The biggest check to Donald Trump’s 2025 inaugural committee came from the meat processing company Pilgrim’s Pride, the same company that pleaded guilty to conspiring to fix chicken prices in 2021.
The company, which boasts that it produces almost one in every six chickens in the U.S., donated $5 million to Trump’s inauguration. In 2021, Pilgrim’s Pride reached a plea agreement with the Department of Justice’s antitrust division over a conspiracy to rig chicken prices, and agreed to pay a $107 million fine.
Two Brazilian billionaire brothers hold a majority stake in Pilgrim’s. Their related investment company also pleaded guilty in 2020 to charges over bribing government officials and was forced to pay out $256 million under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Trump in February paused enforcement of the act.