[UPDATED AT 4:27 p.m. ET; now includes two new sightings and CNN’s Gigapixel photo.]
Some of Donald Trump’s top donors received choice seats on the platform where he took the oath of office on Friday. The Intercept exclusively obtained a list revealing that the incoming administration had allocated at least a dozen of 183 seats on the inaugural platform to donors and fundraisers.
The Intercept identified seven donors who were seated not far from the dais: Sheldon Adelson, Steve Wynn, Carl Icahn, Harold Hamm, Lew Eisenberg, Woody Johnson and Phil Ruffin.
The list, however, suggests that 17 other individuals listed as donors were given seats on the platform as well: Hushang Ansary, Roy Bailey, Brian Ballard, Tom Barrack, Joe Craft, Louis DeJoy, Robert Grand, Diane Hendricks, Peter Kalikow, Richard Lefrak, Ed McMullen, Steve Roth, Anthony Scaramucci, Tommy Hicks, Gentry Beach, Ray Washburne, and Ron Weiser.
Can you help us spot the other donors on the platform? Email us at mattathias.schwartz@theintercept.com and lee.fang@theintercept.com, or tweet to us at @Schwartzesque and @lhfang. See the image below, or this one, as well as other images posted online of the inauguration platform, to help us. And check back for updates. Try CNN’s amazing Gigapixel shot, too.
Update: Twitter user Gregory Lomanno spotted Robert Kraft, the owner of the New England Patriots, speaking to Icahn in the picture below. Kraft appeared at an event last week with inauguration donors and other VIPs. And Brandon Bledsoe tweets that Tom Barrack, a private equity executive who chaired the inaugural committee, which has raised over $100 million, according to reports, was given the seat just in front of Adelson. As we reported on Friday, Barrack was granted 49 of 259 seats for the Friday morning service at St. John’s Episcopal Church, about as many seats as were allocated to Vice President Mike Pence and his family.
Graphic: The Intercept
The donors we have already identified used their checkbooks to develop close ties to the Trump administration, either financing his election victory or the inauguration, or both. Adelson, the chief executive of the Las Vegas Sands casino, gave $25 million to Super PACs supporting Trump during the campaign, and joined fellow casino mogul Wynn to help lead the inaugural committee hosting events celebrating Trump’s new administration.
Harold Hamm, the chief executive of Continental Resources, a major drilling firm involved in using hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) technology, has advised Trump on energy, and fundraised on his behalf.
Lew Eisenberg, a a former Goldman Sachs executive who went on to work in private equity, served as the finance chair of Trump Victory, a joint fundraising effort that solicited checks as big as $449,400 per donor.
Woody Johnson, the owner of the New York Jets who was recently nominated to serve as ambassador to the United Kingdom, was seated near Eisenberg. Johnson donated $349,000 to Trump Victory. Carl Icahn, the billionaire investor, gave $200,000 to Trump Victory. He, too, has won special access to the Trump administration, and is now advising the president on regulatory policy.
And Phil Ruffin, billionaire owner of the Treasure Island Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, also donated to Trump Victory, giving the fund $400,000. He was joined by his wife, Aleksandra Nikolaenko, a former Miss Ukraine; Trump was the best man at their wedding.
But the still un-identified donors who were on the list were just as important. Hendricks, for instance, a billionaire who co-founded ABC Supply, a roofing and construction materials firm, gave $7.5 million to a SuperPAC that flooded the airwaves in Wisconsin, a state crucial to Trump’s electoral college victory, with advertisements against Hillary Clinton. Joe Craft, the chief executive of Alliance Resource Partners, a major coal firm, gave $750,000 to Future45, another Super PAC that aired that aggressively went after Clinton during the election.
It’s awesome that a top donor to a real estate tycoon’s presidential campaign is a guy named Gentry! Just in case you weren’t sure your neighborhood is getting gentrified…
Really? This is journalism? Maybe you could write a piece about how ex president Obama managed to walk into the White House with very little personal wealth and how he is leaving the White House extremely wealthy? You don’t and have not written anything about his personal entanglements with George Soros. I think he is a billionaire……
How do you know? Do you have any evidence? Or is it just another BS?
The inauguration of Donald Trump. http://www.slideserve.com/lealbrunelle/the-inauguration-of-donald-trump
crrctn: “they are threatening and incriminating white women!!!”
oh noooooes! thrimnating against white women!!!!!!!!!!!
http://www.newser.com/story/237238/woman-fired-investigated-for-trump-assassination-tweet.html
Save the white females, before they kick in to YOUR door!!!!!!!!!! Won’t SOMEBODY help save the white females???!!!
The inauguration of Donald Trump. http://www.slideserve.com/lealbrunelle/the-inauguration-of-donald-trump
JB who comments below is an AIPAC lobbyist?
Trump say him a billionaire on cheap paper maybe. Six bankrupt up to 11 billion dollar and him cause pay it.
Don’t follow the money. It has arrived.
Where were Robert Mercer and his daughter Rebekah?
On January 20th 2017, I hurried through my commenting . . . and calmly turned everything off.
No Radio & I do not have a television (gratefully) – – computer off…P E A C E and quiet. Mr. Trump I understand was / is upset by a low turnout. There was a story on the radio about a man who bought up tickets to the inauguration to make some money off it (ticket scalping)… As the best laid plans often go afoul he couldn’t find any buyers. . . . . It may not have been a full 24 hours, but it was at least a good 18 enjoyable hours of PEACE and quiet….I THANK YOU….
I was going to start with saying “We’ve always known…” but in highsight. At a certain level of knowledge & observation about societies in & around the globe. You can acknowledge that democracies have been usurped by the powerful shadowy members of a global tax avoiding corporatocracy. Who are now stepping into the forefront of public exposure because a leader has said no more running off with wheel-barrows of cash to foreign lands! I will coin them the new-world-order and the new US-president is embracing them with open arms it would seem. To verbally signal that islamic terrorists will be wiped out globally is as ridiculous as stating the west has a war on terror. A war on a word…well, now we are going to see how truly barbaric usa_naziland develops into. Prepare your bug out bag & dig that nuclear strike bunker because its going to get mental inside usa. Whilst europe & the rest of the world look on in dismiss indifference. Because we don’t fall for all of our governments dangerous virus this, potential nuke attack their or any foreigner is a stooge trying to kill you..
Be safe american’s & believe in good within you & out there!
It’s nice to watch the Intercept forge new pathways to talking to static power-like the AIPAC and Israel lobby. So (not) invigorating!
http://ijr.com/2014/02/116056-wall-street-bankers-top-donors-agree-democrat-party-new-party-rich/
lol to slap a name like “Independent Journal Review” on your right-wing viral fake news site is really I mean REALLY some A+ newspeak. At a glance IJR is so laughable, but it was created to dupe Grandma, so I’ll hold my chuckles until their downfall.
JB-
I get the impression you are not a critical thinker. Likely neither left nor right-just a derailer. And, probably a baby bombing, depleted uranium dusting, racist AIPAC shill as well.
Anything to say about the substance of the article, JB?
Important info for Fang&Schwartz: the 2016 presidential elections are over ! Could you please keep quiet until 2020 ?
Feminist reads the following list:
Sheldon Adelson, Steve Wynn, Carl Icahn, Harold Hamm, Lew Eisenberg, Woody Johnson and Phil Ruffin.Hushang Ansary, Roy Bailey, Brian Ballard, Tom Barrack, Joe Craft, Louis DeJoy, Robert Grand, Diane Hendricks, Peter Kalikow, Richard Lefrak, Ed McMullen, Steve Roth, Anthony Scaramucci, Tommy Hicks, Gentry Beach, Ray Washburne, and Ron Weiser
DOWN WITH THE PATRIARCHY!!!!
Feminist reads the following article:
http://ijr.com/2014/02/116056-wall-street-bankers-top-donors-agree-democrat-party-new-party-rich/
and:
http://www.allgov.com/news/top-stories/for-the-first-time-half-of-members-of-congress-are-millionairesdemocrats-worth-more-than-republicans-140111?news=852139
YEAH, BUT THAT”S HOW DEMOCRACY WORKS!!!!
NSA blackmailer says “for now, my pretty…for now…”
Where is the rest of the Gigapixel image?
It is not 360°. A large swath to the north of the stand is missing. The area where CNN competitors were set up atop buildings. You can see the CNN Camera tent. It’s clearly marked. But you can’t rotate the image further. Spot CBS, ABC, NBC/MSNBC, Fox? You can’t. CNN censored their gigapixel.
I spotted our esteemed soon-to-be Energy Secretary fumbling with his “smart” phone to get a photo of his new boss from the cheap seats (relatively speaking of course). Let’s hope he can figure out his new gig better than his phone.
Your point? All presidents do this. Secondly, Hillary spent 3 times as much on adds against President Trump. But I’m sure she’s cool though lol sh e got to be on that inaugural plate haha That’s what she wanted right! Congrats #Trump45
It would be interesting to do a back-of-the-envelope estimate of what portion of total American wealth was repped on that platform.
money will never get out of politics now
the US will be the bastion and model of corruption
bigger and more expensive wars ahead
You say “not to diminish the point” and then you diminish the point.
I think he meant to say something like ” embellish ” and got in over his head .
You guys are amazing. Thank you.
Not to diminish the point, but billionaires or not, my guess is you could find a similar list of very well to do people in Obama’s inauguration, if not all the inaugurations that preceded.
Really?
Yes really Mudbone,
Where did the Clinton’s sit? They were invited to their old friend’s gala event, right? Just wondering.
They were there ,, I personally saw them leave Well ,, actually Hillary left about 15 minutes before Bill , and they were never together . They were both “UNDERCOVER” so to speak .
BTW: It will be interesting to see how much influence remains for the top level management of the Clinton Crime Mob !
PS: I did not see Chelsea .
And you are not going to see a picture of either Hillary Or Bill . That was well understood by the “INVITED PRESS” !
And yes , I live in NYC . The borough of Queens , Sunnyside .
We are being Gentrified and it’s hell to pay the Captain !
Rents around here have gone from $600/mo to $1500/mo the last 4 years ( for a studio ) .
Wall Street’s nerds are living 3 to a room and pay extra for their back packs .
You were there? Thanks for the info. Maybe Chelsea was incognito. Hopefully she and her old pal Ivanka will be getting together for lunch again. So sad their friendship had to wither a bit over this unfortunate Presidency stuff.
“…they were never together . ”
If you look closely at the photograph, they seem to be standing right next to each other, just SW of the Obamas near the top left.
Whether or not that constitutes “together” may be open to interpretation, but they were certainly in close proximity to each other.
Photoshopped?
OMG !!! It’s the SAME OLD SAME OLD !!!
Are Goldman and Sachs two Semites ?
Doesn’t it make you feel the slightest bit pathetic that any of those people could say a word and get any face on any videocamera in the world identified, no matter who it is, but you can’t do facial recognition among a couple thousand widely known billionaires at the world’s most public event?
Difference between sir-veillance and sus-veillance.
Hillary would of had her own set of Billionaires, it is what it is. Wonder how many Billionaires Bernie Sanders would of had??? My guess, none.
Q.E.D.
That’s why Bernie was not allowed to run .
My granddad told me —-
There are two ways to rig an election :
1———Stuff the ballot box
2———Let only your guys run
That’s the old Octave saw it .
BTW—Granpa was Sheriff and ran a Hog&Cane farm on Cane river ( ~110 miles north of New Orleans ) . FDR really pissed him off when he gave him only 25 cents/hog and then drowned all the hogs to stabilize the pork belly market .
I can remember how happy granpa was FDR went down .
Granpa’s name was Octave ( he was #8 out the chute ) Rouge and
That’s the old Octave saw it
s/b
That’s the way old Octave saw it
Corporatocracy is what we are witnessing in all it’s glory.
I think it was Benito who preferred that term rather than fascism.
“Corporatism”
But this fake news site supported Hillary so…
There’s probably no need for this defense but The Intercept is not a fake news site and didn’t support either candidate as an organization. The closest to supporting either candidate was individual writers.
LoL. oh wait..you were serious.
When people nowadays have no credible arguments of facts to base their opinions on they shout “fake news” just like they do “fire”.
What is becoming more apparent then ever is even after they are in office crazy white men are seemingly becoming more unhinged. You guys commevt section has devolved into access pool
Corporations have direct control of the U.S. government now, Trump’s cabinet picks are draining the swamp into America’s mouth. Pay to play via crony and predatory capitalism is our new national creed, splashing money will get you absolutely anything politically. Fix that now or lose all hope.
You have no clue…..