Super PACs and Their Influence on Trumps Election Success
By Nora Deniedda
NEWS
Edited by Sophie Hager
5/14/20262 min read
©Brennan Center analysis of FEC data
Trump’s presidential win followed a wave of uncertainty concerning the validity and democratic legitimacy of the electoral process that produced his victory. Despite the alleged lawfulness of the outcome, data and research show contradictory evidence.
In 2024 alone, pro-Trump Super PACs raised hundreds of millions, reshaping the campaign finance landscape. As many ethics groups and lawmakers attest, the number of cases in which Trump donors allegedly benefited from White House action is striking. Trump’s inauguration fund, back in 2020, raised a record $240mn in donations, juxtaposed to the “sheer” $62mn raised by Biden, roughly one quarter of Trump’s total. In 2024, Super PACs raised almost three times more from $5 million-plus donors than they did in 2020. The difference in presidential results suggests a correlation, and possibly a deeper connection between campaign funding and electoral outcomes — a connection further reinforced by the outsourcing of the 2024 campaign, compared to the 2020 election cycle and its respective results. While causation cannot be properly attributed to a single factor, Trump’s campaign finance still raises legitimacy questions.
The large concentration of funding through Super PACs in 2024 in favour of Trump’s candidacy often led to situations in which donors appeared to benefit from policy outcomes, favourable to their interests. While no evidence of direct bribery or illegality was found, the patterns documented — swift policy reversals, legal relief, and access following donations — are consistent with concerns about quid pro quo and the transactional nature of modern U.S. governance, even if they do not amount to proof of individual corrupt acts. Elon Musk, the major donor to Trump’s campaign, received favourable incentives and policy in AI and tech sectors. Similar patterns can be observed with Timothy Mellon, a major donor to MAGA Inc. Andreessen Horowitz’s crypto and tech investments benefited from post-election deregulation, and similarly, the Winklevoss twins profited from dropped regulatory actions against their crypto companies.
Data and research show how a large number of the biggest Super PAC donors, many of whom faced pressing regulatory or financial obstacles, saw policy change in their favour after their contributions were put forward. This shift clearly shows robust transactionalism and a clientelist system that prioritises personal benefits, often economic, over national sovereignty.
When a political campaign is guided primarily by transactionality, democracy should be questioned, as policies and access to power are allocated based on financial means and personal interests rather than on universal rights or popular will. While individual votes are indeed mostly guided by personal interests and values, the disproportionality and explicit financially opportunistic nature of the monetary support is what makes the campaign intentionally unjust. Influence, which should be earned through broad-based support and a political campaign that aims to touch on individuals’ values and promising policies, is instead purchased for capitalist self-interest.
Other than the commodification of political support and its semblance of corruption, the threatening structural shift in U.S. fundraising is also evident, which can be discerned from the extravagance of the total fundraising for the presidential campaign.
The strict transactional modality suspectedly used in Donald Trump’s campaign for the presidency could be viewed as a direct attack on democratic equity, as well as an example of borderline plutocracy and favoritism toward the wealthy. This approach exacerbates clientelism, reducing the democratic process to a series of financial and personal exchanges, where policy commitments and political influence are openly swapped for donations, endorsements, or votes, thereby undermining the foundational principles of democratic equality and representation.
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