Trump’s Super PAC filing revealed millions spent by corporations trying to curry favor with the president.
This Corruption Calendar newsletter was originally published on our Substack. Read and subscribe here.
Welcome to Week 29 of the Revolving Door Project’s Corruption Calendar: the weekly roundup where we highlight new and egregious examples of corporate corruption in the Trump administration. Read our first 28 issues here and follow us on Bluesky and X for updates.
The midyear finance report from Trump’s Super PAC, MAGA Inc, dropped last week, revealing millions spent by corporations trying to curry favor with the president (it’s worth noting that while it isn’t an election year and Trump cannot run for re-election, the war chest empowers the President to wield significant influence over Republican down ballot races). In case it wasn’t already clear, Trump’s pay-to-play scheme was set up from the beginning: in February, medical product company Extremity Care made a $5 million donation that led to Trump disavowing a federal rule that targeted the company’s expensive and unproven products. Campaign finance reports may be on a time delay, but we’ll keep you updated as more instances of Trump’s corruption come to light.
MAGA Super PAC Made Millions From Donors Seeking Trump’s Favor. A campaign finance report filed by Trump’s Super PAC, MAGA Inc, revealed the people and corporations that have engaged with Trump’s pay for play schemes—including crypto investor Eric Schiermeyer, who got a dinner with Trump at Mar-a-Lago club “in exchange for donations” to the Super PAC totaling $1 million. That’s just one of “dozens of seven- and eight-figure contributions to MAGA Inc. from crypto and other interests.” Public Citizen has a breakdown of the Super PAC donors.
Trump Admin Substitutes Patient Well Being For Extremity Care’s $5 Million Donation. Months after Trump came out against a Biden administration rule “meant to restrict [Medicare] coverage of unproven and costly bandages known as skin substitutes,” his Super PAC’s midyear report has revealed why: a timely $5 million donation from a company directly impacted by the rule. Per Popular Information, Extremity Care, “a company that sells very expensive bandages made from discarded placentas and other substances,” donated $5 million to MAGA Inc., President Trump’s Super PAC on February 24, 2025. Days later, Trump blasted the rule, which would have barred Medicare from covering Extremity Care’s products. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services eventually moved to delay the rule until 2026.
Trump Shoots The Messenger. After the latest jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed a significant slowdown in new jobs, President Trump went on a rampage and fired the longtime public servant who heads the agency, baselessly accusing Erika McEntarfer of faking the statistics. It’s yet another unbridled attack on independent agencies and civil servants, and it threatens the world’s ability to trust our nation’s economic stats. It’s the latest entry in the president’s war on truth and accuracy. As a private citizen, Trump was found guilty on 34 counts of falsifying business records. Now, his administration systemically dismantles the federal government’s data apparatus.
Make Way For The Sycophants. In his time in office, Trump has regularly rewarded allies with powerful positions in government, prioritizing loyalty over qualifications. Most recently, he attempted to install his former personal lawyer, Alina Habba, as the US Attorney for New Jersey. In March, he appointed her interim US Attorney for New Jersey, but her permanent nomination hit a snag when New Jersey’s senators, Cory Booker and Andy Kim, called Habba unfit to serve in the role. As Habba’s term as interim US Attorney neared its 120 day limit in July, judges in New Jersey appointed the assistant US Attorney, Desiree Grace, as the acting US Attorney. Trump’s DOJ immediately retaliated by firing Grace and re-installing Habba as acting US Attorney. Now, federal cases in New Jersey are at a standstill as the courts determine whether Habba has the authority to serve as US Attorney. Grace, who has worked in the New Jersey USAO since 2016, is arguing to the US Merit Systems Protection Board that her firing was “completely unjustified.”
American Officials Aren’t Trump’s Only Target. Per E&E News, Trump’s Energy Secretary Chris Wright is jockeying to replace a top-ranking official at an intergovernmental organization that coordinates international energy sector policy. Wright vowed to withdraw U.S. support unless the International Energy Agency makes changes, which reportedly includes replacing the agency’s second-in-command, a retired State Department official named Mary Warlick. The IEA has drawn the Trump admin’s ire for its analysis that Republicans say “discouraged investment in fossil fuels.” Republicans also “bristled” at how the agency’s analysis was used to justify the Biden administration’s decision to pause consideration of new liquefied natural gas export permits.
Decluttering The Constitution. Internet sleuths noticed this week that Congress’ website for the U.S. Constitution had deleted the last two sections of Article I—including the Writ of Habeas Corpus, which protects due process, and the Emoluments Clauses, preventing the president from accepting gifts from foreign governments. While the language has since been restored to the site, it doesn’t seem like the Trump administration was using it anyways.
Corporations See Cash Rolling In As One Big Beautiful Bill Gets Rolled Out. The Wall Street Journal reported that telecoms giant AT&T is expecting $1.5 to $2 billion in cash tax savings this year due to Trump’s spending bill. According to one estimate, corporate giants could see an over 30% increase in free cash flow: Meta’s cash tax savings could be as much as $11 billion, while Amazon could save $15.7 billion. In total, 369 of the companies in the S&P 500 could see $148 billion in cash tax savings. Meanwhile, an estimated 15 million people will lose their healthcare coverage thanks to Medicaid and ACA marketplace cuts in the same bill.
Trump-Tied Fossil Fuel Giant Wins Big On OBBB. Yet another addition to the list of corporations winning big under Trump 2.0: Occidental Petroleum, which is positioned to take full advantage of tax incentives in OBBB “for using captured carbon dioxide to squeeze more crude out of sputtering oil wells or to create low-carbon products like sustainable aviation fuel,” per E&E News. And the company’s advantage doesn’t seem to be a coincidence. Occidental CEO Vicki Hollub attended a dinner at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in 2024, where Trump “promised to slash environmental rules in exchange for $1 billion in contributions from the industry.” Hollub followed up by hosting a fundraiser for the campaign, and after his win, Occidental gave $1 million to Trump’s inaugural committee.
New Trump Tariffs, Same Old Corporate Giveaways. David Dayen reported this week on how Trump’s chaotic tariffs are kleptocracy in action: “Beneath the surface are more carve-outs, exclusions, and special gifts for the industries with enough well-placed lobbyists to obtain them.” Some so-called wins, like the “sanctions-like trade penalties” on Brazil, “sound bad until you realize that nearly half of all Brazilian exports to the U.S. are exempted from the 50 percent tariff rate,” and learn that Brazil’s export economy doesn’t rely on the U.S. As Dayen observes, “trade is just a cover for corporate-driven demands on the rest of the world.”
Trump Sons Seek To Buy Up Manufacturing Companies. The Trump brothers are backing a special purpose acquisition company, New America Acquisition I Corp, which aims to “revitalize” American manufacturing. The company’s filings indicate that they hope to have a $300 million public offering on the New York Stock Exchange after buying up existing businesses—never mind that their dad controls critical policy levers, like tariffs and federal contracts, that could make or break any acquisition targets. The brothers’ shares in the business (two million shares for Donald Jr. and three million for Eric) could be worth millions if the company reaches its target share price.
Trump Invites Banks’ Pitches On How To Make The Biggest Windfall Out Of Mortgage Giants. Trump has been meeting with a string of bank executives as he figures out how to monetize mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Trump met with CEOs from Citi, Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, and Goldman Sachs “to discuss how to relinquish the government’s grip over two housing giants, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.” If their pitch to Trump goes well, banks could see a big payday from underwriting the public offerings of the government’s stakes in Fannie and Freddie. Trump promised in May that he would take Fannie and Freddie public, though the task is easier said than done. As our Jacob Plaza has written, a number of other Trump-tied investors could also stand to benefit from the mortgage giants’ privatization.
ICYMI this week from Revolving Door Project:
Our Henry Burke explains what Matt Yglesias got wrong in his defense of Uber: Uber Wrong
Our Dylan Gyauch-Lewis in The Sling: On the Optimal Ratio of Engineers to Lawyers: A Review of Dan Wang’s Breakneck