Report exposes 'supercharged' paydays for biggest Trump backers

President Donald Trump attends a Governors' Dinner at the White House in Washington, D.C., February 21, 2026. REUTERS/Aaron Schwartz

The biggest donors to President Donald Trump have seen "mind-blowing" returns for their investments, according to a new report shared exclusively with The Daily Beast, which found that these backers had received "supercharged" paydays since his return to the White House.

In a piece published Monday morning, The Center for American Progress revealed to the outlet that it had tracked over 75 entities that had donated a total of nearly $1.7 billion to Trump's "political groups, inauguration fund, pet projects such as his ballroom and family businesses since 2023." Based on the center's "conservative estimates," these entities have since received "more than $182 billion in government-related benefits" since the start of Trump's second term.

While stopping short of accusing Trump or these entities of any "criminal quid pro quo," the center noted that these kickbacks included things like "federal contracts, advantageous government policy and tariff and trade exemptions."

"We’re documenting money and timing and benefits received, but we can’t read minds. We can only follow the data,” CAP senior director of research Ryan Koronowski told The Daily Beast, adding that the scale of this dynamic was "mind-blowing."

"Among the report’s biggest winners are defense titan Lockheed Martin, which is reported to have donated $16 million to Trump-related causes, including $5 million from its subsidiary Sikorsky for the new White House helipad," The Daily Beast explained. "Lockheed has secured $44.8 billion in new or expanded contracts since Trump returned to the White House, the report states. Donors from the fossil fuel industry have injected $65.7 million into Trump’s political groups, his inauguration committee, and funding for his ballroom, according to CAP. Its report says the industry will benefit by $31.2 billion from the administration’s policies and tax benefits. Other major firms named in the report include tech titans Apple, MAGA bro Elon Musk and his various companies, and AI firm Palantir and its executives."

Apple, The Daily Beast detailed, donated $25 million to Trump's ballroom, as many other corporate donors did to curry his favor, while former CEO Tim Cook also personally donated $1 million to his inauguration fund. The company later received tariff exemptions that CAP estimated saved it around $21 billion.

After pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into pro-Trump causes, CAP estimated that Elon Musk's companies have raked in $14 billion in benefits from the Trump government. A DOJ investigation into alleged discrimination at SpaceX was also dropped.

“Money gains you influence, which gives you more money, which gives you more influence, which gives you more money. And it’s very circular,” Devon Ombres, a CAP senior director and co-author of the report, told The Daily Beast, adding that the existing dynamics between corporate spending and the federal government has been “supercharged to a degree that we’ve never seen before" under Trump.

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