brockman greg openAI
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THIEL DIALOG CONF
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yt 1 26 astro? dark $?
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397,988 views Jan 26, 2026
When OpenAI sent someone to Tyler Johnston's house, they wanted every text and email he had on the company.Tyler runs an AI watchdog, and he's just one of the people getting subpoenaed.This is just the beginning of the AI industry's aggressive new political strategy. ----- More Perfect Union is an Emmy-winning, nonprofit newsroom whose mission is to build power for working people.
...(Host) Tyler Johnston runs a small AI watchdog.
0:12
Last summer, he was out when he received an unusual text from his roommate.
0:17
(Tyler) “There's someone at the door with documents for you.”
0:19
(Karen) It was a man with subpoenas from OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT.
0:23
(Tyler) They were asking for every former employee that we had spoken to and what we said to them,
0:27
every congressional office that we spoke to, every potential investor that we spoke to.
0:32
(Karen) Tyler is just one of many advocates suddenly being targeted.
0:36
As public demands to regulate the AI industry have escalated —
0:39
(Reporter) AI could put millions of Americans out of work.
0:41
(Reporter) — Concerns around safety for kids.
0:44
(Reporter) Customers could see their bills increased by 20 bucks each month.
0:47
(Reporter) AI clips of fake reports even reaching the Oval Office.
0:51
(Karen) its biggest players are going to political war.
0:54
(Alex Bores) They started texting my constituents.
0:57
(Rebecca) Google was involved, Meta was involved, OpenAI was involved.
1:00
The AI industry broadly is ready to play hardball.
1:03
(Karen) So I started investigating their tactics.
1:06
I found an aggressive playbook trying to silence critics, kill
1:10
legislation, and remake government in their interest.
1:14
I wanted to know: what are AI companies so afraid of?
1:18
They can't have any flies in the ointment, which also means no regulation and no guardrails.
1:22
(Karen) And what does it mean for the rest of us if they get what they want?
1:30
When OpenAI subpoenaed Tyler,
1:32
it tucked in an expansive demand that hinted at its real agenda.
1:37
(Tyler) They wanted every single document and text message and email
1:41
that we had that in any way related to OpenAI's restructuring.
1:45
(Karen) Founded as a nonprofit by Elon Musk and Sam Altman,
1:48
OpenAI had for years been raising billions of dollars
1:52
from investors through an internal for-profit arm.
1:55
Then, the nonprofit board attempted to fire Sam Altman,
1:58
and investors panicked that they could lose all their money.
2:02
(Catherine Bracy) In the wake of that, Sam Altman made some promises to his investors
2:05
that they would remove the power and control of the nonprofit from the for-profit entity.
2:11
(Karen) But many advocates, including Tyler and Catherine, stood in the way.
2:16
(Tyler) We released an open letter.
2:17
This was an open letter that was asking seven relatively simple questions, not opposing the restructuring
2:22
in any way, but asking for more transparency about what their plans were.
2:26
(Karen) But failure to restructure could force OpenAI
2:28
to give up $20 billion from its investors.
2:32
The company turned its influence operations into high gear
2:36
under the leadership of a man named Chris Lehane.
2:39
Whoever ends up winning on that ends up building the AI rails
2:43
for the world. Like, that is a bit of a zero sum game.
2:48
(Karen) Lehane began his career in Washington, earning the nickname
2:51
‘Master of Disaster’ in part for helping the Clintons navigate the Monica Lewinsky scandal.
2:57
He then pivoted to Silicon Valley, working at Airbnb and with the crypto industry.
3:02
(Tyler) I think that OpenAI brought him on because they knew that they needed someone
3:06
who was willing to be as fierce as possible.
3:09
(Karen) Lehane stacked his team with former staffers and confidants of Gavin
3:13
Newsom, Bill de Blasio and Kamala Harris.
3:16
OpenAI hired a lobbying firm run by Republican operative
3:19
Jeff Miller, who has deep ties to President Trump.
3:22
It launched new philanthropic efforts, underscored its economic importance to California
3:28
and threatened to leave the state if the restructuring was blocked.
3:32
With Elon Musk also suing OpenAI for abandoning its mission,
3:35
the company began to accuse its critics of being his puppets.
3:39
They were essentially implying
3:43
that we were a front for their competitors.
3:47
(Karen) The aggressive tactics paid off.
3:49
The subpoenas
3:50
also revealed that this is just the beginning.
3:54
I would have been happy to swear to the court that we are not funded by Elon Musk.
...
8:51
One of the first targets: Alex Bores.
8:55
Bores sponsored the RAISE Act,
8:57
which creates a chaotic patchwork of state rules that would crush innovation.
9:02
(Karen) The AI super PACs are modeled in part after Fairshake,
9:05
a crypto industry super PAC that claims credit for taking down its enemies in the 2024 election.
9:12
Fairshake spent close to $200 million
9:14
and got what it wanted —
9:16
a friendly Congress and federal-level pro-crypto legislation.
9:21
Chris Lehane was Fairshake’s
9:22
top strategist and the Andreessen Horowitz founders were among its top donors.
9:27
Its spokesman was Josh Vlasto,
9:29
who formerly worked for Chuck Schumer and Andrew Cuomo.
9:33
(Josh Vlasto) So we had a clear rubric.
9:35
If you were pro-crypto and blockchain, we'd support you and help you win.
9:38
If you were anti, we would oppose you.
9:41
Now, the gang is back.
9:42
Vlasto is running the Andreessen Horowitz-funded AI super PAC, with input from Lehane.
9:48
(Alex) They announced their opposition really early.
9:50
And then they put out a bunch of ads saying, I want to regulate AI.
9:53
I think there's two reasons why they would do this: it's the exact time that the governor is making decisions
9:59
around the RAISE Act.
10:00
They are trying to intimidate the governor.
10:03
(Karen) The governor signed Bores' bill,
10:05
but not before watering down portions of it in line with the tech lobby's demands
10:09
(Alex) The second reason is to scare any other candidate.
10:13
The money that's being spent is a message.
10:15
It is saying that if anyone takes on this issue, they will be facing a wall of cash.
10:22
(Karen) With the super PACs, the endgame of the industry is increasingly clear.
10:27
President Trump is planning to stop states from regulating artificial intelligence.
10:32
(Karen) In December, President Trump issued an executive order designed to make states
10:36
back down from AI legislation by threatening to sue them and cut their federal funding.
10:42
But the order is a much less powerful rework of a full ban
10:46
on state legislation that failed to pass Congress twice.
10:51
Now, AI companies are trying to remake Congress.
10:55
Having one federal approach
10:58
focused on light touch and even playing field sounds great to me.
11:02
(Karen) And it's not just through their own PACs.
11:04
Greg Brockman and his wife Anna were the top donors
11:07
to Trump's super PAC in the second half of 2025.
11:11
(Catherine) It feels like their number one priority in D.C.
11:14
is really just institutionalize the status quo of,
11:18
you know, zero regulation, zero accountability. They want the public
11:22
to bear the cost of any of the fallout.
11:25
The chatbot,
11:26
or really in my mind, the people programming it,
11:31
encouraged my son to mutilate himself.
11:34
(Karen) But with the fallout growing, the industry's money may hit its limits.
11:39
(Alex) Eighty percent of Americans want there to be some regulation on AI.
11:43
Some people come to this issue concerned about how data centers are increasing their utility bill.
11:48
Some people come to the issue
11:49
because they're worried about their teenagers. Some people come to it because their job is displaced.
11:54
And if your vote didn't matter, if your say didn't matter,
11:58
they wouldn't be spending $100 million to drown it out.
12:01
So this is not hopeless.
12:03
Demand that the people who represent you, like me,
12:06
are representing you and not representing Big Tech.
12:10
(Catherine) If legislators hear that from their constituents, I know that they'll do the right thing,
12:15
because I know that they're feeling it too.
12:16
I know they see it in their own homes.
12:18
(Karen) Public pressure may already be having an effect.
12:21
In the face of outrage, OpenAI agreed in January
12:24
to support a California ballot initiative that would enhance AI protections for children.
12:29
California voters, regardless of their party, support stronger
12:33
AI protections for kids, teens, and families.
12:37
(Karen) While the measure doesn't go as far as the LEAD for Kids Act,
12:40
it's stronger than any existing legislation.
12:43
They are the ones who are on the back foot and are trying to make up for it with this money.
12:48
But the power of the people is always stronger.
Here’s what that means: We report on the real struggles and challenges of the working class from a working-class perspective. We attempt to connect those problems to potential solutions. We report on the abuses and wrongdoing of corporate power. And we seek to hold accountable the ultra-rich who have too much power over America’s political and economic systems. To support our independent journalism, subscribe, donate, and follow our other pages through the links below:
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verge
openAI’s co-founder and longtime president, Greg Brockman, didn’t just make a run-of-the-mill donation to the main pro-Trump super PAC — together, he and his wife Anna’s September 2025 donations equaled the largest of them all, totaling $25 million to “MAGA Inc.,” per a recent filing. The Brockmans’ donations made up nearly one-fourth of the six-month fundraising cycle.
It’s the latest in a string of examples of tech executives cozying up to President Trump’s administration, happening as the administration pushes to aggressively back the AI industry and defang state-level regulations that companies like OpenAI have largely opposed. OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Brockman’s multimillion-dollar donation isn’t the only example of him spending big, under his own name, on lobbying efforts that have their sights set on dismantling potential AI industry regulation. The pro-AI super PAC “Leading the Future,” of which Brockman is a significant backer, has bought ads targeting New York State Assemblymember Alex Bores — a cosponsor of New York’s RAISE Act, which was watered down at the last minute after coordinated lobbying efforts.
Though news of the Brockmans’ donations first broke earlier this month, it’s seen a resurgence in online discussion after the recent death of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, where federal officers have fatally shot two people during an anti-immigrant crackdown. Tech workers from across the industry, including multiple employees at OpenAI, have signed a letter calling for their CEOs to cancel all contracts with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and publicly condemn the department’s actions. “When Trump threatened to send the national guard to San Francisco in October, tech industry leaders called the White House,” the petition’s website states. “It worked: Trump backed down. Today we’re calling on our CEOs to pick up the phone again.”
:{However, since Trump’s inauguration, tech leader after tech leader has donated to his inauguration fund, flocked to Mar-a-Lago to meet with him, or attended White House dinners by his side. In return, they’ve gotten an administration eager to roll back consumer protections and tech regulation. Trump’s AI Action Plan resurrected a failed Republican attempt to bar states from passing AI regulations, to tech leaders’ delight.
The new provision states that “AI is far too important to smother in bureaucracy at this early stage” and that the government “should not allow AI-related Federal funding to be directed toward states with burdensome AI regulations that waste these funds,” though it should also “not interfere with states’ rights to pass prudent laws that are not unduly restrictive to innovation.” Targets of the moratorium include SB 53, the landmark AI transparency bill California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed in September despite many tech companies lobbying against it, including OpenAI.}:
In 2019, Brockman co-wrote a blog post about how hard it is to “change powerful systems … once they’ve been deployed,” and that it’s “important to address AGI’s safety and policy risks before it is created.” Six years later, his posts have shifted in tone, highlighting the importance of “approach[ing] emerging technology with a growth-focused mindset.” In a New Year’s Eve post on X, Brockman wrote that “this year, my wife Anna and I started getting involved politically, including through political contributions, reflecting support for policies that advance American innovation and constructive dialogue between government and the technology sector.” He added that “it’s been great to see the president’s and his administration’s willingness to engage directly with the AI community.”
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Brockman was born in Thompson, North Dakota, and attended Red River High School, where he excelled in mathematics, chemistry, and computer science.[6][9] He won a silver medal in the 2006 International Chemistry Olympiad[10] and became the first finalist from North Dakota to participate in the Intel science talent search since 1973.[11] In 2003, 2005, and 2007, he attended Canada/USA Mathcamp, a summer program for mathematically talented high-school students.[12] In 2008, Brockman enrolled in Harvard University, but left a year later, before briefly enrolling at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.[6][13]
Career
In 2010, he dropped out of MIT to join Stripe, a company founded by Patrick Collison, his MIT classmate, and John Collison. In 2013, he became Stripe's first CTO, while the company grew from 5 to 205 employees.[8][14] Brockman left Stripe in May 2015.[14]
OpenAI
Brockman met with Sam Altman and Elon Musk, and led the recruiting of the OpenAI founding team. Many of its members, including Ilya Sutskever, were top AI research talent that left high paying jobs for the opportunity at OpenAI.[15][16] He co-founded OpenAI in December 2015 alongside Altman, Sutskever and others.[17] The company initially operated from Brockman's living room.[18]
He led various projects at OpenAI, including OpenAI Gym and OpenAI Five, a Dota 2 bot.[19][20]
On February 14, 2019, OpenAI announced that they had developed a new large language model called GPT-2,[21] but kept it private due to their concern for its potential misuse. They released the model to a limited group of beta testers in May 2019.[6]
On March 14, 2023, in a live video demo, Brockman unveiled GPT-4, the fourth iteration in the GPT series.[22][7][23]
On November 17, 2023, along with the firing of Sam Altman, Greg Brockman was told he had been removed from the board. Sutskever supplied the board with a document of alleged bullying by Brockman. Mira Murati said Brockman's relationship with Altman made it impossible for her to do her job; and "Altman fielded many requests from OpenAI employees to rein in Brockman".[24] Brockman was to report to Murati,[25][26] but on November 17, he announced that he had quit the company.[27]
On November 20, 2023, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella announced that Brockman and former OpenAI CEO Sam Altman would join Microsoft to lead a new advanced AI research team.[28] The following day, after a deal was reached to reinstate Altman as CEO, Brockman returned to OpenAI.[29] Brockman went on sabbatical in August 2024[30] and returned in November 2024.[31]
Personal life
In November 2019, Brockman married his girlfriend, Anna.[6] Brockman and his wife were the biggest donors to Donald Trump's Super PAC, MAGA Inc., in 2025 with each of them donating $12.5 million USD.[32][33] Brockman and his wife also donated $50 million to Leading the Future, a super PAC dedicated to AI deregulation that he helped found with Andreessen Horowitz co-founders Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz.[34][35]
References
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biz insider
White House Dinner for the Saudi Crown Prince Includes 50 US Execs - Business Insider
no lnx pix
The guest list for White House dinner for the Saudi Crown Prince included nearly 50 executives
By Lloyd Lee, Shubhangi Goel, and Thibault Spirlet
President Donald Trump and Saudi Crown Prince
The White House hosted the Saudi royal family for dinner on Tuesday. BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images
:{:{Nov 20, 2025,}:
President Donald Trump hosted a White House dinner for the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia on Tuesday.
The dinner was attended by nearly 50 American CEOs and executives from different industries.
The guest list included Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Apple CEO Tim Cook, and Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff.
Business leaders, including Elon Musk and AMD CEO Lisa Su, joined a dinner with President Donald Trump and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman at the White House on Tuesday.
The guest list, shared by the White House, included members of the Saudi government and royal family, as well as almost 50 US business executives. Soccer player Cristiano Ronaldo also attended.
The dinner was the Tesla CEO's first public visit to the White House since his bitter feud with Trump this summer, following Musk's departure from his role as leader of the White House DOGE Office.
Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison, and Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev were on the guest list, but it is unclear if they attended the event.
Here is a list of US executives who attended the high-profile dinner.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk
Elon Musk attended the White House dinner.
Elon Musk attended the White House dinner. Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images
Elon Musk made a rare public appearance at the White House since his falling-out with Trump earlier this year, after stepping down as the informal head of the White House DOGE Office.
The world's richest man and head of Tesla, SpaceX, and X, Musk exerts significant influence in technology, energy, and artificial intelligence — industries central to both the US and Saudi economic ambitions.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang
Jensen Huang in a suit
Jensen Huang appeared in one of David Sacks' photos of the evening. Yui Mok - Pool/Getty Images
Nvidia chief Jensen Huang attended the White House dinner as one of the most influential figures in artificial intelligence and chipmaking.
Nvidia's CEO's presence underscored the pivotal role of advanced computing in US-Saudi economic relations and the global competition to dominate AI technology.
Apple CEO Tim Cook
Apple CEO Tim Cook
The Apple CEO was among the business leaders seen at the White House dinner. Frazer Harrison/Getty Images
Apple chief Tim Cook joined the White House dinner as one of the most powerful figures in global business, representing a tech giant that shapes everything from consumer tech to privacy standards.
His appearance highlighted Apple's pivotal role in US innovation — and its importance to any conversation about the future of tech and trade.
AMD CEO Lisa Su
AMD CEO Lisa Su
The AMD CEO also joined the dinner. Brendan Smialowski / AFP
AMD's Lisa Su was among the high-profile executives at the White House dinner, bringing the perspective of one of the world's top chipmakers.
As the leader driving fierce competition in semiconductors — a sector vital to both AI development and global supply chains — Su's inclusion signaled the critical importance of her industry to US strategy.
Late on Wednesday evening, Su shared photos from the dinner, including one of her sitting with Ronaldo.
Pershing Square CEO Bill Ackman
Bill Ackman
The hedge fund manager was part of the White House dinner on Tuesday. Patrick T. Fallon / AFP via Getty Images
Billionaire investor Bill Ackman attended the White House dinner as one of Wall Street's most outspoken figures.
Known for his bold market bets and influence in finance and policy circles, Ackman's presence reflected the growing alignment between political power and the capital shaping global markets.
President of OpenAI Greg Brockman
OpenAI's president, Greg Brockman
OpenAI's President, Greg Brockman, was also in attendance at the dinner. Errich Petersen/Getty Images for SXSW
OpenAI president Greg Brockman joined the White House dinner as a key architect behind the modern AI revolution.
His invitation underscored the growing importance of artificial intelligence in diplomacy and economic strategy, with OpenAI's technology now at the center of global debates about innovation and regulation.
General partner of Craft Ventures, David Sacks
David Sacks at a panel
David Sacks posted a selfie from the dinner on X on Tuesday and said, "Great night! Jeff Swensen/Getty Images
Venture capitalist and White House AI and crypto czar David Sacks was among the attendees at the dinner, reflecting his growing influence at the intersection of tech, politics, and finance.
As both an early investor in major startups and the chair of the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, Sacks embodies the blend of innovation and policymaking that defined the evening's guest list.
In December, Trump appointed Sacks as White House's AI and crypto czar, guiding the government on policy and regulation around the digital asset industry.
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong
The Coinbase CEO attended the dinner. Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images for Vanity Fair
Coinbase's chief, Brian Armstrong, attended the White House dinner as the leading voice in America's cryptocurrency industry.
His presence showed the increasing importance of digital assets in global finance and the White House's commitment to engaging with fintech leaders who are shaping the future of money.
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7 26
WSJ NO LNX
‘The Boss Wants This Money’: Inside Trump’s Unprecedented Fundraising Operation
Meredith O’Rourke, nicknamed ‘princess of darkness,’ carries out president’s desire to wring hundreds of millions from companies for his projects
By
Josh Dawsey
,
Dana Mattioli
,
Annie Linskey
and
Emily Glazer
July 30, 2026
WASHINGTON—Almost every night in the White House, President Trump calls his fundraiser, Meredith O’Rourke, for an update.
Trump asks O’Rourke which companies and donors have cut checks and which haven’t, and for how much. He often asks her to make much larger financial requests than she was planning—for some donors the ask is $5 million, for others it is $50 million. And the president gives her names to call, often including people who have recently met with him, according to people with knowledge of the calls.
“This is very important to the president. He’s asked me to call you and ask you for this donation,” O’Rourke has relayed on phone calls with companies, persistently following up with them. In some calls, she has referred to Trump as the boss, saying “the boss wants this money.” In turn, Trump has called her the “princess of darkness” because she is such a “killer” with donors, according to people who have heard his comments.
SoftBank donated $50 million toward Trump’s presidential library. Apple cut a check for around $25 million toward his White House ballroom project, while Microsoft gave around $10 million and Amazon chipped in around $5 million, according to people familiar with the contributions. Meta Platforms recently gave $10 million to a Trump-aligned political committee, people familiar said, on top of a multimillion donation to the ballroom and a prior $22 million payment to the planned presidential library.
Trump stands out for taking personal control of the fundraising, and no sitting American president has ever raised these amounts for his pet projects. At the same time, companies have paid new attention to the White House as Trump has gotten involved in regulatory decisions that once were made by independent agencies, dramatically shifting the balance of power across Washington.
Trump has been demanding large checks from companies for a range of political and legacy projects—telling executives and lobbyists that their companies should give $25 million or $50 million. He has sometimes offered donors special access.
Aerial view of construction at the White House, with a helipad being built on the South Lawn and a ballroom under construction on the right.
Construction on the helipad and the ballroom at the White House this month. Rahmat Gul/Associated Press
No laws prohibit presidents from raising unlimited sums of money for nonprofits, like the ones used for the ballroom and his presidential library, his super PAC or political issue committees. For most of these types of transactions, public disclosure of donors isn’t required and reporting on spending is infrequent.
All told, the second-term president has raised more than $800 million since returning to office, according to an updated Wall Street Journal analysis.
Some of the money is earmarked for specific projects, including the White House ballroom and the Freedom 250 funds for the nation’s birthday celebrations, but Trump has floated using funds in other ways. The president, at the dinner thanking contributors to the ballroom project, said, “We’ll have money left over, and we’ll use that for something…maybe for the arch or something else that will come.”
Interviews with dozens of donors, executives, lobbyists, Trump advisers and others indicate a staggering fundraising and influence operation, with Trump at the center of it all. The president closely tracks who gives, aides said, repeatedly assigning O’Rourke with big asks that she has told others make her uncomfortable. Danielle Alvarez, an outside spokeswoman for Trump and O’Rourke, said it was “laughable” that O’Rourke had ever been uncomfortable with a request.
Chevron was asked to give $50 million this year. The oil company gave millions, but far less than the requested amount. Several top Washington lobbyists have been asked to raise $50 million or more, including from their clients, for Trump projects.
Meta executives convened a series of calls among themselves to discuss strategy after being repeatedly asked to give money to various Trump funds. The company has donated to the inauguration, the ballroom and two Easter events. About $22 million of Meta’s money went to the library after the social-media company agreed to settle a lawsuit Trump had filed for suspending his accounts.
Meta also wrote a $10 million check to Securing American Greatness, a political committee aligned with Trump that highlights conservative issues such as lowering taxes and reducing crime. Contributions to Securing American Greatness aren’t publicly reported, unlike contributions to super PACs, which disclose donors in regular filings.
When some donors have been put on the phone with Trump after giving millions, they expected to receive thank yous, but instead were asked for more money, people familiar with the calls said. In one case, O’Rourke asked an executive to cut a $1 million check to a Trump entity just days after he’d attended a thank you dinner for a separate multimillion-dollar donation he’d made to the president’s ballroom, according to a person familiar with the exchange.
“Trump is shattering all fundraising paradigms in regards to hitting up corporate America for donations. The scope is mind-bogglingly large,” said Douglas Brinkley, a presidential historian at Rice University. “We used to talk about the Lincoln bedroom being for sale, but this is just a wholesale money trough that’s totally different.” Critics alleged in the 1990s that the Clinton administration allowed overnight stays in the White House’s Lincoln bedroom in exchange for campaign contributions.
Place setting at a dinner for US President Donald Trump, with a name card reading "The President."
A place setting for the White House dinner for ballroom donors in October. andrew caballero-reynolds/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
In the Rose Garden on a warm April evening, some of the president’s biggest donors mingled with top White House aides and the president. Some of the guests received special tours, including of the Oval Office at night. “Have you ever seen anything like this?” Trump said on the tour, people with knowledge of the event said.
Then one businessman stood up. It was the reclusive billionaire Timothy Mellon, who has donated millions of dollars to Trump causes—even in the form of solid gold, some of the people said. Mellon has contributed more than $100 million to MAGA Inc., Trump’s super PAC.
He gave a toast to the president, several Rose Garden attendees said. He called Trump the “greatest president in my lifetime.” His remarks drew polite applause from the Fortune 100 executives arrayed around him.
At another Rose Garden dinner, Google co-founder Sergey Brin was seen sitting next to White House chief of staff Susie Wiles.
The White House referred requests for comment to Alvarez. She said the president is the “most successful fundraiser in modern political history” and that Trump plans to use the money to “help Republicans win big in the midterms, build an enduring political infrastructure and continue advancing innovative private-sector initiatives.”
“One thing has never changed. President Trump can’t be bought,” she said.
Change from first term
Trump’s stance on fundraising has dramatically changed from when he was first running for president. In 2015, he called political-action committees a “scam” and said he had disavowed them. His team sent letters to unauthorized super PACs that were supporting his election efforts, asking them to return their money to donors. “I am self-funding my campaign and therefore I will not be controlled by the donors, special interests and lobbyists who have corrupted our politics and politicians for far too long,” he said at the time.
Marc Short, Trump’s former director of legislative affairs, said, “One of the things that most rallied his crowds in 2016 was draining the swamp. The crowds would go wild.”
Short and other former administration officials said Trump had little interest in fundraising during his first term. “There definitely wasn’t a corporate shakedown like you see now,” he said, adding that the president during his first term didn’t aggressively seek money from companies with business before the government.
Read more
The Mystery Money Powering Trump’s Second Term
Trump would sometimes berate aides for signing up too many donors to take photos on “click lines” and would leave events as soon as he finished speaking. In the first term, he regularly complained that the money went to entities such as the Republican National Committee that he didn’t control, and viewed it as an obligation.
In 2020, Trump raised money for his re-election campaign but wasn’t notably aggressive about it.
Wiles had to persuade Trump during the 2024 campaign to do fundraising calls. But he embraced big money on the campaign trail, even asking oil executives to give $1 billion at a Mar-a-Lago event in April 2024. At one point, he told donors he wouldn’t have lunch for less than $5 million, according to audio from a 2024 fundraiser reviewed by the Journal.
O’Rourke, a well-known fundraiser in Florida, was part of Trump’s 2016 and 2020 operations. In the 2024 cycle, she was tapped to lead fundraising for the whole campaign. She opted to drive six hours between the Trump campaign headquarters in Palm Beach and her homebase in northwestern Florida instead of flying so she could spend the time on back-to-back calls with donors. Driving also ensured she wouldn’t be out of touch for the hourlong flight, according to people familiar with the campaign.
Eric Trump, Susie Wiles, Steve Witkoff, and Meredith O'Rourke listen at a news conference.
Eric Trump, Susie Wiles, Steve Witkoff and Meredith O'Rourke listened to President-elect Trump speak at Mar-a-Lago on Jan. 7, 2025. Evan Vucci/Associated Press
After the 2024 election, Trump realized how many donors and companies were lining up outside his Mar-a-Lago club to cut multimillion-dollar checks and told O’Rourke to immediately start soliciting donations, advisers said. She was planning to slow down operations. Strike while the iron is hot, Trump told O’Rourke, according to Trump advisers and an account the president has repeatedly given in private settings.
O’Rourke isn’t a government employee, although she is often at Trump’s side in the White House and elsewhere. She sometimes sits in on meetings, including when Trump meets with corporate executives about issues that affect them. O’Rourke also travels with top officials on Air Force One. She often posts photos of herself with Trump, including in the Oval Office, on her social-media accounts and has referred to Trump as a mentor.
At a meeting with tobacco executives in May at Trump’s golf club in Jupiter, Fla., the president promised to do much of what executives wanted on policy related to vaping and the Food and Drug Administration. He also took in millions of dollars in contributions for his political committees. O’Rourke sat in on the meeting. Shortly after the meeting, the FDA lifted restrictions on some flavored vaping products, and the FDA’s chief was gone.
At the time, White House spokesman Kush Desai said, “The only guiding factor behind the Trump administration’s health policymaking is Gold Standard Science. FDA’s regulatory treatment of nicotine pouches and vapes is rooted in recent evidence that has found they can help adults quit smoking.”
O’Rourke was appointed a director at Trump Media & Technology, owner of Truth Social, and named to the board of the National Park Foundation, which oversees the Trump-aligned group that raised money for Freedom 250.
Trump, tapping his real-estate sales roots, has conversations with O’Rourke about how to specifically sell various projects, giving her pointers on how to pitch the library, according to people familiar with the conversations. Trump has told allies that he doesn’t want to struggle to raise money for his library the way Joe Biden has. Plans for the Trump library show a glass-walled skyscraper that is expected to also have a hotel.
“She’s a combination of tough but charming, and she absolutely has the president’s 100% trust and respect,” said Brian Ballard, a top Washington lobbyist who first worked with her in Florida in the 1990s. “She literally is the most talented fundraising professional I’ve dealt with, and I’ve dealt with a ton of them.”
In the spring, even as Republicans were gearing up to raise money for the midterms, O’Rourke began sending out solicitations for a new Trump initiative called the National Garden of American Heroes Foundation. The money will be used to remake a golf course in Washington and build a statue garden.
Candlelight dinners
O’Rourke sends out invites to prominent CEOs and their handlers and lobbyists to attend $1 million-per-head candlelight dinners at the White House or one of Trump’s properties, where guests are given extraordinary access to the president. Many of the events are arranged by industry, such as cryptocurrency or manufacturing.
O’Rourke often attends the dinners and takes notes about what the president promises and what the donor says, and she will filter the notes to other White House officials. Trump will often ask the donors to follow up with O’Rourke, attendees said.
Guests listen to President Donald Trump at a dinner for donors to the White House ballroom.
Guests listened to Trump speak at the ballroom-donor dinner at the White House. John McDonnell/Associated Press
At times, donors with particular agendas have shown up, such as a marijuana CEO pushing for changes in drug laws or the CEO of Pfizer who talked up experimental cancer drugs.
A regular presence at Trump’s dinners are cryptocurrency executives. The president has made more than $1.4 billion from his family’s crypto-related ventures since taking office, his financial disclosures show, and has often told the cryptocurrency crowd how he has made them richer.
The president sits at the center point of a horseshoe-shaped table and often stays for two hours. At Mar-a-Lago, he sometimes gives private tours of the gilded lobby. At an April event at Trump’s winery in Charlottesville, a TV was wheeled in so donors could watch with Trump the progress of astronauts returning to Earth, attendees said.
The president is often solicitous and warm at these fundraisers, asking each CEO to introduce themself. There are regular guests, such as OpenAI’s Sam Altman. Last year, OpenAI co-founder and president Greg Brockman and his wife personally contributed $25 million to Trump’s super PAC.
Trump has surprised donors at how long he will stay and talk. Within 24 hours of launching the war in Iran, he attended a lengthy $1 million-a-plate fundraiser in Florida. Many expected he would cancel, and the event was interrupted at one point for him to learn that Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei had been killed. After that, Trump listened to a range of corporate concerns and even engaged in a lengthy back-and-forth with Verizon’s CEO about what kind of cable was best.
Trump also asks lobbyists to set up meetings at his golf clubs and properties. The lunches are often lighthearted, with celebrity athletes stopping by the table. There, he often meets with executives over burgers, before telling the lobbyist later how much the client should give.
“What can I do to help you?” Trump has said at multiple events, according to attendees. “What do you need?” he asked CEOs at a Florida event.
President Trump with John Ratcliffe, Marco Rubio, and Susie Wiles at Mar-a-Lago, overseeing "Operation Epic Fury."
Trump and advisers at Mar-a-Lago on Feb. 28, when the U.S. launched strikes on Iran. Daniel Torok/White House/Getty Images
Senate Democrats have noted that some of the corporate donors have later been the beneficiaries of regulatory changes. “Money well spent! Your company’s millions of dollars in recent investment in President Trump’s political operation appears to have enabled tobacco manufacturers to circumvent federal law and unlawfully sell unauthorized e-cigarettes,” six Democratic senators wrote in a June letter to Altria’s CEO, saying the company contributed to the president’s ballroom and inauguration.
The company responded to the senators, describing policies it said would protect youth and reduce tobacco-related harm and saying it welcomed an opportunity to discuss the issue with legislators at greater length.
Government business
Executives said Trump is one of the most accessible presidents in recent times. In private, they acknowledged that this administration is much more transactional than prior ones. If a company encounters an issue with the federal government that comes to Trump’s attention, he will want to know how much money the company gave, according to a person familiar with the matter. At times he’ll rib the corporate leaders who haven’t met the goals he set, the person said.
Several CEOs and board members said they believe there is a link between their contributions and their access to the president. One chairman of a publicly traded company said that if you give the money, you know you are either checked on a list, or crossed off a list if you don’t.
Some lobbyists said they tell their clients to be noncommittal when Trump asks for a large donation and to say they’ll get back to him and his team. Many of the corporate donors have business before the government, are seeking federal contracts or are lobbying on a range of issues from trade policy to defense policy and appropriations.
Lockheed Martin gave more than $10 million in late 2025 and early 2026 related to America’s 250th anniversary and infrastructure projects in the Washington area, people familiar with the matter said.
A company spokesperson said “Lockheed Martin has a long history of supporting projects in both the Washington, DC, area and across the country.” The spokesperson added that its engagement with the government is guided by compliance standards and follows applicable laws and regulations.
In June, the Pentagon awarded Lockheed a contract worth up to $35 billion to make missiles to replace U.S. stockpiles drawn down by the war with Iran. A few weeks later, Trump revealed that Lockheed had agreed to pay roughly $5 million toward a new helipad he is now building at the White House.
Workers constructing a helipad on the South Lawn of the White House.
Workers assembled the presidential seal on the helipad. Finn Gomez/Getty Images
Freedom 250, the Trump group that organized anniversary celebrations, raised more than $50 million, according to people familiar with the matter, and invited donors and other participants to a wine reception at the White House with Trump in the spring. Social-media platform TikTok gave around $2 million toward Freedom 250, according to people familiar with the matter. Other donors contributing more than $1 million each toward the anniversary included Oracle and ExxonMobil.
When SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son’s team approached the White House offering support, they were told to give funds to the presidential library. SoftBank gave $50 million to the project, according to people familiar with the matter.
One of Son’s ideas for the space is to use a portion of that money to create an area in the library dedicated to the relationship between the U.S. and Japan, one of the people said.
Trump has taken in money from deep-pocketed companies and their owners through lawsuits or threats of litigation. The president has told his lawyers that he wants bigger payouts from media companies and others he believes have wronged him, according to people familiar with the discussions. ABC News and CBS parent Paramount have reached settlements with the president that included around $15 million each for the Trump library to end lawsuits.
Trump has filed a lawsuit against Dow Jones, the publisher of the Journal, alleging he was defamed by an article about a birthday letter to disgraced financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. A Dow Jones spokesman said, “We have full confidence in the rigor and accuracy of our reporting, and will vigorously defend against any lawsuit.”
Companies have traded notes about what Wall Street analyst Blair Levin calls “The Trump Transaction Tax,” or a payment outside of the cost of normal business. “Another way of saying it,” Levin said, “is simply that we’re replacing the free market with the market for Trump’s affections.”
Donald Trump speaks at a fundraiser for a White House ballroom expansion.
The dinner for ballroom donors was held in the East Room of the White House. Jim LoScalzo – Pool via CNP/Zuma Press
In October, Trump hosted companies and donors that contributed to the ballroom project for a dinner in the White House’s East Room. Standing at a lectern with a model of the planned ballroom next to him, the president recounted the ease of his fundraising.
“So many of you have been really, really generous,” Trump said. “I mean, a couple of you, I was sitting here and saying, ‘Sir, would $25 million be appropriate?’ They said, ‘I’ll take it.’”
He added: “It doesn’t take too many 25s to get it done.”
“Chief executives throughout the history have contributed to making the White House special,” Trump said, “and nothing of this magnitude has been done.”
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Appeared in the August 1, 2026, print edition as '‘The Boss Wants This Money’: Trump’s Fundraising Operation'.
Josh Dawsey is chief political correspondent for The Wall Street Journal. He began his career at the Journal and re-joined the newspaper in 2025 after working for eight years at The Washington Post. Josh was part of a team of journalists at The Post that won the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service in 2022 and a team that won the 2024 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service. He is the winner of the 2026 Aldo Beckman Award for Excellence in Presidential News Coverage and a two-time recipient of the White House Correspondents Association award for deadline news reporting.
Josh is a lecturer at the Allbritton Journalism Institute and the enthusiastic owner of a rambunctious rescue dog named Pepper.
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Dana Mattioli is a Pulitzer Prize-winning technology investigations and enterprise reporter for The Wall Street Journal in New York. She does deep dives on technology, politics, antirust and other subjects. Prior to this role, she led investigations into Amazon's business practices, market power and antitrust issues. She is the author of the book "The Everything War: Amazon’s Ruthless Quest to Own the World and Remake Corporate Power," which was longlisted as one of the best business books of 2024 by the Financial Times and named a best book of 2024 by Publishers Weekly.
Dana was part of a WSJ team that won the 2025 Pulitzer Prize in National Reporting for coverage of Elon Musk. She was part of a team that was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2020 for its investigation into Amazon, and was the winner of the 2021 Gerald Loeb Award for Beat Reporting. In 2021, she received the WERT Prize, an award from the Women’s Economic Round Table that honors excellence in comprehensively reported business journalism, and received a Front Page Award for her Amazon coverage. In 2026, she received the Nellie Bly Award from the Newswomen's Club of New York.
Dana earlier covered mergers & acquisitions, where she and colleagues broke some of the largest deals ever recorded, including Pfizer’s $150 billion deal to buy Allergan. In 2016, she won a Gerald Loeb Award in the breaking news category for coverage of the Dow-DuPont merger. She was a finalist for the 2015 Larry Birger Young Business Journalist Award.
Before covering M&A, she reported on retail companies and produced a string of front-page articles and scoops on the troubles at Kodak and J.C. Penney as well as the M&A exploits of various retailers.
Dana started at the Journal in 2006. She graduated from American University in Washington, D.C., with degrees in journalism and literature.
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Annie Linskey is a White House reporter for The Wall Street Journal, a role she assumed in 2022 after covering national politics for the Washington Post, the Boston Globe and Bloomberg News. Her reporting spans three presidential campaigns, four administrations and four continents. She was part of the team of reporters writing about President Trump’s ties to Jeffery Epstein—a body of work that won the Katharine Graham Award for Courage and Accountability and was a finalist for the 2026 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service. Her reporting on Trump’s efforts to profit from the presidency was recognized with an honorable mention from the Sabew Best in Business Awards.
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Emily Glazer is a Pulitzer Prize-winning enterprise reporter focusing on business leaders, power and influence for The Wall Street Journal in New York. Her articles often focus on the intersection of business and politics, CEO succession, board shakeups or regulatory investigations. Emily also contributes to the Journal’s Personal Board of
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