U.S. President Donald Trump looks on as he visits Machine Shed restaurant in Urbandale, Iowa, U.S., January 27, 2026. REUTERSKevin Lamarque
MS NOW co-anchor Jacqueline Alemany says House Democrats are so convinced they will stampede the chamber in November that they are already planning to investigate U.S. companies that paid President Donald Trump millions for political favors.
Trump may thump his chest over Democrat-led House investigations, but tech giants, oil companies, defense contractors and Fortune 500 CEOs still fear congressional subpoenas and congressional scrutiny.
“Now, as House Democrats plot a return to the majority, they are pledging to probe the deals, mergers, settlements and regulatory favors that flowed to corporations doing business with the Trump administration,” reports Alemany.
Democrats are currently in the minority and limited to issuing “strongly worded letters and … toothless investigative authority,” but Alemany said they are already “laying the groundwork for a sweeping expansion of oversight targeting the companies and CEOs who have done business with the Trump family, or sought favorable regulatory treatment, merger approval, or policy changes from the administration — from Paramount to Palantir.”
“Trump’s running the presidency like a mob boss and everyone who has agreed to bribe him is a target for an investigation,” said a senior congressional staffer, speaking anonymously to MS NOW. “And although there’s a spectrum of wrongdoing with Elon Musk at one end and not much more than small businesses trying to get by on the other, there are very wealthy CEOs who know better. And we’re taking names.”
Critics may consider this retaliation against Trump’s corporate enablers but Democrats say this is a strategy that could “reshape corporate America’s relationship with Trump,” by making CEOs “think twice before opening their wallets or bending to presidential pressure.”
Biden administration national security adviser Jake Sullivan met with senior Democratic officials in December and encouraged them to hold the private sector more accountable as Trump embraced a more blatantly “transactional and retributive [form of] governance,” according to three sources in the meeting.
The idea caught on as a result of backlash to members of the national security community who have been fired or blacklisted by companies fearful of retribution from Trump. But the conversation quickly expanded to how completely companies have folded under pressure from the administration, said Alemany.
Democrats on the House Oversight Committee are already sending inquiries to chief executives of at least four oil companies, including Chevron, ExxonMobil, ConocoPhillips and Continental Resources, demanding information to determine “who stands to privately or personally benefit from President Trump’s actions and whether corrupt motives were a driving force in U.S. foreign policy decision.”
