Democratic Institutions

Reid Hoffman contributed a total of $11.5 million to Lone Star Rising, a super PAC supporting Texas Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico, including $500,000 in January 2026, $1 million in February 2026, and $10 million in June 2026 -- the latter alone accounting for nearly 80% of the PAC's second-quarter fundraising. The donations helped fund Talarico's primary victory over Rep. Jasmine Crockett.

Al Jazeera's 'Invisible Eyes' documentary (May 2026) exposed that Safaricom allowed Kenyan security agencies access to subscriber location data, call records, and M-Pesa financial transactions -- often without court orders -- to surveil, locate, and track activists and protesters. A Safaricom employee admitted in court to complying with a government data request without a court order. The Law Society of Kenya filed a constitutional petition seeking a court audit of all data requests from June 2024 to December 2025.

Anthropic filed two federal lawsuits against the Trump administration on March 9, 2026, alleging illegal retaliation and First Amendment violations. The suits challenged the administration's designation of Anthropic as a 'supply chain risk' — a label normally reserved for foreign adversary contractors — after Anthropic refused Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's ultimatum to allow unrestricted military use of Claude AI, including for mass surveillance and autonomous weapons. Over 30 employees from OpenAI and Google DeepMind, including Google chief scientist Jeff Dean, filed an amicus brief supporting Anthropic's case. Anthropic's CFO stated the government's actions could reduce revenue by 'multiple billions of dollars.'

FEC filings show Peter Thiel contributed $1.5 million to Club for Growth Action, a conservative super PAC, on February 3, 2026 -- his first major federal-level political donation since sitting out the 2024 presidential cycle after previously helping fund Trump's first presidential run.

On January 23, 2026, ByteDance and a consortium including Oracle, Silver Lake, and the Abu Dhabi state-backed MGX finalized TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC, reducing ByteDance's stake in TikTok's US operations to 19.9% while Oracle became the venture's security partner storing US user data on its cloud and auditing compliance. However, ByteDance retained a licensing agreement covering TikTok's recommendation algorithm -- the kind of ongoing 'operational relationship' the 2024 Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act explicitly required be eliminated. National security experts, including former State Department official Michael Sobolik, called the arrangement a 'unilateral surrender to Beijing' that 'allows Beijing to manipulate content and steal Americans' data, even after today's announcement.' Sen. Ed Markey stated the deal 'maintained an operational relationship between ByteDance and TikTok USDS, violating the spirit, if not the letter, of the law' and said the White House had provided 'virtually no details' on whether the algorithm is truly free of Chinese influence, calling for Congressional investigation. Even Rep. John Moolenaar, chair of the House Select Committee on China and a supporter of the underlying law, said after the deal closed that 'questions... need to be answered' about whether China retains algorithmic influence and whether user data is secure.

In 60 Minutes interview, Amodei stated: 'I think I'm deeply uncomfortable with these decisions being made by a few companies, by a few people. And this is one reason why I've always advocated for responsible and thoughtful regulation of the technology.' When asked 'who elected you and Sam Altman?' responded 'No one, no one.'

In a Times Radio interview, Wales criticized President Trump's repeated 'fake news' claims, saying they mirror tactics used by strongmen around the world. He noted it was 'an astonishing situation' when a President 'clearly contradicts himself, or denies that he said things that we can all play tapes of him saying.'

Under DOGE's direction, USAID was effectively eliminated by July 2025. The agency's workforce was cut by 92% (from 4,800 to 378 employees), and 90% of contracts and grants were canceled. Cuts included $1.1 billion in malaria prevention, $171.7 million in food and clean water programs, and $435.2 million in education abroad. A federal judge ruled the dismantling was likely unconstitutional. Senator Schatz reported that over 360,000 people had already died as a result of not having food and medication in the wake of the funding cuts.

In April 2025, acting US Attorney Edward R. Martin Jr. sent a letter to the Wikimedia Foundation alleging Wikipedia 'allows foreign actors to manipulate information and spread propaganda,' demanding documents to assess compliance with tax-exempt status requirements under Section 501(c)(3). The letter requested materials from January 2021 onward covering content moderation practices, editor misconduct handling, and interactions with search engines and AI companies. Separately, in May 2025, a bipartisan group of 23 US Representatives led by Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Don Bacon sent a letter expressing concern about antisemitism and anti-Israel bias on Wikipedia. These actions represented escalating political pressure on the Foundation's editorial independence.

In March 2025, Jack Ma appeared alongside Chinese President Xi Jinping after disappearing from public life for nearly 5 years following his October 2020 criticism of China's financial regulators. By September 2025, Ma was back on Alibaba campuses directing the company's AI pivot and e-commerce strategy under a 'Make Alibaba Great Again' banner. His return signals rehabilitation by the CCP but raises questions about what concessions were required.

In early February 2025, after Trump imposed 25% tariffs on Canadian goods, Shopify CEO Tobi Lütke posted publicly that 'Trump believes that Canada has not held its side of the bargain, and he set terms to prove that we still work together: get the borders under control and crack down on fentanyl dens,' framing Trump's demands as reasonable. He criticized Canada's retaliatory tariffs, saying 'hitting back will not lead to anything good... Canada will decline' and 'starting a trade and tariff war... just doesn't make any sense for anyone.' The comments drew significant attention as a prominent Canadian CEO siding with the US administration's position against his own government.

On January 20, 2025, DHH published a blog post praising Trump's return to the presidency, writing that 'the majority of Americans are optimistic about the prospect' and describing the moment as 'exhilarating.' He contrasted American confidence favorably with European pessimism. This followed earlier anti-DEI blog posts in 2023 that led Duke University Libraries to drop Basecamp.

On January 20, 2025, Mark Zuckerberg co-hosted a private reception for Trump's inauguration alongside Republican billionaire donors including Miriam Adelson, Tilman Fertitta, and Todd Ricketts. Zuckerberg was also granted prime seating during Trump's swearing-in in the Capitol Rotunda, alongside Jeff Bezos, Sundar Pichai, and Elon Musk. This marked a dramatic shift from Zuckerberg's 2021 decision to ban Trump from Facebook/Instagram.

Lyft notably did not donate to Trump's 2025 inauguration fund, while competitor Uber donated $2 million. Lyft also maintained its pledge not to fund members of Congress who supported election denial claims after January 6, 2021.

In early 2025, Musk launched a social media campaign against UK's Labour government, publishing over 100 posts (100+ million views) falsely accusing PM Starmer of allowing grooming gangs to avoid prosecution for votes. Posts targeting UK increased 5.6-fold in January 2025. He explicitly called for votes for Germany's far-right AfD party before their February 2025 election. In August 2024, he posted 'Civil war is inevitable' in the UK during riots, prompting government rebuke. The EU's EDMO documented how his 'powerful disinformation machine works' across European politics.

In 2024, Pierre Omidyar donated $16.4 million to 501(c)(4) 'social welfare' electoral-advocacy and lobbying organizations. The Democracy Voice Fund received over $13 million from Omidyar in 2024. He also gave $500,000 to Governors Safeguarding Democracy, which opposes Trump administration policies, and $750,000 to a fund associated with Democratic lawyer Marc Elias.

Throughout 2024, Elon Musk posted at least 87 claims about US elections that fact-checkers rated as false or misleading, amassing over 2 billion views. None received Community Notes fact-checks. He promoted the 'Great Replacement' conspiracy theory claiming Democrats were 'importing voters' (747 million views across 42 posts), spread voting machine fraud conspiracies, and shared an AI deepfake of Kamala Harris (133 million views). The Center for Countering Digital Hate estimated his political reach would have cost a campaign $24 million in ads.

Graham gave a lukewarm endorsement of Kamala Harris over Donald Trump, stating 'Harris is a typical politician. But Trump is a crook. You can't have that sort of person as president.' He cited Trump's refusal to concede the 2020 election as 'banana republic stuff.'

In October 2024, Musk pledged through America PAC to give away $1 million per day to a registered voter in swing states who signed his petition supporting the First and Second Amendments. Legal experts and election law scholars raised concerns the sweepstakes could violate federal law prohibiting paying people to register to vote. Philadelphia DA Larry Krasner filed a lawsuit alleging the program was an illegal lottery. A judge allowed the sweepstakes to continue. The program ran primarily in battleground states including Pennsylvania, a key swing state.

Tan organized the 'Reboot 2024' conference in San Francisco which featured Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts discussing Project 2025. The conference brought together tech leaders with conservative policy advocates.