Massachusetts donors, businesses sent millions to Trump's 2025 inauguration fund
President Donald Trump raked in nearly $4.1 million for his 2025 inauguration from donors and businesses with Massachusetts addresses, just under 2% of the total $239 million raised for the parties tied to his swearing-in for a second term in January.
Trump's inaugural committee reported the names and figures earlier this month in a filing with the Federal Election Commission (FEC), which showed the president beating the previous record he set: $107 million for his first inauguration. Presidential inaugurations feature the oath of office as well as official and unofficial balls or galas in Washington, D.C., offering a way for companies and individuals to ingratiate themselves with a new administration.
Large corporations made appearances on the list, including e-commerce giant Amazon and Facebook owner Meta, which each gave $1 million. The largest donation, coming in at $5 million, was from Pilgrim's Pride, a poultry producer based in Colorado. Cryptocurrency interests also donated, with Ripple Labs donating $4.9 million.
The 21 Massachusetts donors and businesses, with donations totaling roughly $4.1 million, fell below their counterparts in other states, such as Pennsylvania ($8.6 million) and Michigan ($6.4 million). Both were swing states in 2024, while Massachusetts has remained a Democratic stronghold, with Ronald Reagan the last Republican to win the Bay State in 1984.
CommonWealth Beacon reviewed the Trump inauguration fundraising committee's filing with the Federal Election Commission, which included donors and companies listing Massachusetts addresses. One of the largest donors in the state was a company tied to billionaire and car dealership magnate Ernie Boch Jr. The company, which is called Boston Port Service and shares an address with his nonprofit charity Music Drives Us, donated $1 million. Boch, who previously hosted a fundraiser for Trump in 2015, was unreachable for comment.
DraftKings, the Boston-based gambling company with a focus on sports betting, gave $502,000, while FanDuel, its New York-based rival, gave $482,000.
Another $500,000 came from GE Vernova, a Cambridge-based energy technology company working in the renewable power sector. The company, whose wind power division is grappling with a White House that has sought to put a stop to new wind turbine projects, spun off from the conglomerate General Electric in 2024. (CommonWealth Beacon reached out to DraftKings and GE Vernova for comment but did not hear back.)
Jessica Beeson Tocco, the CEO of A10 Associates, which bills itself as the country's 'largest woman-owned bipartisan lobbying firm,' personally donated $101,652 to the Trump inauguration committee and then an additional $50,000 through her Malden-based company. (The company also hosted a cocktail reception at the Waldorf Astoria the weekend before the inauguration, according to Politico.)
One of her clients, Quantum Computing Inc. CEO William McGann, also donated $101,652. He is retiring from the technology company in May and is listed as having an East Falmouth address on the FEC's records.
Reached for comment, Tocco stressed that her firm's donations go to top elected officials in both parties, with contributions flowing to prominent Massachusetts Democrats like US Sen. Ed Markey, Gov. Maura Healey, and Congresswoman Lori Trahan.
A potential Healey rival for the corner office in the State House, Michael Minogue, donated $250,000 to the Trump inauguration committee. Minogue, who now has his own consulting firm after serving as president and CEO of medical technology company Abiomed, has previously donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Republican National Committee and the state GOP. He also gave several thousand dollars to former Gov. Charlie Baker and Josh Kraft, who is looking to unseat Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, according to publicly available campaign finance records.
Others gave smaller amounts. Sriprakash Kothari, an accounting professor at MIT and a Lexington resident who regularly donates to the state GOP, gave $2,500 to the Trump inauguration committee. Kothari, who worked as the chief economist for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission during the first Trump administration, declined to comment about the donation.
Some of the donors, like the company tied to Boch, had to be tracked through corporate documents on file with the Massachusetts secretary of state's office. For example, Randolph-based GGBF Inc. donated $50,000 to the Trump inauguration committee, according to the FEC filing.
Documents on file with the state show the company shares the same address and same president as NEI General Contracting, Josef Rettman. Rettman has mostly donated to Democrats at the state and local level, and a mix at the federal level, including U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Trump White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt's 2022 congressional campaign in New Hampshire.
The list of donors to the inauguration committee did not include the names of some major donors who had previously contributed to the first Trump presidential campaign or the first inauguration in 2017. Jim Davis, the chairman of shoemaker New Balance, donated nearly $400,000 to support Trump's 2016 campaign.
The Kraft Group, tied to New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, didn't donate to the 2025 inauguration after donating $1 million for the 2017 inauguration. Ahead of the 2024 election, Kraft distanced himself from Trump, saying he was 'very upset' by the insurrection attempt to keep Trump in office on January 6, 2021. Kraft has since reportedly helped a law firm, Paul Weiss, broker a peace deal with Trump, who has targeted lawyers through executive orders.
'I made a strong donation to his [2017] inauguration,' Kraft said during an appearance on a radio show last October. 'I couldn't believe it, it was like having someone who was a drunk fraternity brother become president of the United States.'
Massachusetts businesses and individuals donated approximately $4.1 million to President Donald Trump's 2025 inauguration. See who contributed:
NAME
AMOUNT
BOSTON PORT SERVICE
$1,000,000.00
BROWN, GREGORY Q.
$1,000,000.00
DRAFTKINGS INC.
$502,000.00
GE VERNOVA INTERNATIONAL LLC
$500,000.00
MINOGUE, MICHAEL R
$250,000.00
NEWGLOBE EDUCATION INC
$250,000.00
TOCCO, JESSICA
$101,652.90
MCGANN, WILLIAM
$101,652.89
A10 ASSOCIATES, LLC
$50,000.00
CANN, JUSTIN F
$50,000.00
GGBF INC.
$50,000.00
NTT DATA FEDERAL SERVICES INC.
$50,000.00
VALLEY PROPERTY MANAGEMENT LLC
$50,000.00
BERKSHIRE DIRECT MARKETING GROUP LLC
$25,000.00
DOLCE, ASHLEY TYRNER
$25,000.00
DOLCE, JIM
$25,000.00
LESAFFRE, MARY LOU
$25,000.00
LESAFFRE, PETER
$25,000.00
WALTON, NATHANIEL Y
$5,000.00
KOTHARI, DAFNI
$2,500.00
KOTHARI, SRIPRAKASH
$2,500.00
Source: Federal Election Commission
This article first appeared on CommonWealth Beacon and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
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