[Nearly three dozen of President-elect Donald Trump’s picks to serve in his incoming administration donated to his campaign or to the deep-pocketed outside groups that worked to elect him, a CNN analysis of federal campaign records shows.
Among them are tech multibillionaire Elon Musk, who has emerged as the single largest, disclosed political donor of the 2024 presidential election, and others close to Trump tapped for key roles throughout government.
Eight of his Cabinet picks – led by Linda McMahon, the billionaire wrestling magnate Trump has selected to oversee the Education Department – and their spouses donated more than $37 million combined from their personal accounts to aid Trump, the review found, underscoring the proliferation of ultra-rich Americans now poised to shape US policy in the incoming second Trump administration.
Musk, who has not been selected for a formal Cabinet job, is helping guide a new Department of Government Efficiency initiative and has played a pivotal role in the presidential transition, offering his views on job candidates, talking to world leaders and meeting with lawmakers on Capitol Hill as he weighs how to downsize the federal government.
In all, the SpaceX and Tesla chief executive donated more than $277 million to federal elections this cycle, the lion’s share of which – more than $262 million – benefited Trump. Most of Musk’s pro-Trump dollars flowed to a super PAC that the world’s richest man created to help turn out voters on the Republican’s behalf in key swing states.
Trump’s donors “are not just getting these sort of plum ambassadorships on the side,” said Brendan Glavin, research director of OpenSecrets, a nonpartisan organization that analyzes money in politics. “Major donors are getting positions that affect policy.”
The CNN analysis researched the more than 90 people that Trump had announced for high-level positions in the administration through Tuesday, which marked five weeks since his election victory. More than 30 of them had donated to his campaign or to one of the leading Trump-aligned outside groups, the review of FEC records found.
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