> How a $45 Million "Donation" Brought Larry Ellison Deeper Into Trump’s Circle

Ellison gave roughly $45 million to a political nonprofit group supporting Trump’s election efforts in 2024, according to people familiar with the fundraising. Such funding isn’t subject to disclosure rules and hasn’t been previously reported.

While Larry Ellison wasn’t at the Ultimate Fighting Championship event at the White House this month, his son, David Ellison, was among the VIPs there. It took place days after a decision by the Justice Department to clear the $81 billion takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery by his company, Paramount Skydance. The spectacle was streamed by Paramount, which under David Ellison’s leadership paid billions of dollars for the rights to UFC events.

The Ellisons have cultivated a symbiotic friendship with Trump. Larry Ellison and the president share ideological beliefs in support of Israel and critical of some mainstream media. David Ellison bought the Free Press in 2025 and installed the news and opinion startup’s co-founder Bari Weiss atop CBS News, where she has made significant changes to staffing and programming. A merger with Warner would add CNN to the Ellison fold.

The president has publicly praised David Ellison. “You’re going to be a great success,” Trump recently said on stage when he saw the scion in a Miami crowd. “You’re going to blow away your father, and he’ll be very happy about that because he loves you.”

While Trump and Larry Ellison often communicate by phone, Ellison has shifted his home base to Florida and is known to visit Mar-a-Lago. His official residence is now an oceanfront estate in Manalapan, Fla., which he bought for $173 million in 2022. It is about a 20-minute drive from Trump’s club.

Larry Ellison is close with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, with whom Trump has had a longstanding rapport. Steve Witkoff, U.S. special envoy to the Middle East, helped forge Ellison’s close ties to Trump, according to a person familiar with the relationship.

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