Top CEOs Supported Groups Skeptical of Trump’s 2024 Election Agenda: Documents

Ahead of President Donald Trump’s return to the White House, the Business Roundtable, the nation’s preeminent organization for corporate CEOs, helped fund organizations that are skeptical of Trump policies, including those on immigration, trade, tariffs and energy, according to a NOTUS analysis of new tax filings.

The revelations come at a moment when many large trade associations and corporate lobbies, including the Business Roundtable, have tread carefully during the first year of Trump’s second term, preferring to speak privately with the president and his team if policy differences arise — as opposed to publicly criticizing policy decisions. Some CEOs have all but embraced Trump.

The Business Roundtable has sometimes lauded Trump, too, such as in July, when it declared the president delivered a “monumental victory for American businesses, workers and families” in passing a massive budget bill.

But the Business Roundtable’s tax documents show that during 2024, the group gave $50,000 to Third Way, a centrist think tank that has consistently butted heads with the Trump administration on issues including tariffs, deploying the National Guard and canceling billions of dollars worth of energy projects.

Business Roundtable also gave $150,000 to The American Action Forum, a center-right think tank that’s been vocally hostile toward several of Trump’s decisions, including levying massive tariffs on trading partners last spring and imposing a new $100,000 fee on H1B visa applications in September.

American Action Forum President Douglas Holtz-Eakin — previously chief economist for President George W. Bush’s council of economic advisers, director of the Congressional Budget Office and chief economic policy adviser to Sen. John McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign — repeatedly said this fall that Trump’s economy was “dead in the water.”

An American Action Forum spokesperson told NOTUS that the organization does not take specific policy stances.

“That said, AAF’s work has certainly criticized the administration’s policies on a wide swath of issues, including the ones you noted,” the spokesperson added.

The Business Roundtable also gave $30,000 to the ModSquad Foundation, a Democratic group working to elect moderates, and $15,000 to the National Immigration Forum, which has been critical of the administration’s immigration policies. (In 2023, Business Roundtable did not donate to Third Way or the ModSquad Foundation but did donate $25,000 to the National immigration Forum.)

It also gave $15,000 to the Center for Democracy and Technology, a nonprofit advocating for digital rights and freedom of expression that has been critical of Republicans and Trump administration’s efforts to preempt state AI policy. (The Center for Democracy and Technology also got $15,000 from the Business Roundtable in 2023.)

Elizabeth Seeger, communications manager for the Center for Democracy and Technology, told NOTUS that the Business Roundtable was a “Silver Sponsor” of the organization’s “Tech Prom,” an annual convening of tech leaders in Washington, D.C.

The Business Roundtable also funded groups committed to tackling climate change, which Trump has called a “con job”: $50,000 to the Climate Solutions Foundation, which aims to foster bipartisan dialogue on climate change, and $50,000 to the Conservative Climate Foundation, which focuses on “reducing global and domestic emissions.”

In all, the Business Roundtable spread around about $2.6 million in grants and contributions last year. NOTUS contacted each of the above organizations for comment but only received the responses included above.

“Business Roundtable partners with groups across the political spectrum and works closely with the Trump Administration and members of Congress to advance pro-growth policies,” a Business Roundtable spokesperson told NOTUS in an emailed statement.

The Business Roundtable existed long before Trump took office and has a long relationship of working with both conservative and liberal politicians and groups.

Like many other trade associations, Business Roundtable has walked a tightrope since Trump took office in January between advocating for its members’ priorities without invoking the president’s ire.

Business Roundtable has a massive footprint in Washington and consistently spends tens of millions of dollars each year on federal lobbying.

With a change in administration and the passage of Republicans’ tax bill this summer, the Business Roundtable has been particularly busy: In the first nine months of 2025, it had 99 registered lobbyists and spent a record $23.6 million on federal lobbying, according to an analysis of federal records by OpenSecrets, a nonprofit that tracks money in politics.

MAGA world has not forgotten that several trade associations, including Business Roundtable, condemned the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, with Trump’s supporters icing out other business organizations such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which they’ve deemed insufficiently loyal to the party.

The Business Roundtable did not respond to questions about whether it has continued to help bankroll groups that outwardly oppose Trump policies during 2025. The Business Roundtable is not required by law to provide that information until late 2026.