Google and Microsoft donate $1m each to Trump's inaugural fund

[SupportSanity]

Source: theguardian.com

Google and Microsoft have donated $1m each to Donald Trump’s inauguration fund, following in the footsteps of other major companies including Amazon, Meta, OpenAI and Uber.

“Google is pleased to support the 2025 inauguration, with a livestream on YouTube and a direct link on our homepage. We’re also donating to the inaugural committee,” Karan Bhatia, Google’s global head of government affairs and public policy, confirmed in a statement to the Guardian on Thursday.

The tech giant made the donation on Monday, CNBC reported. José Castaneda, a Google spokesperson, told the outlet that the company has donated to previous inauguration funds and previously hosted livestreams of inauguration ceremonies.

A Microsoft spokesperson confirmed the company’s donation to Trump’s inaugural fund in a statement to Bloomberg on Thursday. The company donated $500,000 each to Trump’s inauguration in 2017 and Joe Biden’s inauguration in 2021, Bloomberg reports.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/jan/09/google-microsoft-donate-trump-inaugural-fund

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Kissing the ring

[samnsara]

1. thats actually peanuts compared to what they are worth

..its like a token amount as they know it will go into trumps pocket

[Scrivener7]

8. But it's graft. Shameless and in our faces.

[Oopsie Daisy]

2. Do I have to stop using Microsoft products now? Shall I stop using Google, Gmail, and my Android phone?

I suspect there will be very loud calls to "boycott" and withdraw from these companies and their services/products. But, if I do that, will it hurt them? Will either of these corporations notice what a good person I am? Or will I have to tattoo it across my forehead so that everyone notices?

[ItsjustMe]

5. Or will I have to tattoo it across my forehead so that everyone notices?

Not necessarily your forehead.

https://www.flickr.com/groups/apple_tattoo/pool/

[Oopsie Daisy]

6. Ha! 😂🤪

[LeftInTX]

49. Well not Apple. Tim Cook also donated $1 million

https://www.axios.com/2025/01/03/tim-cook-apple-donate-1-million-trump-inauguration

I guess everyone is stuck with Linux.

[ItsjustMe]

53. Nobody is stuck with Linux

Even though Linux is free, most people choose not to use it.

Linus Torvalds

[Scrivener7]

7. You seem bothered by suggestions here that we should

be aware of what our spending supports and act accordingly. They are merely suggestions, by the way, because obviously no one here can make any of the rest of us do anything.

I'm different. I'm VERY bothered that these companies are so open about their graft, yet they're so powerful and monopolistic that I can't entirely cut them out of my spending.

And do you need everyone to notice? I don't really care about what others think. I just don't want MY actions and MY money supporting corruption, and I adjust my spending to that goal as much as I can.

[Oopsie Daisy]

11. ⭐️

[Scrivener7]

14. Your scorn is noted. You have a lovely day.

[Oopsie Daisy]

26. Ditto.

[SupportSanity]

41. Tough to not support corruption when corruption is ruling and in power.

Watch for all the corruption that we can see.

Watch for the effects of the corruption that we can't see.

Like the wind. You can't see it. But you can see its effects. Trees swaying in the wind, sailboats in the water powered by wind.

Also like the wind , really big unseen corruption will look like a financial tornado hit.

We will be experiencing all of this.

Shock to the system.

And it will probably happen quickly.

Tim Snyder (authoritarian expert) says the first six monts will be pretty bad.

[Blue Full Moon]

18. Keep giving money to companies working against you benefits who?

[LeftInTX]

50. Do you have Apple products? Their CEO donated $1 million also.

Do you have Linux on a homemade computer? Where did your chipset come from? Your hard drive? Your monitor?

[erodriguez]

21. You basically can't boycott monopolies

[RainCaster]

25. I manage

I no longer buy msft products, even though I can buy them at employee discount. All my computers run Linux, Libre Office and other FOSS. I'm switching my wife over as well. I do run an old license of Windows 10 as a virtual machine so that I can use TurboTax. That is the only reason I have for using Windows at all.

[Polybius]

36. No MacBook?

Unless you are boycotting Apple too?

[RainCaster]

47. Never got into Macs- rather expensive for my taste

Had Apple phones when my employer required it. Otherwise, nothing from Apple.

[SupportSanity]

42. I will be switching to Linux, also. I have two machines

Is there a best flavor of Linux for a beginner?
I'd like to start out with a very easy no hassle version of Linux.
Then see about moving up after getting my feet wet.

[RainCaster]

46. Mint with Cinnamon desktop will be very easy

And it looks very similar to Win10 out of the box. The updates are very easy to manage, same with installing new software.

[SupportSanity]

48. Great. I'll give that a try.

Thanks.

[LeftInTX]

51. Linux isn't for everyone. You generally gotta be good with computers.

How many consumers know how to format a hard drive etc...Know how to do command line stuff...

The only reason I can do command lines is because I took a bunch of comp sci in the 70's. I know all commands must have perfect syntax or they don't work.

[RainCaster]

56. Home ownership isn't for everyone either

But thanks to YouTube, people know how to change light fixtures, patch pavement... The same thing can be said about Linux. Lots of websites that can walk you through anything about installing, tweaking, maintenance...

[LeftInTX]

57. Too many people don't want to be bothered with anything computers. I do digital data for our local group.

People can't figure out, nor do they want to figure out how to log in to this or that, much less run any lists. Everyone is technologically challenged. Can't seem to figure anything out.

If something goes wrong, they call the Geek Squad.

[Farmer-Rick]

27. Exactly

That's the whole purpose of all these monopolies.

To keep you from buying from anyone else. And to break the back of the labor unions. They pay workers crap and then suck up all the money workers have to spend to survive.

It's what has created all these stupid Nazi billionaires....Monopoly money.

[SupportSanity]

43. One person can't boycott a monopoly effectively. But a large group can be very effective.

A group that will start all together and stay consistent in the boycott.

That eventually effects share price and market value.

[Magoo48]

24. I don't suppose any of us "have" to do anything. Lord knows I pick and choose.

Most of us do that which won’t be too much of a sacrifice.
First world people will not be inconvenienced.

The most glaring example of this unwillingness to sacrifice is the existential reality of Climate Catastrophe, and the suffering it will undeniably unleash on our next generations.

All that being said, IMO, the more we and our congress critters fuck with Orangeina from the get go, the better off we’ll be in the long run. I am curious to see how much pain it will take take to get us off the dime. Perhaps, no amount of suffering is sufficient. Peace.

[erodriguez]

54. So Apple or Android? Both donated to Trump.

[no_hypocrisy]

3. I'd call it a down payment.

[Irish_Dem]

10. Yep. It is just the beginning of the oligarchs giving Trump a cut of their profits.

This is what Putin does in Russia. The oligarchs must give him a cut of profits
or they accidentally fall out of windows.

[ItsjustMe]

4. Apple CEO Tim Cook Is Donating $1 Million to Donald Trump's Inauguration Fund

https://variety.com/2025/digital/news/apple-ceo-tim-cook-donates-1-million-trump-inauguration-1236265079/

[nwliberalkiwi]

37. Shame on you Tim Cook

Mr. Cook as a gay man you show no profile in courage with your donation to these openly anti gay people. Shame on you.

[SupportSanity]

44. "Shame on you" shouted at a person who has no shame.

We're going to be seeing a lot of this.

No shame. no remorse.

These are the people in power that will be affecting our lives.

Biden will be a distant memory. It's going to be very different in a couple of days.

[Irish_Dem]

9. They don't even hide their corrupt bribe payments to Trump.

They have no shame.

[William Seger]

12. They are businesses, and they know they're facing a vindictive malignant narcissist

They have a fiduciary responsibility to their stockholders to be spineless ass-kissers.

[Unladen Swallow]

13. linux

[ItsjustMe]

17. 😂

[SupportSanity]

45. I hear the Mint distro of Linux is good for beginners.

I might start with that.

Ubuntu has been recommended also.

[Bengus81]

15. Eh...Obama received $44 million in donations for his 2013 Inaguration

He refused any in 2009 but then changed to where he would accept them in 2013. His 2009 event was $170M.

I think the cost of any of them is patently ridiculous. Running now around $170-200M for a swearing in and one night of parties.

[travelingthrulife]

30. No one should watch this or attend it.

[BlueKota]

16. It's disgusting

but unfortunately a lot of us don't really have a choice but continuing to use some of these services and retailers. I live near a very small city where most of the small businesses are pizza shops, bakeries, or knick nack stores. I also don't drive anymore.

Plus with more and more companies bowing to him the list of places we would need to boycott will be endless.

[cadoman]

59. for better or worse it's standard practice

And pretty much the same list of companies shows up every inauguration. Cost of doing business for them.

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/pfizer-unions-others-donated-618-mln-bidens-inaugural-2021-04-21/

What I don't like is taxpayer is still on the hook for a big chunk of it (the actual swearing in ceremony). So what do we need all the side events and hoopla for?

[purr-rat beauty]

19. How much do they donate to Children's Cancer Research?

or to homeless charities, habitat for humanity, women's shelters?

what a waste of money but look who the recipient is....a waste of a human.

[PJMcK]

20. Google and Microsoft donated to President Biden's inauguration in 2021

Just sayin'.

https://www.politico.com/news/2021/01/09/biden-inaugural-donors-major-corporations-456907

Standard operating procedure for corporations, I guess.

[mdbl]

22. while they are at it make all their employees attend it as a national holiday

celebrating Satan's return.

[ananda]

23. Boy, this is some serious fear we're seeing in people and companies.

And I think it's infecting the world.

[Juneboarder]

28. Sickening...

It's sad when all of these large companies are donating to the orange sh!tgibbon. I'd like to see them donate funds to those that have lost and are losing their entire lives right now in the Southern CA fires.

[obnoxiousdrunk]

29. They would be

donating if Kamala Harris was being inaugurated . Right ?

[travelingthrulife]

32. No. That would be political in nature and they don't do that.

[travelingthrulife]

31. A million dollars they can piss away on a party but they can't pay their taxes

or help anyone struggling in this country. Monsters, all of them.

[muriel_volestrangler]

33. Has any firm gone for donating an insultingly small amount, eg one dollar?

I think that would send more of a message from a company than not donating at all.

[kacekwl]

34. Why don't these assholes

Donate to California relief instead along with the president elect who is supposedly a billionaire. I've never heard about him every donating to anything cheap prick.

[The Wizard]

35. Bribery doesn't cost

it pays. The only ones who think Trump is not an extortionist get their information from Pox News and the Internet. With Meta eschewing fact checking, anything and everything will be thrown against the wall.

[joanbarnes]

38. I implore someone to calculate

How many hungry, homeless and health care deprived folks could benefit from the money spent on tRump's worship fest, or how many student loans could be paid off.

[markie]

39. if only

[Owens]

40. How much have they donated to the victims of the L.A. fires?

[walkingman]

52. Why wouldn't they? Trump has made it perfectly clear he is a transactional President. The

majority of American voters not only know this but are fine with it. After all he is a "bidness" man.

Until people wake up and stop electing these people at the national, state, and local level we will continue this and it will more than likely get worse.

Our worship of predatory capitalism is only exceeded by out worship of "sky gods".

[Beringia]

55. Friends with deep pockets need to stick together. I wish I could dump both of them

[Jack Valentino]

58. JESUS! Looks like I need another search engine....

"Rest in peace, Google. We knew you so well.... or so we thought"