Trump's 'Princess of Darkness' gets policies for cash: report

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

President Donald Trump is well-known to have assembled a fundraising juggernaut, one so big that Republicans worry it is siphoning off money he could use to win the midterms. Yet a recent report reveals that, in addition to raising money for political purposes, Trump has a so-called “princess of darkness” who explicitly talks to these donors so they can give Trump money for his pet projects in return for White House access.

“Meredith O’Rourke, nicknamed ‘princess of darkness,’” is a major power player in Washington under Trump, reported The Wall Street Journal's Josh Dawsey, Dana Mattioli, Annie Linskey and Emily Glazer on Thursday.

“Trump asks O’Rourke which companies and donors have cut checks and which haven’t, and for how much,” the journalists added. “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. “

They then listed the donors who give this money to Trump.

“SoftBank donated $50 million toward Trump’s presidential library,” they wrote. “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.”

In return for their money, these donors are given unprecedented and lengthy access to the president.

“The president is often solicitous and warm at these fundraisers, asking each CEO to introduce themself,” the Journal explained. “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.”

They continued, “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.”

Speaking with AlterNet earlier in July, historian Thom Hartmann described this type of corporate access as corrupt, and agreed with this journalist when he compared it to President Grover Cleveland’s 1894 warning about large corporations creating a “communism of pelf.”

“He talked about how we now see trusts and combinations that have arisen,” Hartmann explained. “I'm paraphrasing terribly here, but from memory, that have arisen and threaten to crush the average person — you know, corporations, which should be the carefully constrained servants of the people, have become their masters, and the average person is thus under the iron heel of these corporations.

Dr. Robert J. Shapiro, an economist who was a top adviser to President Bill Clinton, described this as “crony capitalism.”

“Trump operates with a form of crony capitalism,” Shapiro told AlterNet in July. “The people who get US contracts, the people who get preferences on tariffs, are those who have influence with him. It ranges from the absurd — where the guy who did the coating for the swimming pool gets a no-bid contract to do the reflecting pool — to all the other no-bid contracts. That's all crony capitalism. And certainly, opening this up could create more opportunities for that.”

From Your Site Articles