There’s no query that getting in President Donald Trump’s good graces is expensive. Lately, Trump in all probability isn’t getting away from bed for one thing except he could make at the least seven figures off of it. However donors who ponied up for his 2024 presidential marketing campaign at the moment are reaping the rewards—specifically, freedom from authorities oversight.
Earlier this month, the Environmental Safety Company withdrew a grievance towards the GEO Group, a personal contractor with roughly $1 billion in authorities contracts to run ICE detention facilities and personal prisons. And with the Trump administration rising funding for immigration crackdowns by $150 billion, GEO may see an extra $400 million in authorities contracts.
However who needs to see all that money go to silly stuff like employee security and wages? As an alternative, firms can simply max out donations to Trump and watch their troubles disappear.
Which is strictly what GEO did.
An ICE Processing Heart in California, operated by GEO Group
Having maxed out its contributions to Trump’s 2024 marketing campaign early on, together with $1 million to the Make America Nice Once more PAC and a few smaller donations to different Republicans, GEO finally spent $3.7 million through the 2024 election cycle.
These donations have already netted outcomes, just like the withdrawal of the EPA grievance, which alleged that GEO failed to supply correct protecting gear for employees at an ICE facility in California. Halt, the chemical utilized by GEO, may cause pores and skin burns and irreversible eye harm, so the regulation requires folks to put on goggles, protecting clothes, and particular chemical-resistant gloves when utilizing it.
The EPA grievance alleged that GEO failed to supply correct protecting put on 1,137 instances in 2022 and 2023. And with a high quality of $3,558 per violation, GEO confronted $4,045,446 in doable penalties.
However GEO had been coaching for this second for years. It tapped Lawyer Common Pam Bondi as a lobbyist in 201 and employed high-level ICE officers, preserving that revolving door between authorities and contractor broad open. After which got here the chance to spend hundreds of thousands on Trump’s marketing campaign for a second time period.
Proper out of the gate, GEO has prevented extra in potential fines than the whole quantity it spent within the 2024 election. That’s fairly the cut price.
However wait, there’s extra!
GEO was additionally going through a grievance by the Nationwide Labor Relations Board for its scuzzy and exploitative observe of creating ICE detainees work on the facility for a wage of $1/day. Staff organized a labor strike, which is protected exercise below the regulation. The NLRB grievance alleged that GEO threw two of the employees in solitary confinement as retaliation for his or her organizing actions.
This grievance was a giant deal as a result of it handled the detainees employed by GEO as, effectively, workers. That signifies that the Nationwide Labor Relations Act applies, together with the requirement that they be paid the minimal wage. That might be a super-expensive factor for GEO to lose, however it could additionally imply that, going ahead, they must deal with detainees as employees, with the entire necessities and protections that apply.
The possibilities that GEO will ever must cope with the NLRB grievance are extremely low contemplating that the NLRB doesn’t actually exist proper now. When Trump illegally fired the chair of the board, and the Supreme Court docket determined to let him do it, that left the NLRB with out a quorum, so it may’t hear instances.
Elon Musk stands beside President Donald Trump, who he helped elect in 2024 with an enormous $250 million donation.
GEO may use a break, because it hasn’t been as fortunate in civil instances. It’s already on the hook for $23 million for its failure to pay the minimal wage to detainees working in its Washington State facility. That’s completely different from the lawsuit GEO simply obtained the Supreme Court docket to take, the place it argues that it ought to get the identical immunity as the federal government, which might drastically lower the avenues by which detainees may problem any of their circumstances.
Now, GEO is not any Elon Musk, who noticed an astonishing charge of return on the $250 million he spent to get Trump in workplace. Issues are a bit shaky for Musk proper now, what along with his messy breakup with Trump, however different Trump donors proceed to reap rewards.
The Securities and Trade Fee withdrew its lawsuit towards cryptocurrency change Binance after it began working with the Trump household crypto grift machine, World Liberty Monetary. And dozens of firms that gave hundreds of thousands to Trump’s inauguration additionally confronted federal enforcement actions, however 17 of these instances have been dismissed by April.
The Trump administration is a terrific reward to firms like GEO. It’s a windfall for personal firms mixed with a whole refusal to meaningfully oversee them. What’s just a few million {dollars} when the return isn’t simply extra federal contracts, however extra insulation from penalties?
Completely definitely worth the upfront prices.
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