Oracle isn’t quite a household name on par with other American technology companies such as Microsoft, Meta or Apple.

But Oracle nevertheless ranks among the most influential corporate forces in America — something underscored by the leading role the company is poised to play in President Donald Trump’s deal to decouple TikTok’s U.S. operations from its Chinese parent, ByteDance.

Oracle is slated to house the data of American TikTok users on its cloud computing servers. The Trump administration has also confirmed that Oracle will be a cornerstone partner and investor in the new TikTok spin-off entity, which will oversee the security and algorithm that undergirds the social video platform.

Dave Levinthal breaks down six ways Oracle has helped make itself a political force in Washington, D.C.

Energy Secretary Chris Wright is a longtime fossil fuel advocate and outspoken critic of climate policy. During his confirmation hearing he denounced the so-called “green new scam” — climate-preservations proposals he sees as costly and ineffective. Instead, Wright has endorsed a multiresource strategy that combines finite sources like oil, gas, and coal with nuclear, hydropower and other resources to meet the nation’s energy needs.

In 1992, Wright founded Pinnacle Technologies, a company that pioneered shale gas extraction through fracking. Wright served as CEO of Pinnacle and chairman of Stroud Energy, also involved in the extraction of shale gas, until 2006. 

Wright then founded the oilfield services company Liberty Energy (first known as Liberty Oilfield Services) in 2011. Eight years later, Wright and the “Liberty Team” took to social media to demonstrate the safety of fracking to pro-climate critics by drinking fracking fluid, which contains a cocktail of bleach, soap and hazardous chemicals. The company reportedly fracks 20 percent of U.S. onshore wells today. 

His appointment to the Department of Energy is his first governmental position (other than a stint on the board of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York from 2020 to 2024), and he has vowed to help lead a nation ready to “drill, baby, drill.”

Carolyn Neugarten took a deep dive into Wright's background and efforts to influence politics.

Another member of Congress — this time, a Republican who represents a swath of suburbs north of Atlanta — has violated a conflict-of-interest and transparency law with botched stock-trade disclosures.

Rep. Rich McCormick of Georgia failed to properly report his purchases of two dozen individual stocks from March 2023, according to Dave Levinthal's analysis of congressional financial disclosure records.

McCormick last year disclosed the trades in his annual personal financial report to Congress, which all members of Congress are mandated to submit. 

But he waited almost two and a half years past a separate 45-day federal deadline for publicly revealing details about individual stock trades in what are known as “periodic transaction reports,” as required by the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act of 2012. The PTRs are a “contemporaneous reporting requirement” designed by Congress to ensure the public can quickly determine whether a lawmaker’s personal financial trades conflict with their public duties.

Taken together, McCormick’s stock purchases are worth between $24,024 and $360,000. (Lawmakers are only required to disclose the value of their stock trades in broad ranges.)

A second-term lawmaker, McCormick is a member of the Armed Services Committee, Foreign Affairs Committee and Science, Space and Technology Committee; some of the transactions involve shares of companies whose industries fall under the jurisdiction of one or more of these committees.

McCormick’s congressional office acknowledged a phone inquiry from OpenSecrets but did not otherwise respond to follow-up phone messages or emailed questions.

The congressman’s stock disclosure snafu coincides with a bipartisan push in Congress to ban federal lawmakers from trading stocks altogether.

One of Congress’ Most Active Stock Traders Is Selling Off All Her Individual Stocks (NOTUS)

Lutnick’s Family Firm Holds Stake in China-Tied Satellogic (Sludge)

Here’s what happens when big-time lobbyists become big-name Trump officials (Politico)

DCCC crushes NRCC in August fundraising (Punchbowl News)

Jimmy Kimmel's return dials up the heat of Disney's fight with local broadcasters (Business Insider)

Sinclair is controlled by executive chairman David Smith and his family, who've long supported the Republican Party. As Sinclair's CEO, Smith told Trump in 2016 that "we are here to deliver your message," The Guardian reported. Sinclair then told its local news anchors to deliver public service messages warning about "biased and false news" after Trump critiqued the media. Nexstar is generally seen in the industry as less political, though founder and CEO Perry Sook has historically donated to Republicans far more often than Democrats, per OpenSecrets.

How Jimmy Kimmel Might Have Just Been Sacrificed for a Multibillion-Dollar TV Deal (The Hollywood Reporter)

Sook’s role on one side of one of the most rancorously partisan Hollywood-Washington fights in decades is unexpected. The tycoon can be hard to pin down politically. According to OpenSecrets, he has made campaign contributions to a mix of Republican and Democrat Congressional candidates over the years, from Mitch McConnell and Greg Walden on the right to Patrick Leahy and Chuck Schumer on the left. And ironically, Sook has often tried to find the middle ground between ideological poles at NewsNation, which he has pitched both inside and outside the industry as sitting appealingly between MSNBC and Fox News.

Is Larry Ellison Building a MAGA Media Empire? (Newsweek)

Separately, it's notable that Paramount and Warner Bros. fall under the ownership of David Ellison, who is not an ideological clone of his dad. While he has appointed Keneth R. Weinstein of the right-leaning Hudson Institute as CBS ombudsman and is said to eyeing a purchase of the center-right Free Press news outlet, the younger Ellison has made 56 donations since 2024 — all of which have gone to Democrats, including Vice President Kamala Harris, according to OpenSecrets.

Ukrainian refugee’s train stabbing death becomes early flashpoint in 2026 North Carolina Senate race (The Associated Press)

Some pundits think spending in next year’s race could reach $1 billion, blowing past the $515.5 million spent overall on a U.S. Senate race in Georgia in 2020 won by Democrat Jon Ossoff in a runoff, according to data from Open Secrets, which tracks political spending.

Everytown wants stricter laws on guns. Now, they’ll also teach you to use one. (USA Today)

Last year, Everytown spent about $2.3 million on lobbying the federal government, according to Open Secrets. That’s compared to $7 million by the National Shooting Sports Foundation or $2.4 million by the Gun Owners of America or $2 million by the NRA.

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