Tech giant Google will support President-elect Donald Trump’s 2025 inauguration, pledging a million-dollar donation.
José Castañeda, policy communications for Google, told NTD News via email on Thursday that the company has committed the donation to the Trump-Vance inaugural, consistent with their contributions to previous inaugurations.
The tech giant also plans to promote video links on its homepage and YouTube platform to help viewers watch the swearing-in ceremony on Jan. 20.
“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, Global Head of Government Affairs and Public Policy at Google, said in a statement sent to NTD News.
This move comes amid a broader trend of tech companies seeking to mend fences with the incoming administration. Earlier this month, Amazon announced a similar $1 million donation to Trump’s inauguration fund. The e-commerce giant also plans to stream the event on its Prime Video service, an in-kind donation valued at an additional $1 million, a company spokesperson told The Associated Press.
Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, has also pledged $1 million to the inauguration fund following a private meeting between Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Trump at Mar-a-Lago.
The tech industry’s efforts to improve relations with Trump come after years of tension. In a Truth Social post on Dec. 4, Trump criticized Big Tech, stating, “Big Tech has run wild for years, stifling competition in our most innovative sector and, as we all know, using its market power to crack down on the rights of so many Americans, as well as those of Little Tech!”
Recent developments suggest those relations may be developing for the better. Former Alphabet President Sergey Brin and Google CEO Sundar Pichai met with Trump post-election, with Pichai publicly congratulating the president-elect on his “decisive victory” in a post on X.
Meta has also significantly changed how it moderates content, eliminating its third-party fact-checking program in favor of a “Community Notes” model, similar to the one used on Elon Musk’s X platform.
The tech industry’s support for Trump’s inauguration this year differs from previous elections, which saw less support. According to Federal Election Commission records, Google donated $285,000 each to Trump’s first inaugural in 2017 and Democrat Joe Biden’s inaugural in 2021. Facebook did not contribute to either Biden’s 2021 inaugural or Trump’s 2017 inaugural.
Amazon’s planned $1 million donation marks a substantial increase from its approximately $58,000 contribution to Trump’s 2017 inaugural. The company also streamed Biden’s inauguration on Prime Video in 2021.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.