It may come as little surprise that President Donald Trump’s administration is benefitting the wealthy. Trump’s plan to fund $5 trillion in tax cuts for corporations and the uber-rich relies on cutting hundreds of billions of dollars in services for working people, including Medicaid.
But just how billionaires and corporate oligarchs stand to benefit from Trump’s policies — namely his deportation and surveillance regime — is outlined in detail in a new report from the Center for Popular Democracy in Action, the campaign arm of the nonprofit advocacy group.
The usual characters won’t shock anyone: major Trump campaign donors like Elon Musk (whose recent rift with Trump may not last), Amazon founder and Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos, or Palantir co-founder Peter Thiel. Trump wants to deregulate sectors from artificial intelligence to the environment and labor, and cut corporate taxes for Bezos and other billionaires. But other corporate executives are already quietly enriching themselves on Trump’s policies.
“Trump’s ‘oligarchs’ are billionaires who are attempting to control political decisions in order to increase their wealth,” the report said.
Take private prison executive and millionaire George Zoley, an immigrant from Greece who founded GEO Group, the nation’s biggest private prison and immigrant detention company. During an earnings call in November, Zoley, a registered Republican, said Trump’s policies presented an “unprecedented opportunity” for the company to double its services. The company has also massively expanded its work in surveillance technology to assist in deportations.
Zoley’s comments were prescient. GEO Group has doubled its stock value since Trump’s election. The company claims to be the largest contractor for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and was awarded a $1 billion contract by ICE in February to open the largest ICE detention center on the East Coast. The company runs the Louisiana immigration detention center where Mahmoud Khalil is currently being held. GEO Group is also poised to reap profits after Congress passed the Laken Riley Act. The company has received $9 million in state and local subsidies over the last 17 years. GEO Group did not respond to a request for comment.
GEO Group is just one of several companies profiting off of the Trump administration’s efforts to fast-track deportations and beef up surveillance capacities. Of course, companies like GEO Group, Palantir, and Amazon also saw major profits under former President Joe Biden, but Trump has opened new doors for the country’s corporate oligarchs.
“Trump’s presidency is a vehicle for billionaires to loot the government and line their own pockets, while working people bear the cost,” Popular Democracy in Action co-executive directors Analilia Mejia and DaMareo Cooper said in a statement. “These cuts to Medicare, housing, SNAP benefits, and immigrant protections aren’t accidents — they’re part of a calculated scheme to turn public suffering into private profit.”
The administration has emboldened corporate executives to exert their already-strong political power. More than 10 billionaires have positions in the Trump administration, and his Cabinet is the richest in history. At least seven other ultra-wealthy Trump donors and corporate executives are pulling political levers, the report notes.
Blackstone co-founder and CEO Stephen Schwarzman, another major Trump donor, is pushing to ease regulations on corporations and gut protections for renters. Eli Lilly CEO David Ricks, who has fought efforts to allow Medicare to negotiate for lower drug prices, is set to benefit from a Trump order to delay negotiations. Harold G. Hamm, founder and chair of the fossil fuel company Continental Resources, was part of Trump’s transition team and has worked to advance the interests of the oil and gas industry in the White House. He has also worked closely with Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, who is pushing to open public lands to drilling that would benefit Hamm’s company.
“In a representative democracy, elected officials are supposed to respond to the priorities and interests of the people,” the report said. “Today, the U.S. is functioning as an oligarchy: a government where a small group of powerful, wealthy people are calling the shots.”
IT’S EVEN WORSE THAN WE THOUGHT.
What we’re seeing right now from Donald Trump is a full-on authoritarian takeover of the U.S. government.
This is not hyperbole.
Court orders are being ignored. MAGA loyalists have been put in charge of the military and federal law enforcement agencies. The Department of Government Efficiency has stripped Congress of its power of the purse. News outlets that challenge Trump have been banished or put under investigation.
Yet far too many are still covering Trump’s assault on democracy like politics as usual, with flattering headlines describing Trump as “unconventional,” “testing the boundaries,” and “aggressively flexing power.”
The Intercept has long covered authoritarian governments, billionaire oligarchs, and backsliding democracies around the world. We understand the challenge we face in Trump and the vital importance of press freedom in defending democracy.
We’re independent of corporate interests. Will you help us?
IT’S BEEN A DEVASTATING year for journalism — the worst in modern U.S. history.
We have a president with utter contempt for truth aggressively using the government’s full powers to dismantle the free press. Corporate news outlets have cowered, becoming accessories in Trump’s project to create a post-truth America. Right-wing billionaires have pounced, buying up media organizations and rebuilding the information environment to their liking.
In this most perilous moment for democracy, The Intercept is fighting back. But to do so effectively, we need to grow.
That’s where you come in. Will you help us expand our reporting capacity in time to hit the ground running in 2026?
We’re independent of corporate interests. Will you help us?
I’M BEN MUESSIG, The Intercept’s editor-in-chief. It’s been a devastating year for journalism — the worst in modern U.S. history.
We have a president with utter contempt for truth aggressively using the government’s full powers to dismantle the free press. Corporate news outlets have cowered, becoming accessories in Trump’s project to create a post-truth America. Right-wing billionaires have pounced, buying up media organizations and rebuilding the information environment to their liking.
In this most perilous moment for democracy, The Intercept is fighting back. But to do so effectively, we need to grow.
That’s where you come in. Will you help us expand our reporting capacity in time to hit the ground running in 2026?
We’re independent of corporate interests. Will you help us?
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