Trump corporate donors brace for investigations if House flips to Democrats

Musk plans $100M+ for GOP as other firms hedge with Democratic donations

Some U.S. companies with close ties to President Trump are taking steps to improve their standing with Democrats, preparing for the possibility of congressional investigations if Republicans lose control of the House in November’s midterm elections. According to people familiar with the discussions, big tech companies that have donated heavily to Trump and his legacy projects are gaming out responses to potential congressional inquiries, subpoenas and information requests.

Meta Platforms has emerged as one of the most active corporate donors attempting to hedge. The company has given $5 million each to House Majority Forward and Majority Forward — political nonprofits aligned with House and Senate Democratic leadership, respectively — according to people familiar with the donations. Those donations, which are not required to be publicly disclosed, have not been previously reported. Meta has also given $5 million this year to Republican-aligned American Action Network and One Nation, and previously donated $10 million to a Trump-aligned political committee in the spring. The Wall Street Journal reported that the company’s federal political nonprofit giving has totaled at least $30 million this year.

Other companies are pursuing a different approach: bringing on former Democratic aides to strengthen their government relations operations. Paramount recently hired Shuwanza Goff, the former legislative director to President Joe Biden, as vice president of U.S. government affairs. The prediction market operator Kalshi, which counts Donald Trump Jr. as a strategic adviser, has hired Stephanie Cutter, a former aide to President Barack Obama, as a policy adviser, and John Bivona, a former Biden aide, as head of federal government relations. Kalshi has also signed lawyer Neal Katyal, who served as acting solicitor general under Obama and co-wrote a 2019 book titled “Impeach: The Case Against Donald Trump,” as a client.

Several major companies have created internal task forces to prepare for potential congressional inquiries. Meta and Palantir are among the companies whose executives and advisers have discussed the likelihood of facing information requests, hearings and subpoenas if Democrats take power, according to people involved in the discussions. Cooper Teboe, a Silicon Valley donor adviser and Democratic strategist, advised companies that have aligned publicly with Trump and ignored Democrats: “Get right with God.”

Teboe said companies that fail to repair their standing would face significant consequences. “You’re going to be totally f—ed next year or you’re going to figure it out this year and you’re going to make amends — and amends are going to be much more costly than they were previously,” he said.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who would be in line to become speaker if Democrats win the House, has done little to ease companies’ concerns. Jeffries said his party is focused on affordability and on holding companies accountable. “The era of unbridled corruption visited upon the country by the Trump cartel will soon come to an end,” the New York congressman said. Democrats need to gain only a handful of seats to retake the House in the November midterms, and Republicans are increasingly worried about holding their majority, according to people from both parties. The GOP-controlled Senate is seen as a tossup.

Companies and Washington advisers expect that potential House Democratic investigations would focus on corporations that have made large donations to Trump or to his projects, as well as those tied to members of his family or to children of senior aides including Steve Witkoff and Howard Lutnick. Companies also expect that the Trump administration would not cooperate with congressional requests for information, pushing the focus of any investigations toward businesses, which have less flexibility to refuse congressional demands.

Several law firms and business groups have begun offering companies structured guidance. Executives from Amazon, Chevron, Pfizer, UnitedHealth and other major companies attended a summer seminar hosted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce focused on “managing potential congressional oversight and investigations,” according to documents reviewed by the Journal. The conversation, facilitated by Chamber executives, covered topics ranging from informal congressional requests to subpoenas, lessons from past investigations, and corporate preparation strategies. The law firm Cahill held a separate June seminar titled “On the Hill with Cahill: Playbook for 2026 and Beyond,” bringing together lawyers, executives and congressional staff, including House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R., Ky.), to discuss corporate responses to congressional outreach.

Not every company is hedging. Elon Musk, the SpaceX and Tesla CEO who spent heavily to support Trump’s 2024 re-election, is doubling down on the Republican Party for the midterms. Musk is planning to spend more than $100 million to help Republicans keep control of Congress, the Journal reported.

Some executives who have aligned themselves with the Trump administration say they are not changing course. Instead, they are racing to close deals and resolve other business matters with regulatory or policy implications before any potential change in Congress, according to people familiar with the discussions. As one policy executive put it, it is the Trump White House, not Congress, that determines whether a deal is approved or a regulation rewritten.

The Democratic side has begun reciprocating the corporate outreach. Executives from Kalshi and Alphabet’s Google have attended recent Washington events hosted by Jeffries, according to attendees. Jeffries recently traveled to the West Coast to meet with large technology companies in the Bay Area, and he hosted the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s annual fundraiser at Torrey Pines, a luxury resort in the San Diego area. OpenAI organized dinners this summer in Washington that included Democratic lawmakers and the company’s CEO, Sam Altman, in an effort to bolster Democratic ties.