Trump’s Inaugural Attracts Record Travel Industry Cash—Topping Biden and Trump 1.0

President Trump’s 2025 inaugural committee benefited from huge donations from several major brands that didn't make any financial contributions to either of the two previous inaugurations.

President Donald Trump’s 2025 inaugural committee enjoyed big donations from several travel and tourism industry titans – much more than in the two prior inaugurations, a Skift analysis of federal records indicates.

United Airlines and Delta Air Lines gave Trump’s 2025 inaugural $1 million each after having contributed nothing to Trump’s 2017 inauguration.

The seven-figure contributions also represent a major boost from what the two leading air carriers gave President Joe Biden’s 2021 inaugural committee: $228,223 from United and zero from Delta. Neither airline responded to requests for comment.

Hilton Worldwide, whose hotel brands include the Waldorf Astoria, Embassy Suites, Hampton and all Hilton-branded properties, made an in-kind contribution of $282,897.04 to Trump’s 2025 inaugural committee for what the company told Skift was an effort to “assist with the Presidential Inaugural Committee’s activities taking place at Washington, DC-area Hilton hotels.”

But Hilton made no donations at all to either Trump’s 2017 inaugural or Biden’s 2021 inaugural, according to records maintained by the Federal Elec