{"id":2391860,"date":"2025-01-17T16:38:06","date_gmt":"2025-01-17T21:38:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/sam-altman-slams-democrats-questioning-big-tech-influence-after-trump-donation-washington-examiner\/"},"modified":"2025-01-17T16:38:38","modified_gmt":"2025-01-17T21:38:38","slug":"sam-altman-slams-democrats-questioning-big-tech-influence-after-trump-donation-washington-examiner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/sam-altman-slams-democrats-questioning-big-tech-influence-after-trump-donation-washington-examiner\/","title":{"rendered":"Sam Altman slams Democrats questioning Big Tech influence after Trump donation &#8211; Washington Examiner"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">28<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fsam-altman-slams-democrats-questioning-big-tech-influence-after-trump-donation-washington-examiner%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2391860&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Sam Altman, the CEO \u2063of OpenAI, criticized senate Democrats for questioning his motives \u200dconcerning his $1 million donation\u200d to Donald\u2064 Trump&#8217;s inauguration.\u2064 He defended his\u200c actions amid concerns about Big Tech&#8217;s influence and the implications of political donations. Altman&#8217;s remarks highlight the tension between\u2064 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/george-orwells-1984-could-come-to-pass-in-2024-if-china-dominates-ai-war-big-tech-leaders-warn\/\" title=\"George Orwell\u2019s 1984 \u2018Could Come To Pass In 2024\u2019 If China Dominates AI War, Big Tech Leaders Warn\">tech leaders<\/a> and political figures regarding \u200bthe ethical considerations \u200dof financial contributions\u200c in the political sphere.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<p><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><\/p>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-button\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-icon td-icon-mobile\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-header-search-button-mob dropdown-toggle\" data-toggle=\"dropdown\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-search-icon td-icon-search\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-button\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-icon td-icon-mobile\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div class=\"tdb-drop-down-search\" aria-labelledby=\"td-header-search-button\">\n<div class=\"tdb-drop-down-search-inner\">\n<form method=\"get\" class=\"tdb-search-form\" action=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/\"><\/form>\n<div class=\"tdb-aj-search\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/#\" role=\"button\" aria-label=\"Search\" class=\"tdb-head-search-btn dropdown-toggle\" data-toggle=\"dropdown\"><i class=\"tdb-search-icon td-icon-search\"><\/i><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<h1 class=\"tdb-title-text\">Sam Altman slams Democrats questioning Big Tech influence after Trump donation<\/h1>\n<div><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-title-line\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div id=\"Brid_1938072\" class=\"tpd-featured-video bridtv\"><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/openai\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"OpenAI\">OpenAI<\/a> CEO <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/sam-altman\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"OpenAI\">Sam Altman<\/a> pushed back on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/senate-democrats\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"OpenAI\">Senate Democrats<\/a> questioning his motivations over donating a million dollars to President-elect Donald Trump&rsquo;s inauguration fund.<\/p>\n<div class=\"article-paywall\">\n<p>Altman was sent a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.warren.senate.gov\/imo\/media\/doc\/letters_on_big_tech_donations_to_trump_inaugural_fund.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"letter\">letter<\/a> accusing him and other Big Tech CEOs of an apparent &ldquo;effort to<br \/>influence and sway the actions and policies of the incoming administration&rdquo; from Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Michael Bennet (D-CO). The letter included a list of questions, accusing his company of being involved in his decision to donate to the inaugural fund.<\/p>\n<p>The OpenAI CEO responded by joking that he never got the same kind of scrutiny when donating to Democrats and said it was a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/gavin-newsom-recall-effort-receives-1m-boost-from-john-cox\/\" title=\"Gavin Newsom recall effort receives M boost from John Cox\">personal donation<\/a>, not associated with his company.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">it was a personal contribution as you state; i am confused about the questions given that my company did not make a decision.<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Sam Altman (@sama) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/sama\/status\/1880303781537292453?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">January 17, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p> <script data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/cdn-cgi\/scripts\/5c5dd728\/cloudflare-static\/email-decode.min.js\"><\/script><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>    <\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;funny, they never sent me one of these for contributing to democrats&hellip;&rdquo; Altman said on a post on X.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;it was a personal contribution as you state; i am confused about the questions given that my company did not make a decision,&rdquo; he said in a subsequent post.<\/p>\n<p>Altman was one of several tech CEOs, including Meta&rsquo;s Mark Zuckerberg, Apple&rsquo;s Tim Cook, and Amazon&rsquo;s Jeff Bezos, who donated to the inaugural fund. All received a letter from Warren and Bennet.<\/p>\n<p>Some of the CEOs of those companies are <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/white-house\/3286488\/elon-musk-jeff-bezos-mark-zuckerberg-trump-inauguration-day\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"planning\">planning<\/a> to attend Monday&rsquo;s inauguration, including Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, Bezos, and Zuckerberg.<\/p>\n<p>As part of President Joe Biden&rsquo;s farewell address earlier this week, he warned of a &ldquo;dangerous&rdquo; oligarchy forming leading into Trump&rsquo;s second administration, as Musk has developed into a close ally of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/mike-kelly-same-people-criticizing-trump-peddled-russia-collusion-hoax\/\" title=\"Mike Kelly: Same People Criticizing Trump Peddled Russia Collusion Hoax\">president-elect<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Today, an oligarchy is taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power, and influence that literally threatens our entire democracy, our basic rights and freedoms, and a fair shot for everyone to get ahead,&rdquo; Biden <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/white-house\/3287334\/biden-dangerous-oligarchy-farewell-white-house-address\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"said\">said<\/a> in his Wednesday speech.<\/p>\n<p>Republicans have taken concern with this narrative, citing how Big Tech <a href=\"https:\/\/www.opensecrets.org\/news\/2021\/01\/big-tech-employees-rally-biden\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">donated<\/a> millions of dollars to Democrats in previous election cycles. In 2020, Google&rsquo;s parent owner, Alphabet, donated $12 million to Biden&rsquo;s campaign and Amazon donated almost $10 million.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p> <script>!function(){var g=window;g.googletag=g.googletag||{},g.googletag.cmd=g.googletag.cmd||[],g.googletag.cmd.push(function(){g.googletag.pubads().setTargeting(\"has-featured-video\",\"true\")})}();<\/script><script>var _bp=_bp||[];_bp.push({\"div\":\"Brid_1938072\",\"obj\":{\"id\":\"27789\",\"width\":\"1280\",\"height\":\"720\",\"stickyDirection\":\"below\",\"video\":\"1938072\"}});<\/script><script defer src=\"https:\/\/services.brid.tv\/player\/build\/brid.min.js\"><\/script><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sam Altman defends Trump donation against Dems&#8217; scrutiny<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2638,"featured_media":2391863,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/sam-altman-inauguration-donation.webp","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[538],"tags":[23092,3685,45288],"class_list":["post-2391860","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-washington-examiner","tag-big-tech","tag-democrats","tag-sam-altman"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/sam-altman-inauguration-donation.webp","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2391860","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2638"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2391860"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2391860\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2391865,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2391860\/revisions\/2391865"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2391863"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2391860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2391860"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2391860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}