An Irish tech entrepreneur has donated around $200,000 (€193,000) to campaigns supporting Donald Trump and the Republican Party in the United States, official filings show.
The Federal Electoral Commission in the US reveal that Eoghan McCabe, chief executive and co-founder of Intercom, made two donations of $50,000 to the Trump 47 Committee.
This was a joint fundraiser between Mr Trump’s campaign for president, the Republican National Committee (RNC) and state party committees.
The payments are recorded as being made in May 2024 when Mr Trump was the Republican Party’s presumptive nominee to be its candidate for the presidency.
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Separately filings show that Mr McCabe, who is now a US citizen, made three donations totalling just over $85,000 (nearly €83,000) to the RNC this year.
This is the main committee of the Republican Party in the United States with responsibility for developing its brand and political policy as well as assisting with fund raising and electoral strategy. It is also responsible for organising the party’s national convention which takes place every four years and determines formally on its candidates for president.
The filing also show that Mr McCabe made three payments of $3,300 (€3,200) to another Trump campaign fund raising vehicle, Never Surrender Inc last year.
The Federal Election Commission filing also show a $5,000 donation to another fund raising campaign, Save America, which Mr Trump created in the days following his defeat in the 2020 presidential election.
A spokesman for Mr McCabe and Intercom, which makes software to help businesses communicate with their customers, was not immediately available for comment on Monday.
In June this year, Mr McCabe posted a picture on social media platform X with Mr Trump at a fundraising event held by high-profile American entrepreneur and tech investor David Sacks in San Francisco.
The event raised $12 million for Trump, according to Sacks, with attendees reported to have included crypto asset investors Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss and venture capitalist Shervin Pishevar.
In a picture posted to his X account, a smiling Mr McCabe stood side by side with Trump in front of an American flag, with matching thumbs-up gestures. In the accompanying post, the Intercom cofounder claimed he had spoken to six people at the event. None of them, he said, identified as Republican. “All voted or donated Democrat in the past. Now they are backing this guy for his policies on war, immigration, crypto, and more. This is a referendum on those issues.”
Intercom was founded in Dublin in 2011 by Mr McCabe, Des Traynor, Ciarán Lee and David Barrett, and has a presence in Ireland and in the US.
Customers include Microsoft, Amazon, Aer Lingus, Scottish Power, Eurotherm, Atlassian, Shopify and New Relic. The business became a tech unicorn in 2018 after raising $125 million in a fundraising that valued it at $1.28 billion.
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