According to the Wall Street Journal, Amazon plans to donate $1 million to U.S. President-elect Trump’s inaugural fund. Right now, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and other tech industry leaders are working to strengthen their relationship with the incoming administration.
Amazon is preparing the donation and its executive chairman Bezos is expected to travel to Trump's private club Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, next week to meet with Trump, according to people familiar with the matter. Tech companies have previously been the target of fierce criticism from Trump and his allies. Other tech leaders are also speeding up repairs with Trump, with Mark Zuckerberg directing his company Meta to donate $1 million to Trump's inaugural fund.
Bezos and Amazon decided to donate earlier this week and informed Trump's team of the decision, some people familiar with the matter said. A person close to Bezos said: "Bezos will make a donation through Amazon." Another person familiar with the matter revealed that Amazon will also live broadcast the inauguration ceremony through its PrimeVideo video business, which is another in-kind donation worth $1 million (non-cash, the live broadcast has market value).
In 2017, Amazon donated approximately $58,000 in cash and other in-kind donations to Trump's inauguration. At the time, other tech companies donated larger amounts. According to a person familiar with the matter, the Biden administration informed Amazon at the time of the 2021 inauguration that it would not accept donations from technology companies, but Amazon still provided a live streaming service for Biden's inauguration.
Bezos has had a long-running feud with Trump, partly because Bezos owns The Washington Post. Bezos once insulted Trump and claimed that he would send Trump to the moon through his space company.
But recently, Bezos has begun to change his attitude towards Trump. He congratulated Trump on X for his "remarkable political comeback" and expressed optimism this month about Trump's second term as president. "What I'm seeing so far is that he's calmer, more confident, more composed than he was the first time," Bezos told a New York Times conference.
In October this year, the Washington Post canceled a draft editorial supporting Vice President Harris' presidential bid, a move that sparked anger among some subscribers. Critics believe the decision stemmed from Bezos' fear of possible retaliation if Trump were elected. Bezos defended the decision, saying supportive statements could come across as biased.