Trump awards national medals to six tech CEOs who collectively donated at least $6 billion, per analysis

Trump Awards National Medals to Six Major Donors

On Thursday afternoon, President Trump awarded national medals for advancements in technology and science to six CEOs and founders: Google's Sergey Brin, NVIDIA's Jensen Huang, Advanced Micro Devices' Lisa Su, Dell Technologies' Michael Dell, Microsoft's Satya Nadella, and SpaceX and Tesla's Elon Musk.

A New Republic analysis found that these six awardees collectively donated at least $6 billion to Trump's campaign, his inauguration fund, his White House ballroom, pro-Trump super PACs, and other Republican initiatives aligned with Trump's agenda.

Sergey Brin, Google Co-Founder and Current Gemini AI Head

• Google's parent company, Alphabet, donated $22 billion to the Trust for the National Mall, a fund supporting Trump's White House ballroom plan, as part of a settlement in Trump's January 6–related lawsuit against YouTube.
• Google separately donated $1 million to Trump's inauguration fund.
• Brin personally donated half a million dollars to the Republican National Committee last year.
• He spent more than $100 million in an effort to kill California's proposed wealth tax.
• Google also hired Trump ally Carlos Trujillo's lobbying firm, Continental Strategy, to lobby the White House.

Jensen Huang, NVIDIA CEO

• Huang donated an unspecified amount to the construction of Trump's $300 million White House ballroom last year.
• He attended a $1 million-per-plate dinner at Mar-a-Lago.
• NVIDIA pledged $1 billion to Trump's Genesis Mission AI project on Thursday morning, shortly before Huang received his award.

Lisa Su, President and CEO, Advanced Micro Devices

• AMD donated $1 million to MAGA Inc., a pro-Trump super PAC.
• AMD pledged to give 15 percent of its processor sales revenue from China to the Trump administration.

Elon Musk, Tesla CEO, xAI CEO, X Corp. CTO

• Musk served as a quasi-member of the Trump Cabinet as head of DOGE.
• In 2024, he was Trump's largest donor and the biggest political spender in the country, shelling out $277 million directly to Trump and other Republican campaigns.
• Musk helped form Trump's America PAC and ran a $1 million election "lottery" scheme to pay Republican voters.

Michael Dell, Dell Technologies

• Dell and his wife gifted $6.25 billion to the president's "Trump accounts" program for children.

Satya Nadella, Microsoft CEO

• Microsoft contributed $1 million to Trump's inauguration fund and an undisclosed amount to his White House ballroom.

Trump has disclosed millions in stock trades in the companies run by all six individuals.

Trump Claims "Water Hurricane" Hit North Carolina

North Carolinians were blissfully unaware that they survived one of the "great water hurricanes" of all time—until Donald Trump said so at the White House summit for scientific achievement Thursday.

All hurricanes lash rain as a fundamental part of the storm system, but the president suggested Thursday that there was a difference between a cyclone and what he described as a "water hurricane."

"I will tell you personally, because I was involved, we had a hurricane—one of the great water hurricanes of all time—delivered more water than at any time that we can remember on record," Trump said in the midst of a speech intended to celebrate Elon Musk's SpaceX and Starlink technologies.

This is not the first time Trump has used the phrase. He previously pitched the idea during a presidential campaign stop in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, in October 2024, lamenting the role water played during Hurricane Helene—a Category 4 storm that ravaged the state and sparked Trump's interest in dismantling the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Fact Check

• Hurricane Helene was not the most severe rainfall event in U.S. history. That distinction belongs to Hurricane Harvey, which battered portions of Texas and Louisiana across eight days of rainfall in 2017.
• Trump was not involved in the immediate response. He visited North Carolina once to formally acknowledge the wreckage, making three stops on October 21, 2024—nearly a month after the storm had passed.
• Hurricane Helene killed at least 250 people across seven states, making it the second-deadliest storm to hit the mainland in U.S. history. More than 100 of those fatalities happened in North Carolina.

Relief Fund Controversy

The storm inspired an unfounded MAGA conspiracy that the Biden administration was using FEMA funds to assist undocumented immigrants. After North Carolinians voted Trump back into office, the Trump administration made it difficult for the state to access emergency relief.

Instead, the Trump campaign initiated a GoFundMe, raising $7.7 million. That money effectively disappeared within a year. Trump's team distributed the funds to Christian charities with close ties to the president, including Mtn2Sea Ministries, Water Mission, Samaritan's Purse, the Clinch Foundation, and Sweetwater Mission. As religious entities, none were legally required to publicly disclose their expenditures.

The state is still dealing with the fallout: officials are working to provide internet and housing assistance for thousands who lost their homes, according to a factsheet released by Governor Josh Stein's office in September.

Hegseth Wants Public Firing Squad Execution for Fort Hood Shooter

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth wants convicted Fort Hood shooter Nidal Hasan's execution by firing squad to be open to the public.

Speaking to Jack Posobiec for Real America's Voice on the USS Abraham Lincoln Thursday, Hegseth was asked about the decision to execute Hasan, a former Army psychiatrist who shot and killed 12 soldiers and one civilian in 2009 on the base before being shot, wounded, and arrested. President Trump approved Hasan's death by firing squad to take place December 3, the first such execution in over 60 years.

"Of course we're going to do it at Fort Hood. We're going to do it on a Thursday, we're going to do it at one o'clock, which is when he did it, and it's going to be soldiers with rifles executing the firing squad," Hegseth said. "We know what it is, it was a radical Islamist attack in uniform inside the ranks, and so he's going to get a firing squad of soldiers, as it should be, and we'll make sure that people are able to watch it, that it's public, because people need to understand that there's serious consequences for these types of things."

What Hegseth means by "public" is unclear. Current Army regulations allow for at least two media outlets to be present for the execution. No legal execution has ever been broadcast live in the U.S., and the country's last public execution was in 1936.

Since Hasan was convicted of a military crime, his execution required approval from Hegseth and then Trump, which was granted. In April, the DOJ announced it was bringing back federal firing squads for death penalty sentences. President Biden had paused all executions and commuted the death sentences of 37 prisoners to life without parole as he was leaving the White House.

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