Reports suggest that Amazon is set to contribute $1 million to the inaugural fund of President-elect Donald Trump, paralleling a recent similar contribution from Meta, the social media enterprise established by Mark Zuckerberg, this week.
The choice made by these tech moguls to open their wallets aligns with a trend of industry leaders adjusting their rhetoric regarding the soon-to-be administration.
Jeff Bezos, the executive chairman of Amazon and currently ranked as the second richest individual globally as per the Forbes billionaire rankings, is poised to make a significant donation and visit Mar-a-Lago, characterizing his transition from a past critic of Trump to an “optimist” about the future administration.
The announcement of the seven-figure contribution was initially made by the Wall Street Journal, which referenced unidentified sources, and was subsequently affirmed by CNN. In 2017, Amazon made a smaller contribution of $57,746 to Trump’s first inauguration.
Bezos is also said to be organizing a visit to Mar-a-Lago next week, with Trump confirming during an interview with CNBC on Thursday, after attending the opening bell ceremony at the New York Stock Exchange, that Bezos would be making the trip.
Additionally, Google CEO Sundar Pichai is reportedly making plans for a visit to Mar-a-Lago, as first reported by tech news outlet The Information on Thursday.
During his first term, Trump had numerous disagreements with Bezos, with Amazon, Bezos’ personal life, and The Washington Post, which Bezos has owned since 2013, often being targets of his criticism.
However, Bezos has seemingly been working to mend fences with the president-elect over recent months. He was among the first billionaires to congratulate Trump following his electoral win in November. Reportedly, Trump also met with executives from Bezos’ space company, Blue Origin, prior to the election. This space enterprise is a key competitor to Elon Musk’s SpaceX in the realm of government contracts.
Last week at the The New York Times DealBook summit, Bezos remarked that he perceived Trump as being “calmer” and “more confident, settled” compared to his first term, and he expressed hopefulness regarding Trump’s pledges to reduce regulations—mirroring the sentiments of other prominent tech leaders preferred by Trump, like Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, who have been appointed to lead a government cost-reduction committee.
“I find it quite interesting; I’m genuinely optimistic this time,” Bezos stated to Andrew Ross Sorkin. “He appears to have considerable enthusiasm for lowering regulations, and from my perspective—if there’s a way I can assist him in achieving that, I will. Because in this country, we certainly have an excess of regulations.”
