Amazon to donate $1m to Trump inaugural fund

Amazon confirmed on Thursday that it will give $1 million to President-elect Donald Trump’s inaugural fund, following on the heels of Meta’s $1 million contribution this week.

Such gifts are rewarded with “top tier benefits” from Trump’s inaugural committee, according to the New York Times. Amazon gave more than $57 000 to Trump’s inauguration in 2016 while the Biden administration declined to accept donations from tech companies in 2020.

Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, has had an uneven relationship with Trump because of another entity Bezos owns, The Washington Post. Trump has been critical of the publication’s coverage of him and his administration.

That relationship made national headlines during the campaign when the newspaper did not endorse a presidential candidate this year, leading to internal strife and the resignation of several key members of its editorial board.

Two members of the editorial board said the newspaper had prepared to endorse Vice-President Kamala Harris for president before the plug was pulled on endorsements, which Bezos supported in a Washington Post op-ed.

Trump in the past had complained about Amazon’s generous deal with the US Postal Service to deliver customer deliveries on the weekend. Amazon had, in turn, charged that Trump pressured the Department of Defense to not give Amazon an important could computing contract.

The two, however, appeared to smooth things over the summer when the two men spoke after Trump’s assassination attempt in Pennsylvania. Bezos claimed earlier this month that Trump appeared to “have a lot of energy” around reducing regulation.

Meta, the parent of Facebook, and its owner Mark Zuckerberg, had a frosty relationship with Trump as well, banning him from the platform after the 2021 attack on the US Capitol. Zuckerberg announced Meta’s endorsement this week, shortly after visiting Trump at his Florida Mar-a-Lago estate. (UPI)