UPDATED: April 21, 2025 at 5:56 PM EDT
A handful of Maryland business owners donated more than $2 million to the Trump administration’s 2025 inauguration, a Baltimore Sun analysis of federal records shows.
Most Marylanders whose names appear in the public filing are private citizens whose businesses deal with government contracts or investment, research shows. Several regular political donors also appeared, as did a handful of businesses, and a donor whose previous donations to the first Trump inauguration led to additional access to the Trump family and National Security Council officials.
The Trump Vance Inauguration Committee raised just under a quarter of a billion dollars for this inauguration in total, with more than 120 people or businesses donating more than $1 million apiece. The amount raised roughly doubled what donors gave for President Donald J. Trump’s 2017 inauguration, and far exceeded the fundraising for any other inauguration in the history of the country.
In 2001, George W. Bush raised $30 million for his inauguration; in 2009 and 2013, Barack H. Obama raised $53 million and $43 million, respectively, for his inaugurations, (falling short of his goal of $50 million the second time around). And in 2021, Joseph R. Biden raised $62 million.
Federal law requires the committee report donor names and dollar amounts for contributions of $200 or more within 90 days of the swearing-in ceremony, which takes place Jan. 20. It does not need to say how the funds were spent.
Other states saw a number of big-name donors contribute to Trump’s most recent inauguration, including tech giants such as Amazon and Meta. After reviewing the inauguration committee’s latest Federal Election Commission (FEC) filing, The Sun found that seven named donors listed a Maryland address.
Donor with ties to Turkey, Venezuela
Most Maryland donors listed in the FEC filing donated under $100,000. However, two of the seven donated $1 million to the inauguration of the 47th president: Nnenna Peters of Potomac, and Riadh Wadie Habboush of Glenn Dale.
Habboush, identified as Riadh W. Habboush in the donation list, also goes by R.W. Habboush, chairman and member of Habboush Group, a privately-held investment management group whose website lists locations in New York, London, Istanbul and Dubai.
According to his bio on the group website, Habboush specializes in managing energy and infrastructure investments.
Earlier reports show that after Habboush donated to Trump’s first inauguration, his family ended up with new access to high-ranking officials.
In 2017, Habboush donated $1 million to the first Trump inauguration in two chunks more than a week apart, per FEC filings. The Sun reviewed all FEC filings for Habboush; before his 2017 donations, he had not donated to any political candidates. The Sun did not find any FEC filings for donations to any politician or committee save the two Trump inaugurations.
A Washington Post article describing the first inauguration noted that Habboush’s son, lawyer Wadie Habboush, was seated next to Trump’s then-chief of staff, Reince Priebus.
“Wadie Habboush, who at the time worked with his father in energy consulting, was listed in internal documents as a guest of ‘DJT,’” the article read.
According to multiple outlets, several weeks later, Wadie Habboush met with National Security Council officials at the White House, and offered to negotiate a deal between the U.S. and Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
At the time, Venezuela was under heavy sanctions by the U.S., some of which the Trump Administration recently announced it will soon reimpose.
In addition, nonpartisan, nonprofit investigative news outlet CREW reported in 2019 that Wadie appeared at a GOP donor events several months later, bringing with him Emrullah Turanli, a Turkish businessman who is considered a close ally of Erdogan. Turlani spent time at the event speaking with Trump, social media shows.
Habboush did not return an email or phone calls asking why he donated $1 million to the Trump inauguration, and if he or his family members attended the inauguration.
When reached by phone by The Sun, Peters, who also donated $1 million to the 2025 inauguration, records show, declined to confirm the donation, say why she donated said amount, or if she had attended the inauguration.
Various websites list Peters as owner of a small import-export business, however, she denied that to The Sun before ending the call.
Donations of $50,000 or less
Among the smaller donors were former military members and active politicians or political donors.
Former Qualcomm vice president Mark Epstein and Amoretta (Amie) Hoeber, a board of elections member in Montgomery County, are both listed as having donated $25,000 to the inaugural fund; once in Epstein’s name and once in Hoeber’s name. (Hoeber’s name is misspelled as Hueber in the filing.)
The two are married. However, Hoeber, a defense consultant and former deputy undersecretary of the Army in the Reagan administration, said that she did not donate to the campaign, and that Epstein donated the second $25,000 in her name. She said they keep separate finances.
Epstein confirmed that he had donated in both their names. He declined to comment other than saying that they were out of town at the time of the inauguration and did not attend.
Before he worked for Qualcomm, Epstein served as the deputy for communications, command, control and intelligence in the office of the secretary of the U.S. Army, where he was responsible for the U.S. Army’s communications, surveillance, electronic warfare and intelligence systems, a 1997 Qualcomm press release celebrating Epstein’s promotion said.
Epstein has previously donated $1.4 million to a super PAC for Maryland politicians when Hoeber was running for office in the state, The Washington Post reported in 2016.
Ali John Shoraka, co-founder and CEO of Strategic Growth Partners LLC, a company that helps small business government contractors procure contracts and maintain compliance with federal regulations, donated $1,033.06 to the inauguration. Shoraka did not respond to a request for comment.
Finally, VDNA Trading LLC, a company with a misspelled Maryland address on its website, a fake phone number (a call to the number listed, 123-456-7890, resulted only in an error message), and no information about what it does and who does it, contributed $50,000 to the Trump 2025 inauguration, filings show.
The business was registered in Maryland in 2012 by Ohio-based Nick Bardosa, with Shawn Moody as the resident agent. It is in good standing, according to filings on the Maryland Business Express, and is headquartered in Laurel.
An email to the business requesting comment was not returned. No phone number is listed on the website; the original owner of the business, Nick Bardosa, died in 2020, and Moody’s number is unlisted. The woman who answered Bardosa’s former phone number hung up on a reporter.
Combined, these seven contributed $2,101,033.06.
Gunster Strategies, a lobbying firm based in Bethesda, donated $50,000 to the inauguration, but it was returned, according to a separate filing for refunded donations.
Kate Cimini is the investigative editor at The Baltimore Sun. Contact her at 443-842-2621 or
kcimini@baltsun.com.
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