Google donated $285,000 to President Donald Trump’s inauguration, even though Eric Schmidt, the chief executive of Google’s parent company Alphabet, is not shy about his support for former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party in general.
The donations were made public through official Federal Election Commission filings (pages 43, 163 of 510).
Alphabet CEO Eric Schmidt, who used to directly run Google, was spotted wearing a “staff” badge during Clinton’s election night party.
Emails leaked from Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta show Schmidt was working “directly” with the presidential campaign. Schmidt eventually wanted to become the official “head outside advisor” to her campaign, according to other pieces of electronic communication exposed by WikiLeaks.
Aside from Schmidt, Google as a company supported Clinton and Democratic ideals, whether overtly and deliberately or unintentionally.
Alphabet was the second largest contributor to Clinton’s campaign during the 2016 cycle, according to Open Secrets.
Google was also accused of burying negative search suggestions for Clinton. (RELATED: Google Excludes Trump From List Of Active Presidential Campaigns)
The tech giant reportedly spearheaded the funding efforts for the legal brief signed by nearly 100 companies that objected to President Donald Trump’s immigration ban.
“It’s painful to see the personal cost of this executive order on our colleagues,” said Google CEO Sundar Pichai, who was born in India, according to Bloomberg News. The co-founder of Google, Sergey Brin, a Russian-born American who immigrated from the Soviet Union, was reportedly seen at the San Francisco airport over the weekend in order to protest with others.
Schmidt also made some harsh claims about Trump to employees in late January.
“I can tell you that the tone of this government is very much economic growth,” Schmidt said, according to BuzzFeed News, in an apparent attempt to criticize Trump. “And so I think at the end of the day, they are going to do these evil things as they’ve done in the immigration area and perhaps some others.”
Aside from levying criticisms towards Trump, Schmidt, in general, has multiple connections to Clinton, whether its through her campaign for president or her and former President Bill Clinton’s foundation. (RELATED: EXPOSED: The Corrupt Clinton Foundation You’ve Never Heard Of)
And it’s not just recent. Google and its affiliates convened at the White House 427 times for meetings during President Barack Obama’s tenure.
That’s why the filings showing Google donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to Trump’s inauguration seems somewhat odd. Perhaps Google is trying to hedge their bets, or play both sides of the aisle, in order to reap the benefits of having the political leadership’s blessing at all times.
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