Democrats vs. Republicans: who do the billionaires back?

Influence can come in many forms but in US politics it very often comes with money. Never has that been more true than today, said The Washington Post. “In an era defined by major political divisions and massive wealth accumulation for the richest Americans, billionaires are spending unprecedented amounts.”

In 2024, 100 billionaire families donated $2.6 billion to candidates across state, congressional, senate and presidential elections – more than two-and-a-half times the amount spent in 2020, according to Americans for Tax Fairness.

The “eye-popping amounts speak to the shifts in political power granted to the affluent and corporations” since “unlimited campaign donations” were permitted in 2010, said The Guardian. The landmark Citizens United ruling effectively classed campaign donations as constitutionally protected speech and extended personhood rights to corporations. It unleashed a 28-fold increase in election spending and, as a result, US politicians are “more dependent on the largesse of the billionaire class than ever before, giving one-four-hundredth of 1 percent of Americans extraordinary influence over which politicians and policies succeed”, said The Washington Post.

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Nor are donations the only path to power for the ultra-wealthy; according to the Post, at least 44 of the 902 US billionaires on Forbes magazine’s 2025 list were either elected or appointed to state or federal office in the past 10 years or are married to spouses who were.

While the majority of mega-donors back the Republicans and Donald Trump, some of the richest Americans have risked the administration’s ire by throwing their support behind the Democrats.

Elon Musk: Republicans

The Tesla, X and SpaceX boss emerged as one of the most vocal Trump supporters – and prominent donors – during the election campaign. He spent more than a quarter of a billion dollars backing Trump and other Republican candidates, according to Federal Election Commission filings reported by CBS News. While this made him the largest donor in the 2024 election cycle to either party, it represented just a fraction of his estimated $647 billion fortune. Aside from financial support, Musk’s ownership of X (formerly Twitter) provided a crucial platform to support the Maga message before – and after – election day.

Musk went on to become one of Trump’s closest advisers, earning him the nickname “First Buddy”. Efforts to “reshape” the federal government through the Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) made him “perhaps the most important figure in the new administration”, said The New York Times.

While Musk’s relationship with Trump “went up in flames in June”, with the pair engaging in a tit-for-tat spat on social media that at one point threatened to overwhelm the president, it has since “been rebuilt”, said Politico. The world’s richest person recently predicted that the US is at the start of a “great 12-year span” composed of the second Trump administration followed by two consecutive J.D. Vance terms.

Though he has “taken a step back from politics, the tech mogul – and his dramatically outsized political spending – would be a powerful booster for Vance if he runs in 2028 and Musk chooses to be involved”.

Jeff Bezos: Republicans

In 2016, the founder of Amazon, and the world’s fourth-richest man, warned Trump could “erode” American democracy. Once derided as a “woke” capitalist, over the years Bezos has “changed his tune” when it comes to dealing with Trump, said The Seattle Times.

In the run-up to the 2024 presidential election he blocked his newspaper, The Washington Post, from endorsing a candidate for the first time in decades, sparking an “uproar”, including a quarter of a million cancelled subscriptions and concerns about conflicts with Bezos’ financial interests, said the paper. Later, Amazon donated $1 million to fund the Trump inauguration, which Bezos himself attended.

Bezos’ and Trump’s relationship appears to have warmed further, with the Post making a “political realignment” that saw an “exodus of top talent”, said Vanity Fair. This appears to have paid dividends for Bezos, with his Blue Origin space company winning a $2.3 billion contract from Nasa. Amazon is also among a number of tech giants, including Apple, Google, Microsoft and Meta, that have contributed funds to Trump’s $300 million White House ballroom.

Mark Zuckerberg: Republicans

Meta, the parent company of Facebook, also contributed to the inauguration fund coffers. Zuckerberg, the company’s CEO and sixth wealthiest person in the world, did not endorse either candidate during the campaign, but did call Trump’s response to the July assassination attempt “badass”, and reportedly phoned Trump to wish him a speedy recovery. Trump claimed that Zuckerberg told him, “I will never vote for people running against you after watching what you did”.

The relationship between the two has not always been easy – Trump has in the past threatened to send Zuckerberg to prison for life – but the tech titan has moved quickly to ingratiate himself with Trump.

Over the past year, Zuckerberg has “appeared to go out of his way both publicly and financially to please the 79-year-old Trump”, said Bloomberg. He’s also “pushed through key corporate and product changes Trump favours – like eliminating hate speech rules and dismantling diversity and outside fact-checking efforts”.

For now, their “interests are aligned”, said the Financial Times. Zuckerberg has pledged to invest at least $600 billion in the US up to 2028, “allowing Trump to tout his administration’s success in cementing US corporate supremacy over China”. As for Zuckerberg, his newfound “responsiveness to Trump has been good for business”.

Larry Ellison: Republicans

The Oracle founder, who briefly became the world’s richest person in September, has been a friend of Trump and a Republican donor for decades. Earlier this year, at a press conference in the Oval Office, the president called Ellison “an amazing man and amazing business person” and “sort of CEO of everything”.

It had been thought the 81-year-old was close to calling it a day in public life, but his profile has “taken on a new dimension” since Trump returned to the White House. He, along with his son David, has pursued a series of deals “that would give them control over some of the biggest media companies on the planet”, said the BBC.

In August, David Ellison’s Skydance Media secured an $8 billion deal to purchase Paramount and its subsidiaries, including the influential CBS News network. It is now attempting to buy Warner Bros. Discovery, the parent media conglomerate behind brands like HBO, CNN and TBS. Oracle has also been chosen to be part of a consortium to take over a minority stake in TikTok’s US operations.

This emerging empire straddling tech, media and politics has sparked alarm on the left, with US media watchdog Fair warning that “the Ellison duo taking over both CBS and CNN, as well as controlling a major social media network like TikTok, would be dangerous for democracy. And given their closeness to the Trump regime, that seems to be the point.”

Bill Gates: Democrats

One billionaire who “isn’t in on the boys’ club throwing money and support behind the president” is Bill Gates, said Fortune.

The Microsoft co-founder privately donated $50 million to a non-profit organisation supporting the Kamala Harris campaign, The New York Times reported.

“I have a long history of working with leaders across the political spectrum, but this election is different, with unprecedented significance for Americans and the most vulnerable people around the world,” he said in a statement.

The philanthropist, who has given away much of his fortune over the past two decades, has criticised Trump’s decision to cut US foreign aid disbursements, and has voiced surprise at “a significant right-of-centre group” of tech billionaires in Silicon Valley who support the Republicans, said The New York Times.

Yet his stance towards the Trump administration has become more nuanced as the year has gone on. He has attended several events with the president and was accused of pandering to the Maga base when he publicly argued for pushing the climate crisis down the international agenda, in favour of more focus on health issues.

“It may be that he is really worried that Trump will bully him the way he has bullied other ultra-wealthy business people,” former vice president and climate activist Al Gore said. “It looks like it may be possible that he’s scared of Trump.”

Michael Bloomberg: Democrats

The founder of Bloomberg and former Republican New York mayor has been one of the most high-profile critics of Trump over the years. A major Democrat donor, his “total financial commitment toward Democratic causes” reportedly neared $100 million during the 2024 election, said Forbes.

He warned during the campaign that “Trump is not fit for high office”, said Bloomberg, and his huge personal fortune – not to mention international media organisation – could prove hugely influential in taking the fight to the Republicans over the coming years.

In January Bloomberg stepped in to “provide funding to help cover the US contribution to the UN climate body's budget” after Trump pulled out of the Paris climate agreement immediately he took office, said Reuters. In April, it was reported that Bloomberg’s gun control group, Everytown for Gun Safety, was planning to spend $10 million to help elect Democratic attorneys general in 2025 and 2026, “an investment it says is meant to help protect the rule of law and democracy while President Trump holds the White House”, The New York Times said.

Warren Buffett: Democrats

A long-time Democratic supporter, the legendary investor – known as the “Sage of Omaha” – appeared on stage with Hillary Clinton during the 2016 presidential election.

Since then, the world’s 10th-richest person, who announced he is to step down from his role as Berkshire Hathaway CEO at the end of the year, has “avoided donating to federal political candidates as he aimed to spare his companies and employees from any potential backlash”, said Bloomberg.

But in a rare interview with CBS News earlier this year, the 94-year-old attacked Trump’s plans to introduce trade tariffs on foreign goods, a move he called an “act of war”. The warning to Wall Street was all the more “deafening”, said Yahoo! Finance, “when you consider that Buffett typically tries to stay out of politics”.

George Soros: Democrats

The Hungarian-born financier is a major backer of the Democrats and the bête noire of right-wing populists and conspiracy theorists.

In 2022, Soros was the US’ single largest donor, personally giving $170 million during the midterm election cycle to help Democratic campaigns and political action committees. In 2024, a nonprofit founded and funded by Soros donated $60 million to the left-wing Democracy PAC, according to a filing with the Federal Election Commission.

In August, Trump said the 95-year-old and his son Alex, who has taken over the running of his Open Society Foundations nonprofit, should face criminal charges for supporting violent riots in the US, “a baseless claim that the president has pushed before”, said Al Jazeera.

Trump followed up this threat in September by claiming Soros was “a likely candidate” for prosecution, and that the OSF could face investigation by the US government.