There’s no question that getting in President Donald Trump’s good graces is costly. These days, Trump probably isn’t getting out of bed for something unless he can make at least seven figures off of it. But donors who ponied up for his 2024 presidential campaign are now reaping the rewards—namely, freedom from government oversight.
Earlier this month, the Environmental Protection Agency withdrew a complaint against the GEO Group, a private contractor with approximately $1 billion in government contracts to run ICE detention centers and private prisons. And with the Trump administration increasing funding for immigration crackdowns by $150 billion, GEO could see an additional $400 million in government contracts.
But who wants to see all that cash go to stupid stuff like worker safety and wages? Instead, companies can just max out donations to Trump and watch their troubles disappear.
Which is exactly what GEO did.
Having maxed out its contributions to Trump’s 2024 campaign early on, along with $1 million to the Make America Great Again PAC and some smaller donations to other Republicans, GEO ultimately spent $3.7 million during the 2024 election cycle.
Those donations have already netted results, like the withdrawal of the EPA complaint, which alleged that GEO failed to provide proper protective gear for workers at an ICE facility in California. Halt, the chemical used by GEO, can cause skin burns and irreversible eye damage, so the law requires people to wear goggles, protective clothing, and special chemical-resistant gloves when using it.
The EPA complaint alleged that GEO failed to provide proper protective wear 1,137 times in 2022 and 2023. And with a fine of $3,558 per violation, GEO faced $4,045,446 in possible penalties.
But GEO had been training for this moment for years. It tapped Attorney General Pam Bondi as a lobbyist in 201 and hired high-level ICE officials, keeping that revolving door between government and contractor wide open. And then came the opportunity to spend millions on Trump’s campaign for a second term.
Right out of the gate, GEO has avoided more in potential fines than the total amount it spent in the 2024 election. That’s quite the bargain.
But wait, there’s more!
GEO was also facing a complaint by the National Labor Relations Board for its scuzzy and exploitative practice of making ICE detainees work at the facility for a wage of $1/day. Workers organized a labor strike, which is protected activity under the law. The NLRB complaint alleged that GEO threw two of the workers in solitary confinement as retaliation for their organizing activities.
This complaint was a big deal because it treated the detainees employed by GEO as, well, employees. That means that the National Labor Relations Act applies, including the requirement that they be paid the minimum wage. That would be a super-expensive thing for GEO to lose, but it would also mean that, going forward, they would have to treat detainees as workers, with all of the requirements and protections that apply.
The chances that GEO will ever have to deal with the NLRB complaint are incredibly low considering that the NLRB doesn’t really exist right now. When Trump illegally fired the chair of the board, and the Supreme Court decided to let him do it, that left the NLRB without a quorum, so it can’t hear cases.
GEO could use a break, as it hasn’t been as lucky in civil cases. It’s already on the hook for $23 million for its failure to pay the minimum wage to detainees working in its Washington State facility. That’s different from the lawsuit GEO just got the Supreme Court to take, where it argues that it should get the same immunity as the government, which would drastically decrease the avenues by which detainees could challenge any of their conditions.
Now, GEO is no Elon Musk, who saw an astonishing rate of return on the $250 million he spent to get Trump in office. Things are a little shaky for Musk right now, what with his messy breakup with Trump, but other Trump donors continue to reap rewards.
The Securities and Exchange Commission withdrew its lawsuit against cryptocurrency exchange Binance after it started working with the Trump family crypto grift machine, World Liberty Financial. And dozens of companies that gave millions to Trump’s inauguration also faced federal enforcement actions, but 17 of those cases were dismissed by April.
The Trump administration is a terrific gift to companies like GEO. It’s a windfall for private companies combined with a complete refusal to meaningfully oversee them. What’s a few million dollars when the return isn’t just more federal contracts, but more insulation from consequences?
Totally worth the upfront costs.