Influence can come in many forms but in US politics it most often comes in the form of 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.
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Larry & David Ellison: Republicans
Larry Ellison, 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. 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, said the BBC. 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”.
In August, David Ellison’s Skydance Media secured an $8 billion deal to purchase Paramount and its subsidiaries, including the influential CBS News network. Since then, the company “has been accused of bowing to Trump”, said CNN, paying the president millions of dollars over a “60 Minutes” edit of its interview of former vice president Kamala Harris, and cancelling Stephen Colbert’s “Late Show”, “one of the most bitingly critical-of-Trump shows on TV”.
Now Ellison has turned his attention to Warner Bros. Discovery, the media conglomerate behind brands like HBO, TBS and CNN. Last week, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said he was looking forward to Paramount’s ownership of the influential news network, “amplifying fears” that CNN, which has long been a target of the president, “will shift coverage to appease the Trump administration”, said the Los Angeles Times.
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.”
Elon Musk: Republicans
The Tesla, X and SpaceX boss emerged as one of the most vocal Trump supporters – and prominent donors – during the 2024 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 $658 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” last summer, 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 has 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.
Since then, under Bezos’ supervision the Post has undergone a “political realignment” that saw an “exodus of top talent”, said Vanity Fair. The Amazon founder has faced further backlash for recently cutting a third of staff at the storied newspaper, which Trump “has long regarded as an adversary”, said the Daily Beast, while at the same time splashing out tens of millions of dollars on a documentary of the first lady, Melania.
All this may have won him few friends on the left, but it 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 the ever-spiralling costs of Trump’s multimillion-dollar White House ballroom project.
Mark Zuckerberg: Republicans
The relationship between the Facebook founder and Trump has not always been easy – the president has in the past threatened to send Zuckerberg to prison for life – but the tech titan and world’s fifth-richest person has tried to ingratiate himself with Trump since he returned to the White House.
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”.
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 in recent months. 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 – may prove hugely influential in taking the fight to the Republicans over the coming years.
In the immediate aftermath of Trump’s second inauguration, Bloomberg stepped in to “provide funding to help cover the US contribution to the UN climate body's budget” after the president pulled out of the Paris climate agreement, 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 11th-richest person, who stepped down from his role as Berkshire Hathaway CEO at the end of last 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 last year, the 95-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 last year, Trump said the 95-year-old and his son Alex, who has taken over the running of his Open Society Foundations (OSF) 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.