Home Depot, as a company, does not support Donald Trump. Its corporate policy is to stay out of presidential races entirely: the company does not endorse presidential candidates, and its employee-funded political action committee has never sent money to a presidential campaign. The reason people keep asking the question is that two of Home Depot’s co-founders, Bernie Marcus and Ken Langone, have personally donated tens of millions of dollars to Trump and Republican causes. Those are individual choices by retired founders, not corporate acts. A third co-founder, Arthur Blank, is a major Democratic donor. The company and the men who built it are not the same thing.
What Home Depot the Company Actually Does
Home Depot’s official policy is unusually blunt for a large retailer. The company states that its PAC has a “longstanding practice” of not supporting or endorsing presidential candidates or presidential campaigns.1The Home Depot. Political Engagement at Home Depot It also generally does not make contributions from corporate funds to political campaigns, super PACs, or political parties.2The Home Depot. Advocacy and Political Activity Reports 2020-2025
The Home Depot PAC is funded by voluntary contributions from salaried employees, who can choose whether their money goes to Republican or Democratic candidates. The average donation is roughly $2,500, and every disbursement is filed with the Federal Election Commission.1The Home Depot. Political Engagement at Home Depot
Federal filings back the policy up. In the 2024 cycle, the Home Depot PAC gave $2,028,000 to federal candidates, split 58% Republican and 42% Democratic. Every recipient was a House or Senate candidate. No presidential candidate appears anywhere in the itemized data.3OpenSecrets. Home Depot PAC Candidate Recipients 2024 The PAC also reported $0 in independent expenditures for or against any candidate in 2024.4OpenSecrets. Home Depot Summary The Republican tilt is real but modest, and it has stayed within a narrow band across cycles: 54% Republican in 2020, 59% in 2022, roughly 57% in 2024.5OpenSecrets. Home Depot Totals
One number in the public data does get misread. In the 2024 cycle, $143,569 in individual contributions from people listed as Home Depot employees went to Trump, and $210,900 went to Kamala Harris. Those are personal donations by individual workers, not corporate or PAC money. The “from organization” column reads $0 for both candidates.4OpenSecrets. Home Depot Summary Any large employer will show donations to candidates across the spectrum.
Bernie Marcus, the Founder Behind the Association
The strongest reason people link Home Depot to Trump is Bernie Marcus. Marcus co-founded the company in 1978, retired from its board in 2002, and became one of the most prominent Republican megadonors in the country. He died in November 2024 at age 95.6CNN. Home Depot Cofounder Bernie Marcus Dies
His personal spending on Trump was substantial. He and his wife gave $7 million to conservative super PACs supporting Trump in 2016.7The Guardian. Bernie Marcus, Home Depot Co-founder, Dies He donated $10 million to a pro-Trump super PAC in 2020.8ABC News. GOP Megadonor on Trump Leading 2024 Race In 2024, before his death, he had given more than $1 million to support Trump’s campaign. He was also frequently on Fox News and Fox Business advocating for Trump, though he criticized the former president’s style, calling it “abusive” and “brash” and saying Trump “should have been big enough and smart enough” to accept his 2020 loss rather than encouraging the events of January 6.
Home Depot responded to every wave of attention on Marcus with the same message. During 2016 boycott calls, corporate communications director Stephen Holmes said Marcus “retired from the company 14 years ago, so he is not speaking on behalf of The Home Depot. The company does not endorse Presidential candidates.”9Forbes. Home Depot Billionaire Cofounder’s Endorsement of Trump Triggers Call to Boycott the Retailer A spokesperson repeated the message almost word for word in 2019, telling NPR that Marcus “does not speak on behalf of the company.”10NPR. Home Depot Responds to Calls for Boycott Over Co-Founder’s Support for Trump
Ken Langone’s Back-and-Forth With Trump
Ken Langone, another co-founder and a billionaire investor, has had a more unstable relationship with Trump. He backed Trump in 2016, then said he felt “betrayed” after January 6 and briefly pledged support for Joe Biden. He endorsed Nikki Haley in the 2024 primary. As recently as April 2025, he criticized Trump’s tariff policies, calling a 46% tariff on Vietnam “bullshit” in a Financial Times interview.11New York Post. Billionaire GOP Donor Ken Langone Reverses Course on Trump
Then, in July 2025, he reversed course again. On CNBC, he said he was “sold on Trump” and that Trump had “a good shot at going down in history as one of our best presidents ever,” citing the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” and a U.S. military strike on Iran. On his earlier criticism, he said: “When you make a mistake, admit it.”12Forbes. Billionaire Home Depot Co-Founder Langone Flips on Trump The White House amplified his remarks the same day.13The White House. ICYMI: Home Depot Co-Founder Now Sold on Trump Again, Langone is a retired co-founder, not a company officer.
Arthur Blank Complicates the Story
The third co-founder, Arthur Blank, who also owns the Atlanta Falcons, is a consistent Democratic donor. In the 2024 cycle, his family foundation directed over $1 million to Democratic candidates and committees, and $5 to Republicans.14OpenSecrets. Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation Totals He gave $250,000 to committees supporting Biden in 2020 and has donated to the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton’s campaign, among others. Blank has said: “It’s not a red issue or a blue issue, it’s about how you treat people.”15Business Insider. Home Depot Cofounder Arthur Blank on Politics and Supporting Biden The three people who built Home Depot do not vote or donate as a bloc.
What the Current CEO and Company Have Done With Trump
The company’s actual dealings with the Trump administration have been about trade, not politics. On April 21, 2025, CEO Ted Decker met with President Trump in the Oval Office alongside Walmart CEO Doug McMillon and Target CEO Brian Cornell to discuss the impact of sweeping tariff proposals. The meeting was not on the president’s public schedule. The executives warned about consumer price increases, supply-chain disruption, and product shortages. Home Depot described the meeting as “informative and constructive,” and no specific policy changes resulted.16CNBC. Trump Tariffs: Walmart, Home Depot, Lowe’s, Target17The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. CEOs of Home Depot, Other Retailers Meet With Trump to Discuss Tariffs
Decker has made no public political endorsements. On tariffs, the company told investors it did not plan broad-based price increases and had been diversifying its supply chain since Trump’s first term. By mid-2026, Home Depot expected to purchase no more than 10% of its products from any single foreign country.18NPR. Home Depot Tariffs, Prices, Product Lines
Why the Boycotts Keep Coming Back
The confusion about whether shopping at Home Depot means supporting Trump has produced repeated boycott campaigns, all driven by the founders’ personal activity rather than company policy.
The first wave came in June 2016, after Marcus endorsed Trump in an op-ed. A MoveOn.org petition urging Hispanic and Latino consumers to boycott gathered only 684 signatures, with no indication it affected operations.9Forbes. Home Depot Billionaire Cofounder’s Endorsement of Trump Triggers Call to Boycott the Retailer A larger backlash hit in July 2019, when Marcus told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution he planned to support Trump’s reelection. The hashtag #BoycottHomeDepot trended, Trump defended Marcus on Twitter as a “patriotic & charitable man,” and the company again pointed out that Marcus had retired more than a decade earlier.10NPR. Home Depot Responds to Calls for Boycott Over Co-Founder’s Support for Trump
A third and more organized campaign emerged in late 2025. A coalition of over 80 organizations, operating as “We Ain’t Buying It,” targeted Home Depot along with Amazon and Target during the Thanksgiving-through-Cyber Monday period. The 2025 grievances were different: organizers accused the company of allowing ICE agents to conduct immigration raids at stores and detain day laborers. Home Depot told reporters it does not cooperate with ICE and is not notified in advance of operations.19NorthJersey.com. Trump Boycott: Target, Amazon, Home Depot Thanksgiving Boycott Protest Actions included in-store protests, with roughly 300 people shutting down a New York City location in December 2025, and organized “buy-ins” where participants bought and returned merchandise to disrupt operations.20Waging Nonviolence. Holiday Boycott Campaigns
The Short Answer, and Where It Gets Complicated
Home Depot the corporation does not support Trump. It has a written policy against endorsing presidential candidates, its PAC has never funded one, its CEO has not endorsed him, and its corporate political spending is disclosed, bipartisan, and focused on business issues.
Bernie Marcus and Ken Langone, who built the company but left its management roughly two decades ago, have spent tens of millions of their own money supporting Trump. Arthur Blank, the third co-founder, has spent heavily on the Democratic side. None of the three has spoken for the company in any official capacity in about twenty years. If your question is whether spending money at Home Depot funds Trump’s campaigns, the company’s records and federal filings say no. If your question is whether some of the wealth generated by Home Depot over four decades has ended up in Trump-supporting super PACs by way of retired founders, that answer is yes.