Democrats vs. Republicans: who are US billionaires backing?

Influence can come in many forms but in American politics it very often comes with money. Never has that been more evident than today, with the wealthiest people in the US spending record amounts in campaign donations during the 2024 presidential election, and then seeking to cement their power under the Trump administration.

Analysis by the Americans for Tax Fairness group earlier this year showed that 100 billionaire families donated $2.6 billion to candidates for last November’s election, more than two-and-a-half times the amount spent in 2020. The billionaires “heavily favoured Republicans”, the report said, with 70% of their donations going to the GOP, helping Donald Trump back into the White House.

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 but now two lawsuits currently being backed by the Trump administration could “expand” its scope even further and “turn America into a kleptocracy”, said Rolling Stone, calling it “the right’s secret plan to help billionaires buy elections”.

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Most of the US’s 800 or so billionaires do not publicly back presidential candidates, but others are more than happy to stand at the forefront.

So who is continuing to back Trump and his Maga agenda, and who is risking the administration’s ire and standing firm with the leaderless 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 $448 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.

Since leaving the administration in the summer, relations between Trump and Musk have been tempestuous to say the least. Following their very public falling out over Trump’s spending bill, which Musk lambasted and described as “insane”, the pair engaged in a tit-for-tat spat on social media that at one point threatened to overwhelm the president. Musk even promised to begin his own political party dubbed the “America Party”, and fund rivals to Maga candidates in next year’s mid-term elections. There was a reconciliation of sorts last month when the two were seated next to each other at the memorial of murdered Maga activist Charlie Kirk.

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 he has “changed his tune” when it comes to dealing with Trump, said The Seattle Times.

Although he did not explicitly endorse the Republican Party during the election, a book by Axios’ Alex Isenstadt, “Revenge: The Inside Story of Trump’s Return to Power”, reveals Bezos “had evidently been fostering a relationship” with the Republican candidate “for months”, The Independent reported.

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. There was a “minor tiff” between the pair when it was reported Amazon would display the cost of tariffs next to product prices, but since then they have clearly made up, with Bezos’ Blue Origin winning a $2.3 billion contract from Nasa.

Trump reportedly turned down an invitation to Bezos’ lavish wedding to Lauren Sánchez in June, in which the billionaire took over much of Venice with a raft of celebrities in attendance, including Ivanka Trump and Donald Trump Jr.

Mark Zuckerberg: Republicans

Meta, the parent company of Facebook, also contributed to the inauguration fund coffers. Zuckerberg, the company’s CEO and third 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. This has involved “rebranding the company to go all-in on a Maga-dominated Washington, shelving Meta’s once-lauded fact-checking programme, eliminating DEI initiatives” and installing a top Republican lobbyist, Joel Kaplan, as “the face of the company’s policy division”, said The Washington Post.

Zuckerberg has visited the White House multiple times this year, most recently to attend an all-star dinner for tech CEOs hosted by the president himself. 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”.

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.

Gates has “stuck to his guns”, despite being the subject of fierce criticism and conspiracy theories, and has been publicly critical of Elon Musk, who has emerged as an “anti-Gates” figure, said the Financial Times. But his philanthropic foundation “risks being stripped of its tax-free status” under Trump, who has threatened other institutions like Harvard University that he “considers too progressive”.

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 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 – especially with the Democrats currently lacking clear leadership or a coherent message to fight Trump and his Maga base.

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 July, he called on Senate Republicans to oust Robert F. Kennedy Jr from his post as Trump’s health secretary, calling him “the nation’s foremost peddler of junk science and the crackpot conspiracy theories that flow from it”, in an opinion piece for his eponymous news site.

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 11th-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”.