Trump canceled or stopped enforcement against 166 corporations in his first year. Many of them were donors

A scathing new report from consumer-advocacy group Public Citizen has found that, during the first year of President Donald Trump’s second term, federal agencies canceled or froze enforcement actions against 166 corporations — many of which have financial, lobbying, or personal ties to the Trump administration.

Instance after instance

Ripple, the cryptocurrency company behind XRP, donated $4.9 million — among the largest donation — to Trump's inauguration events. Shortly afterward, the Securities and Exchange Commission withdrew an appeal seeking nearly $2 billion in penalties against the company, settling instead for $125 million.

After he and his wife donated $1.8 million to Trump's reelection, Trevor Milton — the CEO of electric vehicle startup Nikola, who was convicted in 2023 of defrauding investors — received a presidential pardon wiping out over $660 million in restitution. Milton’s legal team included Attorney General Pam Bondi’s brother, Brad Bondi.

Amazon $AMZN was facing an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission lawsuit for allegedly discriminating against pregnant workers. After Trump signed an April 2025 executive order directing agencies not to rely on disparate impact analysis — an important tool for proving discrimination — the EEOC then dismissed the case.

The report details how Amazon donated $1 million to Trump's inaugural fund, made another $1 million in-kind donation by streaming the inauguration on Amazon Video, and is backing Trump's $300 million “Golden Ballroom” in the White House's East Wing. The company also announced a deal to stream The Apprentice, resulting in "unspecified" payments to Trump, who starred in and executive-produced the show. The company reportedly also paid $28 million to first lady Melania Trump for a documentary.

What’s more, Attorney General Pam Bondi worked as a registered lobbyist for Amazon in 2020 and 2021, while Trump ally Brian Ballard lobbied on Amazon's behalf in 2024.

Part of a broader pattern

All these cases illustrate a broader pattern, the watchdog group suggested, and mark a "dramatic" retreat from corporate oversight and enforcement under the previous administration.

The report also chimes with recent reporting from the Wall Street Journal, which detailed in December of 2025 how the Justice Department has dramatically scaled back white-collar enforcement across the board, redirecting resources to immigration and violent crime while closing nearly half of open foreign-bribery investigations after Trump ordered a six-month freeze on new cases.