SoftBank gave $50 million to the Trump Presidential Library in January, shortly before disclosing plans to lease federal land for a major data center project in Ohio. The Japanese tech and investment giant confirmed the timing in a response to a June inquiry from Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), and Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D-NM), who questioned whether the donation raised potential bribery concerns.
“Are we expected to believe it’s a coincidence that two months after Softbank donated $50 million to the Trump library, his administration announced a massive lease deal for Softbank’s data center?” Warren said in a statement to The Verge. “Again and again, it seems like Trump is putting handshake deals with CEOs over what’s best for Americans.”
The scrutiny follows SoftBank’s March announcement that its SB Energy subsidiary had entered a public-private partnership to develop what it described as “the world’s largest” artificial intelligence data center at the US Department of Energy’s Portsmouth, Ohio, site. Under the arrangement, SB Energy is also slated to construct a large nearby gas-fired power plant with a capacity of at least 9.2 gigawatts.
In their original letter, the lawmakers pointed out that SoftBank has previously donated to the presidential libraries of Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush. But those contributions, they noted, came only after the presidents had left office and after the associated library foundations and institutions were already in place. By contrast, SoftBank’s Trump library donation was made during Trump’s term and “before any presidential library has been constructed.”
The lawmakers also highlighted confusion around the entity collecting donations. The Donald J. Trump Presidential Library Fund had been dissolved by Florida officials last September after it failed to file an annual report. In its response, SoftBank said its $50 million payment went instead to the Donald J. Trump Presidential Library Foundation, Inc.
Eric Trump, the president’s son, serves as a trustee of that nonprofit, according to Citizens for Ethics. “As with its prior contributions to Presidential libraries, SoftBank understands that this donation will be used to support the construction and operation of the Donald J. Trump Presidential Library,” the company wrote in its letter.
