Did Sephora illegally donate funds to Trump's campaign

Question

Large corporations like Sephora are not allowed to send money directly to candidates, causing controversy when allegations surfaced of Sephora doing just that

Answer 1

Excellent use of CBS News as a source to fact-check! The threads post that made the allegation of Sephora illegally donating funds to Trump's campaign is not based on any verifiable or truthful source. According to USA Today, who conducted their own investigation on the subject, The Federal Election Campaign Act prohibits corporations from donating to federal candidates. A campaign finance tracking website called OpenSecrets confirms that the company did not contribute to Trump's campaign. It is important to use proper discernment and reliable publications to ascertain what allegations are true or not.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2024/11/19/sephora-donate-trump-campaign-fact-check/76410828007/

Comments

Good use of finding an external source! It does indeed look like the allegations weren't true, though it would have been illegal for the corporation to donate to Trump's campaign. I appreciate the breakdown of the Usatoday and original post's claims in your comment.

Answer 2

The claim that Sephora has illegally donated funds to Trump's campaign is false. Like you state in your claim, corporations are not allowed to use general revenue to fund a political campaigns, which many social media users on multiple platforms claimed Sephora was guilty of. The conglomerate that owns Sephora, LVMH, has had affiliates who have legally donated to campaigns during the 2024 election. Luckily for us, this is public information as the FEC requires donations greater than $100 must be reported to the public. In this past election, LVMH amassed $78,601 from individual donors. Affiliates of Sephora -specifically- donated $25,481 to Democratic causes, and only $1,008 to Republicans. Not only was this all completely legal, but over 95% of the donations were sent to Democratic causes. 

All claims that I could find of the statement that Sephora donated large sums to the Trump campaign come from social media posts that don't have any source or context attached. Though the claim was viewed more than 13 million times on TikTok and spread around the website, none of the claims I could find had any evidence to them.

Comments

I appreciate your claim and specifically your use of numbers and statistics on donations to Republican and Democratic causes, however I wish that you had included links to your information. You state that "" none of the claims I could find had any evidence to them", but did you find any evidence against them? And where? I found an article from USA Today on the matter, which states: "Corporations may set up political committees, called PACs, through which their employees can donate to campaigns, but the publicly available donation information for Sephora's parent company, LVMH, shows this wasn't the case".

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2024/11/19/sephora-donate-trump-campaign-fact-check/76410828007/

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Your fact check was extremely well-researched but linking to show exactly what you're talking about would be extremely helpful.

Answer 3

The claim suggests that Sephora, a large corporation, donated funds to Trump's campaign, which would be illegal under U.S. law. The source provided is a CBS News article stating that Sephora did not donate to Trump's campaign. The CBS News article is a reputable source known for its journalistic standards. However, it's important to cross-check this information with other reliable sources to ensure accuracy.

• USA Today: A fact-check by USA Today confirms that Sephora did not donate to Trump's campaign. The article explains that while some of Sephora's employees and their immediate family members donated to Trump, the company itself did not. It is illegal for corporations to donate directly to political campaigns.

• MSN: Another article on MSN reiterates that Sephora and other large retailers have refuted claims of political donations amid calls for boycotts.

The claim appears to have originated from social media posts and online discussions following Trump's election win. These posts falsely attributed corporate donations to Sephora without evidence. The claim that Sephora illegally donated funds to Trump's campaign is false. Multiple reputable sources, including USA Today and MSN have confirmed that Sephora did not make any such donations. The confusion likely arose from individual donations made by employees, which are legal and separate from corporate donations.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2024/11/19/sephora-donate-trump-campaign-fact-check/76410828007/

https://www.yahoo.com/news/no-sephora-did-not-donate-192914891.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAANH4frm3sIe_mIkRRrkv1lLhz1xn9k1VfpUrhDzh4VDEL1C8RwhV53z4hrQ92s8GgffvRrqo5EUGu2U_yZu8FrYMFfELYRHR1Uzvj02QV0nwmZOYMvL1f3bgYbuxqEWLxiA1pohjtdWBKfICNI_Qf1S48LKFNxixApCcJj-Leend