Chevron, Exxon and ConocoPhilips among those who donated millions to organise Trump’s inauguration ceremonies
Companies and individuals with ties to the fossil fuel industry donated more than $19 million to Donald Trump’s inaugural fund, new Global Witness analysis reveals.
Representatives of the industry made at least 47 contributions to the fund, accounting for around 7.8% of the total amount raised. The figures come from itemised data released in April 2025 by the Federal Election Commission (FEC), reviewed by Global Witness.
Before assuming office, the US President-elect appoints an inaugural committee to be in charge of the ceremony and related events. Donald Trump used funds from his first inaugural fund in 2017 to organise a party at his own hotel, for which he was sued by the D.C. Attorney General. The case was later settled.
For his second term, Trump’s inaugural committee raised a record $245 million, more than double the amount raised in his first term, itself a record at the time.
The list of donors includes individuals who were given ambassadorships or key positions in the Trump Cabinet.
For example, billionaire Warren Stephens donated $4 million on 2 December 2024, the same day Trump nominated him to be US ambassador to the UK. Stephens has extensive links to the oil and gas industry but also invests in other sectors and wasn’t included in our calculations of fossil fuel industry donors.
Trump also nominated Melinda Hildebrand – who donated $500,000 to the president’s inaugural fund – to be US ambassador to Costa Rica.
Hildebrand is the vice president of Hilcorp Ventures, which claims to be of the largest privately owned oil and gas producers in the US. Her husband, founder and chairman of Hilcorp, donated another $500,000.
Companies and trade groups, including those in the fossil fuel business, have similarly opened their wallets to the incoming president to an unprecedented degree.
Organisations such as the CLC have noted that the high price of inaugurations and the fact that these funds can accept unlimited donations make them “an ideal way for wealthy special interests to buy political access and influence.”
President Biden refused donations from fossil fuel companies, their executives and political action committees.
Global Witness identified 44 donors to Trump’s inaugural fund with ties to the fossil fuel industry. Some of these donors made multiple donations.
Of fossil fuel-linked donors, US oil giant Chevron made the largest contribution – $2 million – and was the joint fourth-largest donor overall. A string of other fossil fuel companies made donations of $1 million, including ExxonMobil, ConocoPhillips and Occidental Petroleum.
A Chevron spokesperson told us that “Chevron has a long tradition of celebrating democracy by supporting the inaugural committees of both parties” and that they were “proud to have done so again this year.” None of the other companies mentioned above responded to our inquiries.
In his inaugural address – an occasion for presidents to outline their vision for the nation – Trump promised to "drill, baby, drill" and said that the US "will be a rich nation again, and it is that liquid gold under our feet that will help to do it."
Since then, the president has signed a blitz of executive orders aimed at boosting the fossil fuel industry and kneecapping federal climate action. Some of them include:
- Unleashing American Energy, establishing energy exploration and production on federal lands and waters as official US policy and revoking several climate action policies
- Establishing the National Energy Dominance Council, creating a group to advise the president on ways to accelerate the permitting, production, generation, distribution, regulation and transportation of oil and gas
- Reinvigorating America’s Beautiful Clean Coal Industry, removing regulations on coal production
- Protecting American Energy from State Overreach, directing the US Attorney General to quash state-level "polluters pay" laws that would force fossil companies to pay their fair share of climate damages
However, the industry may yet come to regret its contributions.
Despite fossil fuel products being exempt from tariffs – a decision welcomed by oil and gas trade groups – the International Energy Agency cut its forecast for global oil demand by a third as a result of tariff-related concerns and higher prices for steel and equipment, which would discourage drilling.
Fossil gas companies have also pushed back against a new mandate that some US exports of liquefied “natural gas” (LNG) be transported on American-built ships by 2029. Falling oil prices in combination with Trump’s tariffs mean US oil production may peak this quarter and begin to decline.
According to a Wall Street Journal report, American oil and gas companies lost more than $280 billion in stock-market value in the month following Trump’s tariff announcements.
Global Witness Senior Data Investigator Nicu Calcea said: “It’s no surprise the oil and gas industry handed millions to Donald Trump for his inauguration, and they seem to have reaped a huge return on their investment.
“Every month that Donald Trump has been in power, we’ve seen a raft of anti-climate measures come out which are music to the fossil fuel industry’s ears. From plans to steamroll through dirty new coal plants, to the attempted quashing of ‘polluter pays’ laws that would hold oil giants accountable, it’s clear where his political priorities lie.
“While Trump sides with his friends in oil and gas, we must keep up the fight for a fair, green future – that means pushing for wind and solar where we live, backing polluters pay bills, and resisting the development of oil, gas and coal projects across the country.”
Methodology
The Federal Election Commission published itemised data on donations to "TRUMP VANCE INAUGURAL COMMITTEE, INC." on 20 April 2025. We downloaded the data, cleaned it and aggregated it to account for repeat donations and refunds.
We used an AI-based tool developed by Global Witness to automatically research each donor's ties to the fossil fuels industry. This involved searching the internet for each donor, analysing the results and coming up with a classification. We relied on The Bright Initiative powered by Bright Data to provide the search results.
We then manually reviewed each positive classification to correct any errors in the automated step.
The final figure – $19,151,933 in donations from fossil fuel-linked donors – is likely an underestimate, as we did not count donations from diversified investors and businesses who couldn’t be said to primarily represent the fossil fuel industry. We also removed individuals with common names that we couldn’t identify with full confidence.
