “We have nowhere near the transparency that you have with political campaigns,” said Richard Painter, a professor at the University of Minnesota Law School who served as chief ethics lawyer in the White House Counsel’s Office under President George W. Bush. “It’s a huge problem. It’s very hard to get this information, and yet this is another way to buy influence.”
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White House spokesman Davis Ingle told OpenSecrets: “The same critics who are alleging fake conflicts of interests would also complain if American taxpayers were footing the bill for these long-overdue renovations. The donors for the White House ballroom project represent a wide array of great American companies and generous individuals, all of whom are contributing to make the People’s House better for generations to come.” |
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Civil rights groups ramp up lobbying as Trump administration rolls back protections |
Under President Donald Trump, America is refighting some of the battles of the 1960s and civil rights groups are responding by spending more money in Washington. As Americans prepare to celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Monday, Black officials and activists say the gains they’ve made over the last 60 years are being eroded. “It is an unfortunate reality, the defensive posture every civil rights organization finds itself in at the moment,” said Cedric Haynes, vice president, policy and legislative affairs for the NAACP, the nation’s oldest civil rights organization. The Trump administration has ended federal diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility programs in the federal government; removed references to accomplishments by Blacks and other minorities; and championed changes to election law that disproportionately would affect minority voters. Civil rights organizations have responded by stepping up their lobbying efforts in 2025, as Trump returned to the White House. |
- The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund reported spending $180,000 on lobbyingduring the first nine months of 2025, up from $100,000 during the same period a year earlier, although still well below its totals from 2022-2024. (Final disclosures for the year will be filed Jan. 20.)
- Lobbying spending by the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights approached $1.7 million January to September 2025, an increase over the $1.5 million in expenses reported during the same time in 2024.
- The Brennan Center for Justice at New York University Law School spent $80,000 during the first nine months of 2025, the same amount as in 2024.
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Trump has made policy changes after sharply increasing his support among minority voters, which helped him return to the White House and defeat the first Black woman nominated for president by a major political party. Trump garnered 15 percent of the Black vote last fall, almost double his 8 percent share in 2020, according to the Pew Research Center’s analysis of the 2024 electorate. That included one in five Black men, even after former President Barack Obama chastised them in Pittsburgh during the campaign for even thinking about backing Trump. Republicans also ate into Democrats’ historically strong financial support from human rights groups. In 2024, while individuals and political action committees affiliated with human rights organizations gave Democrats 79 percent of their campaign contributions and 21 percent to Republicans – down from a 94–6 split in Democrats’ favor in 2020 and the lowest Democratic share since 2012. |
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Money did not always buy Senate wins in 2024 |
The three top-spending Senate campaigns of 2024 all lost. The highest-spending victor was Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who spent $75.2 million in 2023-2024 to defeat Colin Allred (D), whose campaign spent $92.4 million. |
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Want to know who’s funding the candidates and causes shaping our democracy? With our Donor Lookup tools, you can quickly and easily: |
- Search millions of federal campaign contributions by name, employer, or location.
- See who’s giving to which candidates, parties and PACs.
- Explore patterns of political giving that help explain the forces behind elections.
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Whether you’re a concerned voter, journalist, researcher, or just a curious citizen, Donor Lookup puts transparency at your fingertips. |
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See our media citations from outlets around the nation this week: |
GOP Stock Trading Bill Leaves Glaring Conflicts Untouched (Sludge) While holding these tech stocks, Hickenlooper has not been a strong critic of Big Tech companies like many of his colleagues. For example, he never signed onto a series of antitrust bills designed to go after Apple (i.e. the Open App Markets App) or Microsoft (i.e. the American Innovation and Choice Online Act). His campaign contributors reflect this, with both Microsoft and Apple ranking among his top donors, according to OpenSecrets, which tallies individual donors by employer. |
These are the treatments dominating the business of living longer (The Washington Post) The Alliance for Longevity Initiatives, formed in 2022 to advance aging research in the United States, is lobbying the federal government to recognize aging as something that is treatable. The group, which has spent at least $283,000 in federal lobbying since 2022, according to OpenSecrets, in April held its second summit on Capitol Hill and congressional briefing that included opening remarks from Dr. Mehmet Oz, the administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. |
The health care debate is back in Washington. It never really went away (The Associated Press) Major reforms inevitably run into a health industry — a broad group of interests ranging from pharmaceutical and health services companies to hospitals and nursing homes — that spent more than $653 million on lobbying in 2025, according to OpenSecrets, which tracks political spending. |
Former US Rep. Mary Peltola launches Senate bid against incumbent Dan Sullivan (Anchorage Daily News) Senate races involving Sullivan have topped the charts for spending in Alaska, including in 2020, when Sullivan with a 13% margin beat Al Gross, an independent who ran with the Democratic nomination. About $57 million was spent by the candidates and outside groups in that election, according to OpenSecrets, an organization tracking money in politics. The Peltola and Begich race in 2024 was also costly, with more than $40 million spent in total, OpenSecrets reported. |
When helplessness turns to rage: A mom’s guide to channeling grief into action (Motherly) Stop buying from companies that donate to politicians who vote against child welfare, education funding, and healthcare access. Use resources like Goods Unite Us (an app that lets you scan barcodes while shopping to see companies’ political donations) or OpenSecrets.org to research where your money actually goes. |
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