Follow the Money — Guided Tour
The database has 1,200+ profiles. This is where to start. Each trail follows the money through a different slice of the political system — from donor to politician to policy outcome. Pick one and follow the links.
Trail 1: The Cuba Fuel Blockade — Imperialism With Receipts
On March 16, 2026, Cuba’s national power grid collapsed entirely. Ten million people lost electricity. The cause: Operation Southern Spear — a U.S. naval blockade that intercepted fuel shipments to the island while sanctions eliminated every alternative supply. By late March, 47 vessels had been struck, hospitals suspended non-urgent surgeries, schools closed, and the UN condemned the operation as “a serious violation of international law.”
The Secretary of State managing this policy is Marco Rubio — a man whose entire political career was funded by the people who profit from Cuba’s destruction. Start with the Fanjul family: the Florida sugar dynasty that maintains U.S. sugar prices at double the world market through tariff-rate quotas. A functioning Cuban sugar industry is the single largest threat to their price structure. Their 2024 political spending: $2.9 million. They hosted Trump’s $50 million conviction-day fundraiser.
Then follow the infrastructure play: the LARA Fund — a $750M private equity vehicle targeting “undervalued real assets” in the Caribbean, run by Mauricio Claver-Carone, who designed Cuba maximum-pressure policy as Trump’s NSC Senior Director, served as IDB president ($170B portfolio), got fired for ethics violations, was reappointed as Special Envoy, then returned to the fund that profits from the distress his policies created. The revolving door is the mechanism.
Then the legislative shield: Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart — Vice Chair of House Appropriations, top congressional recipient of Fanjul money — writes the spending bills that fund the blockade and prohibit any policy reversal.
The OFAC “wedge”: on February 25, 2026, Treasury issued FAQ 1238 — a “favorable licensing policy” allowing fuel resale to Cuba’s private sector only. State hospitals, public water systems, refrigeration for 10 million people — excluded. The structural outcome is forced privatization of energy survival. Whoever controls fuel access controls the island’s economic future. The same policy that blocks state fuel creates the conditions under which private capital acquires Cuban infrastructure at fire-sale prices.
Then on March 31 — the same day the humanitarian crisis dominated international headlines — Trump allowed a Russian tanker carrying 700,000 barrels to dock at Matanzas, saying “They have to survive.” The administration that engineered the blockade gave itself the humanitarian release valve. The contradiction reveals the strategy: not destruction, but controlled pressure that produces a negotiating partner willing to accept terms set by U.S.-aligned capital.
This is not diplomacy. This is the donor-to-policy pipeline operating at the scale of a nation’s survival. Sugar money in, fuel blockade out, infrastructure acquisition pending. Timestamped and sourced.
Read the full investigation → · Rubio · Fanjul Family · LARA Fund · Diaz-Balart
Trail 2: Wall Street Owns the Senate
Start with the man who runs the Democratic Senate: Chuck Schumer — the top Wall Street recipient in the entire Congress, with four documented donation-to-policy sequences and $230M+ flowing through his Senate Majority PAC. Follow his funding to Goldman Sachs and the securities industry. Then read The Wall Street-Schumer Funding Axis to see the pipeline in full.
Compare Schumer to his Republican counterpart McConnell — different party, overlapping donors, the same Wall Street deregulation outcomes. Then see how the pipeline extends through Jim Himes — a former Goldman Sachs VP who now chairs the House Intelligence Committee — and Mark Warner — the wealthiest senator, a tech billionaire overseeing the industry he came from.
The investigation: Goldman Sachs Funds Both Sides of Financial Regulation — how one firm buys deregulation from both parties simultaneously.
Trail 3: The Defense Money Pipeline
Start with Lockheed Martin — 20 documented donation-to-policy sequences across both parties. Follow the defense money to Jeanne Shaheen — five defense contractors in her top 20 donors, sitting on Foreign Relations, Armed Services, and Appropriations simultaneously. Then Martin Heinrich — a former weapons lab contractor who now chairs the committees that fund the labs.
See how the lobbying arm delivers the ask: Akin Gump, BGR Group, and Cornerstone Government Affairs all represent defense clients while their former staffers sit on the committees that write the defense budget.
The pattern: Every senator on Armed Services or Appropriations is a defense industry investment. The donations flow to the committees that control the spending. The spending flows to the companies that make the donations. The cycle repeats every fiscal year.
Trail 4: Big Pharma vs. Everyone
Start with PhRMA — the pharmaceutical industry’s $254M+ political spending operation — and Pfizer. Then read Chris Coons — third-highest pharma recipient in the Senate, patent maximalist who opposed COVID vaccine patent sharing. Compare him to Elizabeth Warren — the most detailed profile in the database, documenting how the CFPB was created and then systematically destroyed by the industries it regulated.
See how the think tanks provide intellectual cover: Manhattan Institute and American Enterprise Institute generate the policy language against drug price regulation. Then watch the lobbying firms deliver it: Forbes Tate Partners and Capitol Counsel represent pharma clients on Capitol Hill.
The investigation: PhRMA Kills Drug Negotiation From Both Sides — how the industry prevents the same reform under both Democratic and Republican administrations.
Trail 5: Dark Money Left and Right
Start with the right: Koch Network → Americans for Prosperity → Heritage Foundation → Federalist Society → Leonard Leo → Judicial Crisis Network. Follow the pipeline from billionaire donors through think tanks and legal networks to Supreme Court appointments.
Then mirror it on the left: Arabella Advisors → Sixteen Thirty Fund → Demand Justice → Democracy Alliance. Different names, same structure — dark money flowing through 501(c)(4) nonprofits that don’t disclose donors.
Read Sheldon Whitehouse — the Democrat who documented the right-wing dark money pipeline in his “scheme” speeches. Then notice: he hasn’t introduced legislation to shut down the left-wing version.
The investigation: Koch vs. Soros — Mirror Image Dark Money Machines — the structural symmetry neither party acknowledges.
Trail 6: The Supreme Court Was Purchased
Start with Leonard Leo and the Federalist Society. Follow the money through Judicial Crisis Network and the confirmation campaigns. Then read the justices: Clarence Thomas ($4.75M in documented Harlan Crow gifts over 30 years), Samuel Alito (the $100K+ Fisher trip that preceded a $2.4B Argentina case), Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, Amy Coney Barrett.
See how the think tanks built the pipeline: Federalist Society, Heritage Foundation (Project 2025’s origin), Claremont Institute (the intellectual architecture of constitutional originalism).
The pattern: The Supreme Court’s conservative majority was built through a 40-year investment. The return — Citizens United, Dobbs, Chevron deference — reshaped American law in the donors’ favor. This is the longest-running money trail in the database.
Trail 7: The Trump Cabinet Is a Donor Map
Start with Trump — the most documented individual in the database — and follow the money to his cabinet: Howard Lutnick (Wall Street), Scott Bessent (hedge fund), Chris Wright (fossil fuel), Doug Burgum (billionaire self-funder), Linda McMahon ($100M+ Trump donor), Vivek Ramaswamy (pharma/tech).
Then follow the policy portfolios: David Sacks (crypto AI czar), Pete Hegseth (Fox News-to-Pentagon), Russell Vought (Project 2025). See how Elon Musk positioned DOGE as a vehicle for dismantling the regulatory agencies that oversee his companies.
The pattern: Every major donor got a cabinet seat or a policy portfolio. The money trail from campaign donation to executive branch appointment is shorter than in any previous administration.
Trail 8: The Consent Machine
This trail goes through the parallel pipelines — the infrastructure that manufactures public support for donor-class policy outcomes.
Start with the media: Ben Shapiro and the Daily Wire — funded by fracking billionaires Dan and Farris Wilks, broadcasting the deregulation message to millions. Tucker Carlson — the populist brand concealing a trust fund heir’s class interests. Tim Pool — caught taking Russian money through Tenet Media. Compare them to Joe Rogan — the most powerful media gatekeeper in American politics, whose platform amplifies donor-class candidates while maintaining an outsider brand.
Then the think tanks that generate the talking points: Heritage Foundation writes Project 2025. Cato Institute generates the libertarian policy framework. Center for American Progress provides the Democratic version. Brookings Institution provides the centrist version. Different ideologies, same donor class funding the research.
Then the lobbyists who deliver the ask: Alpine Group, BGR Group, Ballard Partners. The revolving door percentages show how many staffers cycle between Congress, regulatory agencies, and K Street.
The pattern: The same donors who fund the politicians also fund the media that manufactures consent, the think tanks that generate policy language, and the lobbyists who deliver the ask. Four pipelines, one donor class.
Trail 9: The Israel Lobby
Start with AIPAC — the most powerful single-issue lobby in American politics. Follow the money to DMFI, United Democracy Project, and Haim Saban. Then read how the lobby money maps onto votes: Schumer ($3.4M+ career), Jeffries, Netanyahu’s American funding network.
The investigation: AIPAC Locks Bipartisan Israel Policy — how one lobby enforces policy consensus across both parties through primary enforcement spending.
Where to Go Next
Browse by Pattern — Explore the database by analytical pattern: Revolving Door, Two-Audience Problem, Donor-Class Override, Dark Money Symmetry.
Politicians Index — Every politician, organized by party and chamber.
Donors & Power Networks Index — Every donor, organized by sector.
About The Donor Map — The mission, the methodology, and why this exists.
The Donor Map Database — Back to the homepage.
content-readiness:: ready