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Uncle Joe

(60,376 posts)
Wed Jan 22, 2025, 11:38 AM 10 hrs ago

Citizens United at 15: Landmark Ruling Helped Elon Musk & Other Billionaires Bankroll Trump Victory



President Donald Trump's return to the White House comes almost exactly 15 years after the U.S. Supreme Court issued its landmark Citizens United ruling, which opened the floodgates for corporations and billionaires to pour unlimited money into elections. At Trump's inauguration on Monday, the front row included several of the world's richest and most powerful men, including Tesla's Elon Musk, Meta's Mark Zuckerberg, Amazon's Jeff Bezos, Apple's Tim Cook and Google's Sundar Pichai. Their collective net worth is over $1 trillion. For more on money in politics and the legacy of _Citizens United_, we speak with Brendan Fischer, the deputy executive director at Documented, an investigative watchdog and journalism project. "Democrats and Republicans have both embraced super PACs and embraced the megadonors that fund them, but Trump is taking this to another level," says Fischer, who notes that about 44% of Trump's election was funded by just 10 megadonors.

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Citizens United at 15: Landmark Ruling Helped Elon Musk & Other Billionaires Bankroll Trump Victory (Original Post) Uncle Joe 10 hrs ago OP
We need to pass laws that negate Citizens United. It would limit people like Musk, Thiel etal. OLDMDDEM 10 hrs ago #1
No, CU did not assist with the election of 45 or the re-election of F47 -- our members of Congress did! in2herbs 8 hrs ago #2

OLDMDDEM

(2,193 posts)
1. We need to pass laws that negate Citizens United. It would limit people like Musk, Thiel etal.
Wed Jan 22, 2025, 11:40 AM
10 hrs ago

in2herbs

(3,303 posts)
2. No, CU did not assist with the election of 45 or the re-election of F47 -- our members of Congress did!
Wed Jan 22, 2025, 02:00 PM
8 hrs ago

The IRS laws governing charities could have been changed at any time by Congress after the CU decision to prevent dark money from being funneled through charities to interfere with elections. 501(c)(3)s present a loophole that Ds did not see or don't want to admit to.

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