Michigan donors — and Gotion — pumped millions into Trump inauguration

• A committee for President Donald Trump’s inauguration accepted a $1 million donation from electric battery manufacturer Gotion
• Republicans, including Trump, spent years criticizing Gotion and Democratic support for its proposed Michigan factory
• Michigan individuals and donors also contributed another $6 million to the inaugural committee’s record fundraising haul

Fundraisers for President Donald Trump’s second inauguration accepted a $1 million donation from a Chinese-linked electric vehicle battery manufacturer that had long been a target of Michigan Republicans — and the president himself.

The contribution from Gotion, Inc., first reported by The Detroit News, was disclosed in a federal campaign finance filing by the committee, which was created to fund Trump’s Jan. 20 inauguration and surrounding festivities. 

The committee reported record fundraising numbers, pulling in close to $240 million total, including more than $6 million from Michigan donors and businesses.

Donations to inaugural committees have long been seen as a means of currying favor and access with an incoming administration. 

Gotion’s planned $2.4 billion electric vehicle battery facility north of Big Rapids was marketed as a game-changer for the region’s economy when it was announced in 2022, and had landed significant public funding, including a $125 million Critical Industry Program grant. 

Related:

• Big Rapids Twp. eyes life after Gotion; could cash in on state-bought land
• Warning of China threat, Trump and Michigan Republicans bash EV battery plant
• Gotion scores court win in battle to build battery plant in Green Township

But the project quickly became a target for Republicans because its parent company, Gotion High-Tech, is based in China and operates under rules that align businesses with the Chinese Communist Party.

Republicans spent years criticizing Democrats for their support of the project and it became an election-year issue both in 2022 and 2024.

‘We’re going to stop it’

In late August 2024, then-vice presidential candidate JD Vance campaigned in Green Township, where Gotion intended to build it’s facility, citing it as evidence that “Democrats are helping China destroy and replace our auto industry from the inside out.”

Vance promised, “we're going to stop it.”

In a social media post the week before, Trump had said the project would “put Michiganders under the thumb of the Chinese Communist Party” and would “be very bad” for Michigan and the US.

The company’s leaders have been adamant that the company does not take orders from the Chinese state. Its largest shareholder, according to public disclosures, is German automaker Volkswagen. Gotion vice president Chuck Thelen did not return a comment request from Bridge Michigan Tuesday.

The beleaguered project remains in limbo as litigation between Gotion and Green Township continues in federal court. 

Republican candidates and the party “built a campaign around accusing people of taking money from businesses associated with the Chinese Communist Party when in reality, their dear leader Donald Trump was doing it all along,” Michigan Democratic Party chair Curtis Hertel said in a statement. 

He called the president’s willingness to accept the $1 million contribution from Gotion “a new low, even for them.”

Hertel, who lost a congressional race last year, had been targeted by political mail linking him to the project because he had worked for Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s administration. 

Several Michigan GOP officials did not respond to requests for comment on the Gotion contribution. 

But former state party co-chair Meshawn Maddock, a major Trump supporter, appeared to praise the development: Take ALL the China money all day everyday,” she wrote on social media. “They’ve been robbing us for decades.”

Michigan donors

Individuals and businesses in Michigan also donated more than $6 million to the inaugural committee, according to federal campaign finance records. That significantly exceeded the $2.3 million Michigan donors contributed to former President Joe Biden’s inauguration in 2021. 

That included $1 million from the billionaire DeVos family and a combined $2.2 million from Detroit’s “Big Three” automakers, including $1 million each from General Motors and Stellantis North America. 

Ford Motor Company’s $199,000 in-kind donation came in the form of transportation, according to the disclosure. Ford previously said it donated $1 million to the inauguration.

Breeze Smoke, a disposable vape company listing a Hazel Park address, gave $1 million and Dow Chemical Company gave $500,000.

Ford, GM and Dow Chemical also contributed to Biden's inauguration in 2021. 

Larger donors were promised more access to senior officials at exclusive celebrations for Trump’s inauguration, though the influx of money was so significant that planners reportedly ran out of perks. 

A $1 million donation was supposed to provide six tickets each to six different events including the swearing-in ceremony, according to the New York Times. But it wasn’t clear whether officials from Gotion or any Michigan companies received those perks. 

Gotion critic: Donation should be returned

Rich Studley, a prominent Gotion critic and former head of the Michigan Chamber of Commerce, told Bridge Michigan in an interview that accepting the donation was a bad move.

“President Trump's inaugural committee should not have accepted a $1 million contribution from Gotion, and I believe that that contribution should be returned” as soon as possible, he said. 

Studley placed distance between the committee and Trump himself by noting that inaugurations are assembled hastily and have many moving parts.

“I think it would be unfair to read too much into or out of a line item on a no doubt likely complicated report, but I think it sends the wrong message on behalf of the president and the Trump administration,” he said. 

But the inaugural committee did reject donations from a number of other corporate donors, including a South Korean-headquartered defense contractor, Hanwha Defense USA, Inc. and Hong Kong Win Go Fund management, an investment firm.

According to the Financial Times, Gotion’s donations represented a small slice of $13 million the inaugural committee accepted from corporations with a foreign parent. Those included other auto companies, such as Toyota and Hyundai.

Political fundraisers in the US are allowed to reject contributions for whatever reason they choose.