Revealed: Trump campaigns received $45m from Tufton Street donors

Labour MP raises concerns about transatlantic “web of dark money” as our investigation finds UK think tank donors pouring millions into Donald Trump and US Republicans ahead of Tuesday's vote

By Peter Geoghegan and Max Colbert

Donald Trump and US Republican campaigns have received more than $45million (£35m) from donors who have funded an influential network of right-wing think tanks in the UK, a joint investigation by Democracy for Sale and Byline Times has discovered. 

‘Tufton Street’ outfits such as the Institute of Economic Affairs and the Global Warming Policy Foundation refuse to declare their donors but known backers include oil and gas firms and leading Tory donors.

At least 15 individuals and companies who have donated to Tufton Street over the past decade have made $45.5million (£35.2m) in campaign donations to Trump, Trump-supporting political committees and Republicans in state races, according to data from US election and corporate filings. 

British American Tobacco, a billionaire sanctioned by Ukraine, a leading financier and an American heiress who has been accused of supporting racism and climate denial have all donated to both Tufton Street and Republican campaigns ahead of Tuesday’s vote. 

The IEA and other Tufton Street outfits were among the most vocal supporters of Liz Truss, who has endorsed Trump.

Responding to this investigation, Labour MP Clive Lewis said: "We can clearly see that the same organisations, companies and vested interests that are backing Donald Trump - one of the most hard right-wing, racist demagogues ever to run for president - are also backing Tufton Street. 

“It's no surprise: Trump and Tufton Street have very similar policies. They seek to undermine democracy and reduce the power of civil society in the interests of big corporate interests. It's a web of dark money that people need to be aware of."

Our analysis found that British American Tobacco donated $17.2 million (£13.3m) to Republicans in the current cycle, through two US subsidiary companies. The UK-headquartered firm’s donations include $8.5 million (£6.5m) to Trump’s ‘Make America Great Again Inc’ PAC. 

Kamala Harris has raised far more money than Trump overall but while some Tufton Street donors have given to the Democrats the vast majority of their donations have gone to Republicans. British American Tobacco donated just $960 (£734) to Harris’s campaign.

British American Tobacco also has a long history of funding Tufton Street. The tobacco giant has donated to the Institute of Economic Affairs since the 1960s. Earlier this year it emerged that the Tories abandoned a policy to ban smoking for future generations after coming under pressure from the IEA and other right-wing think tanks. 

The IEA, Policy Exchange, the Global Warming Policy Foundation and other Tufton Street groups have also received millions of pounds from foreign donors over the last decade.

Among them is Ukrainian-born billionaire Len Blavatnik, who has given Tory think tank Policy Exchange more than $208,000 (£163,280). Blavatnik has also donated more than $1 million (£778,285) to Republican causes since the start of last year through his company Access Industries.

Blavatnik, who is currently under Ukrainian sanctions, has been a major donor to the British Conservative party and recently gave £25,000 to Robert Jenrick’s unsuccessful leadership campaign. 

Blavatnik also donated $1million (£775,000) to Trump’s 2016 inauguration, a move which caused a professor at the University of Oxford’s ‘Blavatnik School of Government’ - the recipient of £75 million from him - to resign in protest, calling the support “incomprehensible and irresponsible”. 

Access Industries has also made smaller donations to Kamala Harris and other Democrats. A spokeswoman said that Blavatnik’s “donations in support of Democrats and Republicans are a matter of public record.”

Thomas D. Klingenstein, chair of the influential Claremont Institute, has given more than $9 million (£7.26m) to the Republicans since the start of 2023. Described as the ‘nerve center of the American right’, Claremont’s staff include John Eastman who was heavily involved in Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election. 

Klingenstein is a leading light behind the National Conservatism conference that some senior British Conservatives spoke at in London last year. He has previously donated $10,000 (£7,745) to the American arm of the Global Warming Policy Foundation, the UK’s principle climate denialist think tank. 

Other Tufton Street donors who are bankrolling Trump include financier Vernon Hill, who has given more than $2 million to Republican causes, including $100,000 to Make American Great Again Inc. The MetroBank founder has previously given $250,000 (£193,500) to the IEA’s American arm. 

US investor Charles R. Schwab’s charitable fund has also given nearly $300,000 (£232,200) to the Institute of Economic Affairs since 2015. Schwab has donated more than $10million (£7.75m) to the Republican party in recent months, personally and through companies he controls. 

Schwab’s charitable fund, which is run by his daughter and earlier this year rebranded as DAFgiving360, has channelled more than $250million to right-wing US causes. Much of this money has gone to groups tied to Leonard Leo, the Opus-Dei linked Republican activist behind a dark money-funded ‘election integrity’ network that is reportedly laying the groundwork for a repeat of 2020 if Trump loses.

A spokeswoman for DAFgiving360 said that the fund is a separate legal entity from Charles Schwab and the grants it makes “do not reflect the values or beliefs of DAFgiving360, Schwab, or its management.”

Carl Barney has donated $924,000 (£715,140) to Trump, the legal limit for direct personal donations in the US. The Ayn Rand aficionado, who amassed millions running for-profit colleges, is also recorded donating $110,000 (£85,100) to the Adam Smith Institute’s US wing between 2015 and 2017.

Barney told Democracy for Sale that he became a Tufton Street donor after meeting the Adam Smith Institute’s founder Madsen Pirie and director Eamon Butler in the US a decade ago. “They said they wanted to put on a special lecture in London for a combination of business people and academics. I thought that was excellent so I made a contribution to them,” Barney said. “I’ve supported them ever since.” 

Barney added that he’s “not a political campaign guy” but that “when it comes to handling Ukraine and Israel, I think Trump would be strong.”

Smaller sums have come from donors pushing extreme views. Nina Rosenwald has given $30,000 (£23,220) to Trump and Republican causes. The heiress to the Sears Roebuck fortune has been dubbed the ‘sugar mama of anti-Muslim hate’ by a US news outlet.

Rosenwald’s grant-making vehicle, the Abstraction Fund, gave $10,000 (£7,750) to the GWPF in 2022. She also gave $1,500 (£1160) to the contrarian UK publication Spiked in 2021, for ‘general purposes’. 

Tufton Street has also received millions in US funding through what are known as ‘Donor Advised Funds’, these often shadowy structures have been used to shovel billions to various philanthropic causes worldwide anonymously. 

The National Philanthropic Trust, which has given more than £1.5million to think tanks in the Tufton Street network, is a major funder of the American right, including the Heritage Foundation. Heritage is the organisation behind the controversial ‘Project 2025’ plan that has been accused of attempting to erode democracy and impose an ultra-conservative social vision on the US.

Trump has attempted to distance himself from Project 2025 but some of his closest aides earlier this year boasted to undercover journalists that privately Trump supported its proposals.

Spotlight on Corruption’s Sue Hawley said our investigation “is deeply revealing about how the super-wealthy and corporate interests seek to sway the democratic processes in the US and UK in their favour often through opaque networks of think tanks, foundations and transnational corporate networks. 

“Unless the new UK government gets serious about closing the loopholes in our electoral laws and looking at caps on donations, these same interests will be pumping money back into the UK to influence who the next UK government should be in no short order.”  

Since 2012, nearly $14.5 million (£11.2m) has made its way from US donors to the Policy Exchange, Adam Smith Institute, Legatum, Taxpayers Alliance, Global Warming Policy Foundation, and Institute of Economic Affairs, according to our analysis. 

The IEA declined to comment on this story. The GWPF, TPA, Legatum, ASI, Policy Exchange, Thomas D Klingenstein, Nina Rosenwald and British American Tobacco did not respond to requests for comments.