1 00:00:02,033 --> 00:00:04,400 JOHN YANG: President-elect Trump's inaugural committee has smashed fundraising records, 2 00:00:04,400 --> 00:00:09,400 racking up more than $200 million in pledges. Donations have come from leaders of big tech, 3 00:00:10,766 --> 00:00:13,866 financial services and telecommunications. Some of 4 00:00:13,866 --> 00:00:18,866 those companies have big federal contracts or are regulated by the federal government. 5 00:00:20,766 --> 00:00:23,133 Ali Rogan spoke with Craig Holman, an expert on ethics and campaign finance 6 00:00:23,133 --> 00:00:28,100 rules for Public Citizen, and Cecilia Kang, who covers technology for the New York Times. 7 00:00:30,466 --> 00:00:33,766 ALI ROGIN: Thank you both so much for being here. Craig, you've put together a research document on 8 00:00:36,166 --> 00:00:39,033 the Trump-Vance inaugural Committee fundraising. How much have they raised and who's donating? 9 00:00:41,100 --> 00:00:43,466 CRAIG HOLMAN, Government Affairs Lobbyist, Public Citizen: It's shattering all records 10 00:00:43,466 --> 00:00:47,400 this time around. You know, the Trump Inaugural committee originally targeted $150 million to 11 00:00:49,500 --> 00:00:54,300 spend on the inauguration, which by itself would break records. Then it upped it to 200 12 00:00:54,300 --> 00:00:59,266 million because money just started flowing in. And today we know it's going to be around 250 million. 13 00:01:00,866 --> 00:01:04,300 And it shatters not only all records in terms of spending, 14 00:01:04,300 --> 00:01:09,300 but also in terms of donations. The donations that we're aware of at this point are all $1 15 00:01:11,366 --> 00:01:15,466 million to $5 million from the same donors who used to give to previous inaugurations, 16 00:01:17,366 --> 00:01:22,066 Trump's first one. But back then it was in amounts of maybe 50,000 or 100,000. 17 00:01:24,233 --> 00:01:27,900 ALI ROGIN: You mentioned that it's some of the same folks. So who tends to be high on the list? 18 00:01:30,033 --> 00:01:33,166 CRAIG HOLMAN: Well, at top of this list is the cryptocurrency industry. So we've got ripple, 19 00:01:35,200 --> 00:01:38,433 that's given 5 million, you got Coinbase, it's given 1 million. You've got Kraken, 20 00:01:40,500 --> 00:01:43,533 that's given 1 million. And you know, they never gave those kinds of money before. As 21 00:01:45,733 --> 00:01:49,900 a matter of fact, the cryptocurrency industry rarely even invested in politics until 2020. 22 00:01:52,100 --> 00:01:56,166 ALI ROGIN: Cecilia, which tech moguls are we expecting to see at the inauguration tomorrow? 23 00:01:56,166 --> 00:01:59,866 And what do we know about what they might be looking to get out of this new relationship? 24 00:01:59,866 --> 00:02:04,833 CECILIA KANG, The New York Times: Just about every major tech CEO will be at the inauguration, 25 00:02:07,200 --> 00:02:10,666 many of whom will also be sitting on the dais with President-elect Donald Trump. We know on the day, 26 00:02:12,600 --> 00:02:16,833 it's actually very interesting. The three richest people in the world, Elon Musk, 27 00:02:16,833 --> 00:02:21,833 the founder of Tesla and the owner of X, Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, 28 00:02:23,633 --> 00:02:26,733 and Mark Zuckerberg, co-founder of Meta, formerly known as Facebook, 29 00:02:26,733 --> 00:02:31,000 they'll all be sitting on the dais. We also have the CEOs of Google, Apple, 30 00:02:31,000 --> 00:02:36,000 OpenAI, a very big and hot AI company, as well as the CEO of TikTok, who will be sitting there. 31 00:02:37,666 --> 00:02:40,433 So the question is really more so who won't be there from the tech 32 00:02:40,433 --> 00:02:44,266 industry? The Silicon Valley is really taking over Washington this weekend. 33 00:02:44,266 --> 00:02:49,266 ALI ROGIN: And of course, the use of money and presence to influence policy 34 00:02:51,400 --> 00:02:55,033 is a time honored tradition in Washington. But this does seem to be at a new level and 35 00:02:56,966 --> 00:02:59,066 at the same time we've seen a number of changes that these companies have made. 36 00:02:59,066 --> 00:03:02,600 Meta just replaced its fact checking program. They're instead going to rely 37 00:03:02,600 --> 00:03:06,900 on users to monitor content. President Trump is launching a cryptocurrency. 38 00:03:06,900 --> 00:03:10,133 What are the tech stories that you're looking at that are going to be big as 39 00:03:10,133 --> 00:03:13,900 we enter this administration? And how might these players be trying 40 00:03:13,900 --> 00:03:17,233 to parliament lay these donations into influence in these early days? 41 00:03:17,233 --> 00:03:19,633 CECILIA KANG: So I'm really interested in AI policy, 42 00:03:19,633 --> 00:03:23,100 what's going to happen in the world of artificial intelligence and how the incoming 43 00:03:23,100 --> 00:03:28,100 administration is expected to really support and promote American AI companies. That's one 44 00:03:30,166 --> 00:03:34,200 reason why a lot of these tech CEOs are very enthusiastic about Trump coming into office. 45 00:03:34,200 --> 00:03:38,733 The other thing I'm looking into is how President-elect Trump deals with speech 46 00:03:38,733 --> 00:03:42,333 policies and whether he will take away legal protections for social 47 00:03:42,333 --> 00:03:47,333 media companies whom he has criticized in the past. This is one of another reason why CEOs 48 00:03:49,466 --> 00:03:52,866 like Mark Zuckerberg are very interested and concerned about Trump coming into the office 49 00:03:52,866 --> 00:03:57,633 because they're afraid that there will be some sort of retribution or punishment of 50 00:03:57,633 --> 00:04:02,600 their companies and their social media sites that conservatives and Republican lawmakers 51 00:04:04,300 --> 00:04:07,833 as well as Trump have criticized for allegedly censoring their content. 52 00:04:09,800 --> 00:04:12,333 ALI ROGIN: Craig, after the inauguration and all the related festivities are over, 53 00:04:12,333 --> 00:04:15,166 what happens to the money that's left over and what does the law say about it? 54 00:04:15,166 --> 00:04:19,866 CRAIG HOLMAN: There is no restriction on how the surplus money gets spent and there is 55 00:04:19,866 --> 00:04:24,866 no disclosure. If Trump doesn't want to tell us how he spent the surplus money, 56 00:04:26,066 --> 00:04:28,066 we aren't going to know what happened to it. 57 00:04:28,066 --> 00:04:32,666 When it comes to the inaugural funding, there are so few rules in place. One, 58 00:04:32,666 --> 00:04:37,666 only two. One, foreign nationals can't make a donation. And the second is we 59 00:04:39,700 --> 00:04:43,300 find out after sometime in the spring, the donors of $200 or more. We don't know how 60 00:04:45,200 --> 00:04:49,866 the money gets spent. We don't know what happens to the surplus funds. And quite 61 00:04:49,866 --> 00:04:54,866 frankly we there is no restriction on how Trump dispenses the surplus funds. 62 00:04:56,266 --> 00:04:57,833 ALI ROGIN: And I know that there's been long standing 63 00:04:57,833 --> 00:05:00,066 efforts to change this. What's the status of those efforts? 64 00:05:00,066 --> 00:05:03,933 CRAIG HOLMAN: There have been. And the bills to try to require disclosure of expenditures, 65 00:05:03,933 --> 00:05:08,933 to ban corporate contributions and government contractors has never gone very far. But this 66 00:05:11,500 --> 00:05:16,500 time around, we're seeing the abuses of this inauguration of such a level that 67 00:05:19,700 --> 00:05:24,700 I'm suspecting the same legislation that we couldn't move before might get legs this time. 68 00:05:25,900 --> 00:05:27,833 ALI ROGIN: Craig Holman with Public Citizen, 69 00:05:27,833 --> 00:05:30,800 Cecilia Kang with the New York Times, thank you both so much for joining us. 70 00:05:30,800 --> 00:05:31,800 CRAIG HOLMAN: Thank you. CECILIA KANG: Thank you.