5
#000000
#FFFFFF
Latest News
16 Years After Citizens United, Critics Say Trump Exemplifies Dangers of Corporate Political Spending
Campaigners at Public Citizen say the unchecked flood of corporate money unleashed by the Supreme Court's 2010 decision "paves the way for demagogues like Donald Trump to seize power."
Jan 21, 2026
The consumer watchdog group Public Citizen on Wednesday highlighted how President Donald Trump not only has taken advantage of the "torrent of corporate spending" unleashed by the US Supreme Court's Citizens United ruling 16 years ago, but also is now working to make the fallout from the decision even worse.
“In 2024, the already horrifying amount of money went on steroids, as we witnessed the largest direct corporate spending on elections ever," said the group's co-presidents, Lisa Gilbert and Robert Weissman.
Corporate-funded dark money groups, nonprofits, and shell companies, which are not required by law to disclose their donors, poured more than $1.9 billion into the 2024 federal election cycle, nearly twice as much as in 2020, according to the Brennan Center for Justice. That amount of spending has climbed dramatically since 2010, with $4.3 billion spent to influence elections since the decision.
The most recent election saw spending power more consolidated into the hands of a few powerful individuals than ever before, with top Trump benefactors including Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, investor Timothy Mellon, pro-Israel megadonor Miriam Adelson, and several others all spending more than $100 million apiece to support his candidacy.
The cryptocurrency industry likewise dumped over $245 million into the election cycle and "drove election outcomes and completely reshaped congressional policy debates, as politicians caved to crypto demands rather than face an onslaught of industry spending in the next election," according to Gilbert and Weissman.
Since Trump took office, his administration has further eroded the guardrails, allowing companies to go unchecked in their political spending.
On Wednesday, Public Citizen also unveiled a report showing that "the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC), under Trump appointee Chair Paul Atkins, acted in unprecedented ways to erect barriers to shareholders holding companies accountable for corporate political spending," most notably telling companies that they would not face objections if they fail to include political activity on shareholder statements.
Public Citizen democracy advocate Jon Golinger said this "ripped away the fig leaf by which the Supreme Court aimed to hide the shame of Citizens United."
The group noted that former Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy, who wrote the majority opinion in the case, had justified it by saying that there is "little evidence of abuse that cannot be corrected by shareholders through the procedures of corporate democracy" and that runaway corruption could be headed off by the "prompt disclosure of expenditures."
"All Americans suffer and our democracy withers when corporations and the superrich have more of a say in elections than regular voters do," Gilbert and Weissman said.
"It’s not only that corporations and the superrich are able to block overwhelmingly popular policies—meaningful cuts to drug prices, raising the minimum wage, making corporations pay their fair share in taxes, cracking down on polluters and much more—that would make our country more just, healthier, and more sustainable," they continued. "It’s also that deep frustration with a failed political system paves the way for demagogues like Donald Trump to seize power."
Across party lines, Americans overwhelmingly say that the corporate spending in elections allowed by Citizens United undermines democracy.
An October poll conducted by Issue One found that 79% of Americans said "large independent expenditures by wealthy donors and corporations in elections give rise to corruption or the appearance of corruption." This included 84% of Democrats, 74% of Republicans, and 79% of independents.
Gilbert and Weissman said, “A constitutional amendment to overturn this terrible decision is 16 years overdue.”
Keep Reading
Show Less
ICE Officially Launches Operation 'Catch of the Day' as Maine Braces for Authoritarian Surge
“These masked men with no regard for the rule of law are causing long-term damage to our state and to our country,” said the mayor of Lewiston.
Jan 21, 2026
"Even the name" chosen for the Trump administration's ramp-up of immigration enforcement in Maine was denounced as "racist and degrading" by one state politician on Wednesday as reports mounted about federal agents arresting dozens of people in the Portland and Lewiston areas.
"Nothing about this is normal or okay," said Hannah Pingree, a Democratic former state lawmaker who is running for governor of the state. Referring to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, she added, "ICE OUT OF MAINE."
Pingree was one of several officials in Maine who condemned "Operation Catch of the Day" as the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced it had officially surged federal agents to the state.
Assistant Homeland Security Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement that those arrested included people who had been convicted of "aggravated assault, false imprisonment, and endangering the welfare of a child," but DHS records have shown that just 5% of people booked into ICE detention in recent months have had violent criminal convictions and nearly three-quarters have had no convictions at all.
The agency did not mention that one of the people detained on Wednesday was Micheline Ntumba, a mother of four who was followed home by ICE agents after she dropped her child off at school. Ntumba has a pending asylum application and no criminal record, according to her daughter and a background check system checked by the Maine Monitor.
DHS also did not include in its statement the reported arrest of a pregnant woman in Westbrook or the fact that school attendance in Portland Public Schools—the state's most diverse school district, with more than 30% of students being English language learners—was down by 5% on Tuesday, with families evidently keeping their children home for fear of immigration enforcement.
Westbrook Mayor David Morse told WMTW, an ABC News affiliate, that a housing rights advocate had witnessed the arrest of the pregnant woman, an immigrant from Ecuador. The ICE agents later returned to the area and "yelled at her saying they knew her name and where she lived," reported WMTW.
The woman was "targeted for intimidation by a masked federal law enforcement officer," Morse said. "This is outrageous behavior from a federal authority, and I stand by our citizens’ rights to peacefully observe and/or protest."
Portland Mayor Mark Dion joined other city leaders Wednesday afternoon at a press conference where he said immigrants in the community were "anxious and fearful" over ICE's arrival.
“We believe in their right to be safe and we’ve tried to direct resources their way to support their capacity to stay here in Portland," said Dion, noting that schools are offering hybrid learning options.
City Council Member April Fournier noted that families across the Portland area are likely to face social as well as economic impacts in the coming weeks as ICE continues operations.
"Immigrants are what make Portland just such an incredible place to be," said Fournier. "And what we're all going to see is not only the social impact and what we all feel... we're also going to see an economic impact. These are now families that will have potentially the primary breadwinner in their household has been disappeared, so how are they going to make rent? So we're going to have a potential increase in evictions."
Schools and businesses may also see a growing number of staff members disappeared by ICE, said Fournier.
"If we saw that this immigration enforcement was consistent and was following the law with this administration, I don't think any of us would have the level of anxiety as I know we have today," she added.
The Maine People's Alliance (MPA) urged community members to testify in writing, virtually, or in person at an upcoming hearing by the Maine Legislature's Judiciary Committee regarding an emergency bill to ensure ICE can't enter private spaces in hospitals, schools, and childcare centers. The hearing is being held January 29.
"We want to be very clear: ICE is not welcome in Maine. Masked militia do not belong in our communities, let alone armed and willing to commit murder. Mainers won’t fall for divisive rhetoric from the Trump regime," said MPA co-director Amy Halsted. "We will protect ourselves, our family members, and our communities from the violence, chaos, and fear ICE agents bring with them. Because in Maine, we look out for one another."
"While ICE is sending masked agents in unmarked cars to disappear our neighbors, hanging around while our kids board the school bus, and kidnapping parents as they pick up their kids after school, Mainers will not be bullied," she added.
Community members have volunteered in recent days to deliver groceries to families who are housebound out of fear of ICE arrests, and the Maine Immigrant Rights Coalition has trained people to verify reports of ICE sightings to help organize efforts to protect neighbors.
The Trump administration's surge of federal agents in Maine comes after President Donald Trump claimed members of the state's Somali community, which has grown in recent years and is largely centered in Lewiston and Portland, are involved in "scams." Similar allegations preceded the ongoing deployment of immigration agents in the Minnesota, where a tiny fraction of the state's nearly 80,000 people of Somali descent were involved in a fraud scandal involving the social services system.
The mayor of Lewiston, Carl Sheline, also made clear his outrage over the Trump administration's nationwide mass deportation and detention operation, in which ICE agents have fatally shot at least nine people since September. At least 32 people died in ICE custody last year, and reports of torture and inhumane conditions in the facilities have mounted.
“These masked men with no regard for the rule of law are causing long-term damage to our state and to our country,” said Sheline. “Lewiston stands for the dignity of all people who call Maine home."
Keep Reading
Show Less
5 Top ICE 'Corporate Collaborators' Saved $19 Billion in Taxes Under Trump: Report
"While masked officers terrorize communities—smashing into cars, harassing citizens, and inflicting violence with impunity—Trump’s corporate backers are laughing their way to the bank."
Jan 21, 2026
A campaign launched Wednesday by an economic justice coalition highlights how five major US corporations saved a collective $19 billion in annual tax cuts under President Donald Trump, while also aiding in his Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations.
Americans for Tax Fairness' (ATF) "ICE Corporate Collaborators: Exposed" campaign details how five corporations that "received massive tax breaks paid for by healthcare cuts" under Republicans' so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) are now "making money through contracts to help the Trump administration terrorize communities" as part of the president's deadly anti-immigrant purge.
“Today we launched our corporate accountability campaign to give citizens the information they need to hold giant corporations accountable for their complicity in the Trump administration’s mass deportation policies," ATF executive director David Kass said in a statement.
The report notes that five companies—Amazon, AT&T, Home Depot, Microsoft, and Palantir—"helped ICE track, detain, and deport families" while they saved a total of $19 billion in annual corporate taxes under the OBBBA, and their CEOs "collectively received an estimated $124 million in personal tax giveaways."
NEW: Our research is exposing the corporations that received massive tax breaks from the Trump administration—and are now collaborating with ICE.Billions of dollars are going into the corporate deportation machine.Is this really the America we want?americansfortaxfairness.org/ices-corpora...
[image or embed]
— Americans for Tax Fairness (@4taxfairness.bsky.social) January 21, 2026 at 11:49 AM
Amazon's cloud computing services, the authors wrote, "have become vital to ICE's crackdown on immigrants, with their data storage being used for mass surveillance and deportation."
AT&T, which received $382 million in Department of Homeland Security contracts between 2022-24, "serves as the digital backbone for Trump’s deportation machine."
Home Depot "has appeared to be collaborating with Trump’s ICE mass immigration sweeps on their property, putting thousands of customers and employees' safety at risk."
Microsoft—which gave the Trump Inaugural Committee $750,000 in 2024—has received at least $45 million in homeland security-related contracts in recent years.
Palantir has partnered with ICE to use the company's artificial intelligence system to identify, track, and deport suspected undocumented immigrants—and is reportedly helping the government build a database of Americans’ private information in likely violation of multiple laws.
These and other companies have been the target of protests and boycott campaigns. These can work—Spotify stopped running ICE recruitment ads and Avelo Airlines ended its contract for deportation flights amid public pressure.
ATF estimates that Palantir CEO Alex Karp—who "received an estimated cumulative ordinary income of $3.3 billion from 2019 through 2024"—personally saved an estimated $85.7 thanks to the OBBBA's tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans.
Karp is followed by Microsoft's Satya Nadella ($25.4 million in estimated tax savings), Amazon's Andy Jassy ($6.9 million), AT&T's John Stankey ($3.2 million), and Home Depot's Edward Decker ($2.9 million).
"While masked officers terrorize communities—smashing into cars, harassing citizens, and inflicting violence with impunity—Trump’s corporate backers are laughing their way to the bank,” Kass said.
"As Trump and his billionaire-backed GOP majority cut billions in healthcare, Medicaid, and SNAP benefits, Americans face steep hikes in the cost of living to pay for tax giveaways to large multinational corporations and the billionaires that run them," he added. "The American people will not be silent.”
Keep Reading
Show Less
Most Popular