Money Grab/Charge for access to the president
Nursing-home chains give MAGA Inc. $4.8M and HHS repeals the staffing rule
The New York Times reported in January 2026 that nursing-home companies gave nearly $4.8 million to MAGA Inc. beginning in August 2025, and that the largest donors lunched with Trump at his Virginia golf club to urge repeal of the 2024 minimum-staffing rule. Within about a month, administration lawyers stopped defending it in court.
What happened
In 2024 the Biden administration finalized the first federal minimum-staffing rule for nursing homes: a registered nurse on site 24 hours a day and set hours of care per resident. The industry sued. In July 2025 Congress, in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, barred HHS from enforcing it until 2034.
Beginning in August 2025, nursing-home companies gave nearly $4.8 million to MAGA Inc., Trump’s super PAC, the New York Times reported in January 2026. The biggest donors and the industry’s lobbyists then had lunch with Trump at his golf club in Virginia, where, according to the head of Saber Healthcare, they urged him to “formally repeal the harmful minimum staffing mandate” rather than leave it suspended.
Within about a month, the Justice Department stopped defending the rule in court. On December 3, 2025, CMS published an interim final rule repealing it, skipping the usual notice-and-comment period and citing the congressional moratorium.
Who benefited
The nursing-home chains no longer face a rule that would have required them to hire tens of thousands of nurses and aides. Saber Healthcare and the other donors got the specific outcome their chief executive said they asked for.
Who wanted something
The industry had fought the rule in Congress, in court and at lunch. The moratorium already stopped enforcement until 2034; repeal removed the possibility that a future administration could simply lift the pause. The donations to MAGA Inc. came to nearly $4.8 million.
Who lost out
CMS’s own estimate was that the standard would prevent about 13,000 deaths a year. Nursing-home staff would have had more colleagues on each shift. The people who would have commented on the repeal were not given the chance.
Why it matters
The money is in FEC filings, the lunch is described by a participant, and the repeal is in the Federal Register dated December 3, 2025. Three other entries in the record follow the same sequence, a donation and then a rule removed.
Sources Federal Register (CMS) (primary)The New York Times (via Election Law Blog)Skilled Nursing News