Comcast gave $1 million to Trump’s inaugural committee. He later called the company a ‘disgrace.’

Comcast Corp. donated $1 million to President Donald Trump’s inaugural committee in December, joining other Pennsylvania-based companies in contributing to Trump’s record-breaking fundraising haul, according to new filings from the Federal Election Commission.

But just a few months later, Trump does not appear to be reciprocating the support for the media conglomerate. His administration has dished out verbal attacks on Comcast, spurred by the president’s opposition to diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives and animosity toward certain media outlets, including NBC and MSNBC, which are owned by Comcast.

Comcast declined to comment.

The mass media company, headquartered in Philadelphia, has a recent history of donating to inaugural committees, including $31,000 to former President Barack Obama’s in 2013, $250,000 to Trump’s 2017 inauguration, and the maximum $1 million to former President Joe Biden’s in 2021.

In total, Pennsylvania-based companies and donors gave approximately $8.6 million to the Trump-Vance inaugural committee. Other contributors include FedEx Corp., U.S. Steel, and Jared Isaacman, founder and CEO of Shift4, a payment processing company.

Trump has had a contentious relationship with Comcast CEO Brian Roberts. Earlier this month on his social media platform, Truth Social, Trump accused Comcast, which owns NBCUniversal, of trying to avoid lawsuits by separating NBC and MSNBC. He lambasted MSNBC for its ratings and added that Roberts and Comcast are “a disgrace to the integrity of Broadcasting!!!”

In March 2024, he verbally attacked Roberts amid the ouster of former Republican National Committee chairperson Ronna McDaniel from her contributor position at NBC News.

And the Federal Communications Commission, led by Trump-appointed chair Brendan Carr, opened an investigation in February into the DEI policies of Comcast and NBCUniversal, weeks after Trump signed an executive order aimed at encouraging the private sector to dismantle “illegal DEI discrimination and preferences.”

Carr also accused Comcast this month of “news distortion” for its coverage of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland resident whose mistaken deportation has come under sharp criticism. The FCC has narrow authority to investigate deliberate distortion by broadcasters.

“Comcast outlets spent days misleading the American public — implying that Abrego Garcia was merely a law abiding U.S. citizen, just a regular ‘Maryland man,‘" Carr said on X last week.

The U.S. Supreme Court has ordered the Trump administration to facilitate Abrego Garcia’s return from a prison in El Salvador. Despite ICE calling the deportation “an administrative error,” Trump administration officials have bristled at media coverage of the case and sought to portray Abrego Garcia as a member of MS-13, a claim federal judges have found unsubstantiated, according to PolitiFact.

Other companies with local footprints being investigated by the FCC include Disney and ABC, and NPR and PBS.

In addition to Comcast’s donation, another $1 million to Trump’s inauguration came from EWB Services, an obscure corporate entity that listed a mailing address near Philadelphia’s Rittenhouse Square.

A Florida-based corporation registered under the same name lists Stefan E. Brodie as its sole officer. The businessman, who cofounded global resin manufacturer Purolite, listed the same Rittenhouse mailing address on other donations to Republicans last year, including a GOP battleground fund and U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas.