Advertisement - scroll for more content
The team is owned by a company established by Richard DeVos, the father-in-law of former President Donald Trump's secretary of education Betsy DeVos. It's chaired by her brother-in-law, Dan DeVos, who donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to the National Republican Congressional Committee in 2023, records show. A representative from the Orlando Magic told Insider the company does not "publicly comment on political contributions."
Sources who know the DeVos family pointed to those statements of solidarity with the Magic’s players, as well as the Magic’s rush to convert the Amway Center into a polling place, as proof that their well-publicized political affiliations aren’t necessarily representative of their personal beliefs. (DeVos’s sister-in-law, Betsy DeVos, is the U.S. secretary of education. Betsy’s brother, Erik Prince, founded the controversial private military force formerly known as Blackwater, now called Academi.) That position becomes harder to defend, however, when considering their one-sided political donations.
So far towards this election, Trump only has four NBA donors, all members of ownership groups. The highest of those donations is $5,600 from Orlando Magic chairman Dan DeVos, a name that might sound familiar as Betsy Devos, Dan’s sister-in-law, is Trump’s Secretary of Education. Other NBA donations for Trump thus far are $2,800 Indiana Pacers vice-chairman James Morris, $200 from Houston Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta and $318.75 from Los Angeles Lakers part-owner James Buss. In total, Trump has raised $8,918.75 from NBA donors.
A new petition is calling on President Trump to give Education Secretary Betsy DeVos the boot — in favor of LeBron James. The Care2 petition first posted Tuesday afternoon has garnered more than 4,400 signatures so far.
It was Richard DeVos, founder of Amway and owner of the Orlando Magic, who led the pack in spending among NBA owners in 2016. He and his wife, Helen, donated $3.9 million to Republican election efforts. They skirted Trump in the primary, giving $250,000 each to super PACs supporting Ted Cruz, Jeb Bush, and Carly Fiorina. (They also donated directly to Cruz, Bush and Scott Walker.) DeVos added another $750,000 to a super PAC started by the Trump-averse conservative Koch network, Freedom Partners Action Fund. But DeVos came around to Trump in the general election with a $70,000 check to his joint fundraising committee, Trump Victory. His daughter-in-law, Betsy DeVos, now serves as Trump’s education secretary. DeVos and his wife have been the biggest spenders among NBA owners for years. Since 1989, they’ve doled out $7.3 million to federal candidates, party committees, and outside spending groups.
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement