The Great American State Fair was covered in the logos of dozens of corporate lobbying giants.
But most of the event sponsors — including defense contractors Lockheed Martin, GE Aerospace and Northrop Grumman — did not disclose payments to the President Donald Trump-supported event organizer Freedom 250, in potential violation of federal lobbying law, according to a NOTUS review of federal lobbyist contribution reports due to Congress by last Friday.
The Great American State Fair was also “presented by” corporate giants including ExxonMobil, SAP, Exiger, Mosaic and ScottsMiracle-Gro, according to billboards NOTUS photographed around the fair grounds last month. They’re among the almost two-dozen companies, including Palantir, Oracle, UnitedHealth Group and John Deere, listed as “sponsors” on the Freedom 250 website.
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Only three Freedom 250 corporate sponsors — Chevron, United Airlines and RTX — disclosed financial contributions to the organization as required by the federal Lobbying Disclosure Act. Ethics experts told NOTUS that the other companies should, too.
Under the Lobbying Disclosure Act, any entity that lobbies the federal government must file semiannual reports with Congress detailing honorary expenses, event cost payments and donations to political campaigns, presidential inaugurations, presidential libraries and other entities established or controlled by public officials.
The law “is certainly not airtight, and certain entities have found ways to try to exploit this law,” Aaron Scherb, a longtime ethics and democracy advocate, told NOTUS.
“Nonetheless, it requires full disclosure of political spending when companies are trying to curry favor with an administration and elected officials,” Scherb added. “So, companies contributing to Freedom 250 should absolutely be required to disclose their political spending.”
Freedom 250 was established by Task Force 250, which Trump created via executive order.
Trump himself is the chair of Freedom 250. The limited liability corporation is housed within the National Park Foundation, the nonprofit charity arm of the National Park Service, to which companies have previously disclosed donations.
“When it comes to other nonprofits, the question is always whether it was created and controlled by Trump,” Craig Holman, a government affairs lobbyist at the left-leaning nonprofit watchdog Public Citizen, told NOTUS. “But there is little question about Freedom 250.”
The offices of the clerk of the House and secretary of the Senate, which are tasked with processing lobbying disclosures and questioning lobbyists who fail to comply with reporting requirements, did not respond to requests for comment on obligations to disclose contributions to Freedom 250. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, which is tasked with enforcing compliance, also did not respond to questions.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Freedom 250 had raised $50 million from a variety of corporate interests. But the vast majority of these reported contributions — including $2 million from TikTok and $1 million each from Oracle and ExxonMobil — were not separately disclosed in certified federal disclosures, as required by the Lobbying Disclosure Act.
As of Tuesday evening, only three companies that both lobby the federal government and contributed money to Freedom 250 disclosed how much they gave to the Trump-backed organization.
Oil company Chevron, a presenting sponsor of the Great American State Fair, shelled out $5 million in May, according to federal records first reported by Politico and Sludge.
United Airlines disclosed donating $2.5 million in March.
And RTX, the defense company formerly known as Raytheon, reported giving $1.5 million in May.
Chevron, United Airlines and RTX are among the nearly two-dozen corporate sponsors listed on the Freedom 250 website.
“As a proud American company, Chevron is pleased to support celebrations of 250 years of the country’s independence,” Bill Turenne, a spokesperson, told NOTUS.
United Airlines declined to comment. RTX did not respond to a request for comment.
A spokesperson for Palantir, one of the companies listed as a sponsor on the website, told NOTUS the company did not donate to Freedom 250.
“Palantir is proud to adhere to all lobbying and donation disclosure requirements, but the company did not make a contribution to Freedom 250,” the Palantir spokesperson wrote in an emailed statement.
GE Aerospace declined to comment. UnitedHealth Group, John Deere, Lockheed Martin, TikTok, Oracle, ExxonMobil, Northrop Grumman, ScottsMiracle-Gro, Exiger, Mosaic and SAP did not respond to requests for comment from NOTUS.
Other companies not listed by Freedom 250 as official partners or sponsors said they did not pay the organization money despite having their corporate logos posted around the Great American State Fair.
Axiom Space had an exhibit that included a video and a large astronaut cutout. But Meridyth Moore, a spokesperson for Axiom Space, said the company “was not a paid sponsor.”
“That’s it. We provided a cutout image of our spacesuit and a video to be played,” Moore responded when asked for more details about the exhibit.
When NOTUS asked if the organizers had allowed Axiom to include the pieces for free, Moore confirmed “no expenditures were spent.”
Hillsdale College, a small, Christian liberal arts school in Michigan, also had a branded booth at the Great American State Fair. Emily Davis, a college spokesperson, described Hillsdale as a “partner” but said the college did not donate to Freedom 250.
“The college complies with all reporting obligations. It has not given any monies to the Freedom 250 group,” Davis said.
SAP, a business software company, operated a large exhibit at the Great American State Fair, which included a display wall featuring the logos of several client companies alongside QR codes and a rotating digital display detailing some of the brands.
Todd Scott, senior communications manager at Hershey, one of the companies featured in the SAP exhibit, told NOTUS that the chocolate company was not a sponsor and that this was the first he had heard about the company’s logo being on the SAP exhibit at the Great American State Fair. (NOTUS reported on Hershey’s presence at the Great American State Fair in July.)
Scott pointed to an article in The Philadelphia Inquirer, where he previously said Hershey was “asked so late in the game” to participate in the Great American State Fair that the company could not logistically participate.
Funding for Freedom 250 has often lacked transparency since the group began operating alongside America250 — a separate nonprofit group supporting the U.S. Semiquincentennial Commission, which Congress established a decade ago.
Oil company BP, for one, disclosed a $500,000 contribution to America250 in February, according to its latest contribution report filed last Friday.
Democrats on the House Natural Resources Committee accused Freedom 250 of diverting funds from America250, including by allegedly giving donors the routing and account numbers for Freedom 250, according to a report released by the committee last month.
Freedom 250 spokesperson Danielle Alvarez previously told NPR that the claims are “categorically false” and a “partisan smear.”
“Congressional members should be ashamed they are spending countless hours fabricating a report instead of joining Americans in creating an absolutely beautiful celebration,” Alvarez told NPR last month.
Alvarez did not immediately respond to a NOTUS message following up on questions emailed separately to Freedom 250.
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