'Pay up and pray': Fury from all sides hits tech billionaires after $1M gifts to Trump

A number of tech billionaires — including many who have not previously backed Trump — are beginning to open their pocketbooks for President-elect Donald Trump, contributing large amounts of money to his inaugural fund. Among them are Amazon's Jeff Bezos, OpenAI's Sam Altman, and Meta's Mark Zuckerberg.

Their donations triggered a furious reaction from many commenters on social media.

"REMINDER: Jeff Bezos blocked his Washington Post from endorsing VP Harris — now Bezos gives Trump one million dollars to his inaugural committee and Amazon will stream the event!!" progressive talk radio host Dean Obeidallah wrote on X. "The US is a plutocracy!"

David Pepper, former chair of the Ohio Democratic Party, warned that things won't go well for the donors.

"Because he owns The Washington Post, Bezos would know more than anyone that one of the first scandals in the first Trump term was the excess and graft involved in Trump’s inauguration operation, orchestrated by the cast of shady characters who put it all together," he wrote. "As for those business leaders cozying up to Trump to curry favor, they might want to read 'Garden of Beasts' to see the effectiveness of their strategy (or ask Justin Trudeau)."

But it wasn't just liberals who were upset. Some pro-Trump commenters were also enraged at what they saw as attempts to influence the president-elect's agenda by a number of wealthy businessmen, some of whom have criticized him in the past.

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"Sam Altman, Jeff Bezos & Mark Zuckerberg are all donating $1,000,000 to Trump’s inaugural committee to try to 'get on the good foot' with the new administration," wrote right-wing podcaster Joey Mannarino. "Don’t be fooled. These men haven’t changed and $1,000,000 to them is sofa change. They’re bad actors. Period."

"Tech titans like Zuckerberg, Bezos, and Sam Altman are throwing millions at Trump’s inaugural fund, probably hoping to avoid being hit with censorship crackdowns or personally blamed for the AI apocalypse (cough, Sam, cough)" wrote social media personality Mario Nawfal.

"With Trump back in the driver’s seat, it seems Big Tech is hedging its bets by tossing cash at the problem. Translation: When in doubt, pay up and pray."