Washington, D.C. — U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), along with Representative Melanie Stansbury (D-N.M.), released a response from SoftBank Group (SoftBank) confirming that SoftBank donated $50 million to President Trump’s Presidential Library fund and revealing for the first time that it came just two months prior to the Trump administration’s announcement of a massive land lease deal for a SoftBank data center. The response indicated that the $50 million donation was made in January 2026; the lease agreement was announced in March 2026.

This sequence of events raises significant concerns about potential corruption, and whether SoftBank’s donation was an attempt to buy favorable treatment from President Trump and the Trump Administration.

In December 2025, it was reported that there were ongoing talks between SoftBank and the Trump administration around a plan involving hundreds of billions of dollars from a Japanese-U.S. trade deal to build Trump-branded industrial parks around the country.
In January 2026, it was reported that SoftBank’s plan was on the short list of candidates for Japan’s $550 billion investment in the United States.
That same month, SoftBank donated $50 million to President Trump’s Presidential Library project, making it the largest publicly reported contribution to the Library.
On March 20, 2026, the U.S. Department of Energy and Department of Commerce announced a public-private partnership with SoftBank which allows SoftBank to build a data center using up to 10 GW of energy—enough electricity to power around 10,000,000 homes—on federal land, circumventing normal permitting requirements and other regulatory processes for what will be one of the largest data centers in the U.S.

Additionally, SoftBank is “one of the largest AI investors in the world” and has benefited from other actions following their donation, including President Trump’s decision to weaken a June 2026 executive order regulating the AI industry.

“Are we expected to believe it’s a coincidence that two months after SoftBank donated $50 million to the Trump library, his administration announced a massive lease deal for SoftBank’s data center? Again and again, it seems like Trump is putting handshake deals with CEOs over what’s best for Americans,” said Senator Warren.

This timeline was uncovered by Senator Warren, Senator Blumenthal, and Representative Stansbury’s investigation into these reports, which included a probe asking the SoftBank CEO, Mr. Masayoshi Son, to explain the company’s decision to contribute and whether it was made in exchange for any promises by the Trump administration.

Senator Warren has led the fight to prevent the Trump family from using the Trump Presidential Library for corrupt pay-to-play deals:

In July 2026, Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Representative Melanie Stansbury (D-N.M.) probed the Donald J. Trump Presidential Library Foundation after financial disclosures revealed at least $6.5 million and up to $14.5 million in missing funds, as well as an additional $7 million in unexplained expenditures.
In April 2026, Senators Warren (D-Mass.) and Blumenthal (D-Conn.), along with Representative Stansbury (D-N.M.), released new responses from Big Tech CEOs indicating that they have no public explanation for where as much as $63 million in settlement money to Donald Trump’s now-dissolved Presidential Library fund has gone. The lawmakers followed up with a new letter to President Donald Trump pressing for answers to solve the ongoing mystery of the missing millions.
In March 2026, Senators Warren (D-Mass.) and Blumenthal (D-Conn.), along with Representative Melanie Stansbury (D-N.M.), pressed ABC, Meta, X, and Paramount on their settlements with President Donald Trump, in which the companies promised to donate as much as $63 million to President Trump’s future Presidential Library.
In July 2025, Senators Warren (D-Mass.) and Blumenthal (D-Conn.), along with Representatives Moskowitz (D-Fla.), Raskin (D-Md.), and Stansbury (D-N.M.), unveiled the Presidential Library Anti-Corruption Act to close loopholes that allow presidential libraries to be used as tools for corruption and bribery.
In July 2025, Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) released a new report exposing how companies, special interests, and foreign governments may be pledging donations to President Trump’s future Presidential Library as a corrupt tool to secure favorable outcomes from his administration.

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