A Virginia firm that organized and staged Donald Trump’s January 6, 2021, “Stop the Steal” rally, after which a violent mob of MAGA disciples stormed the U.S. Capitol building, is set to receive a further $1.2 million in taxpayer funds to help promote “Trump Accounts,” one of the president’s many eponymous vanity projects.
On June 1, the Treasury Department earmarked an $800,000 outlay to Event Strategies Inc. for “Nationwide Events, Outreach, and Media Campaign Support… Trump Account Launch Support Services,” lasting through September, according to previously unreported federal procurement data reviewed by The Independent.
This followed a $220,000 sum that was set aside for the company on May 22, to pay for two weeks worth of the same.
On permitting paperwork for Trump’s fateful January 6 rally, Event Strategies CEO and managing partner Justin Caporale was listed as “project manager,” cofounder Tim Unes was listed as “stage manager,” and the company’s now-chief of staff Megan Powers was listed as “Operations Manager for Scheduling and Guidance.”
In January, a widely-reported $740,000 payment went to Event Strategies to put on an initial launch party for Trump Accounts, set to go live on July 4, starring rapper and recently minted Trump acolyte Nicki Minaj.
“Food And Beverage Services And Audio/Visual Production Support For Trump Accounts Kickoff Meeting For Treasury,” the description of the award read.
Minaj spoke as a grinning Trump stood directly behind her, telling the audience that she was the president’s “No. 1 fan,” and that “smear campaigns” against him only strengthen her support.
So-called Trump Accounts are a new type of individual account for children, similar to an IRA, that provides $1,000 to babies born between January 1, 2025 and December 31, 2028. Parents can put up to $5,000 per year into an account, which becomes accessible to the child when they turn 18.
Event Strategies, which received no federal contracts during Joe Biden’s single term in the Oval Office, has enjoyed at least $22 million in federal contracts – many of them awarded without a competitive bidding process – since Trump retook office in January 2025, according to a March analysis by The New York Times.
On May 25, Event Strategies received more than $260,000 from the federal government to install flags and pennants on the outside of Department of Commerce headquarters in Washington, D.C,. as part of the administration’s “Freedom 250” initiative – a White House-backed program created by the Trump administration, as opposed to America 250, which was formed by a bipartisan congressional commission to mark the nation’s semiquincentennial.
The largesse has “transformed Event Strategies Inc…. from a minor federal contractor into the government’s highest-paid event planner,” the Times reported, calling the “special treatment” a “stark example of the way that the second Trump administration has used taxpayer money to benefit people close to the president or his top officials.”
Event Strategies has been linked to Trump since the beginning of his political career, overseeing his presidential campaign launch in 2015, during which the future president rode Trump Tower’s “golden escalator” from the building lobby down to the lower level, where he made his infamous kickoff speech deriding Mexicans as a scourge.
“They’re bringing drugs,” Trump told the crowd, a large number of whom were actors brought in by a casting agency. “They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.”
Between 2021 and 2024, Event Strategies produced a slew of Trump reelection rallies, pulling in tens of millions of dollars from the Trump 47 Committee PAC. Since then, the company has received millions more from, among other federal agencies, the Department of Homeland Security, which hired Event Strategies to put on a naturalization ceremony last year at Mount Rushmore, upon which Trump has mused about putting his own face, and, as Wired first reported, another contract with DHS to provide “Services to Support Digital Communication Solutions To Aid Passenger Communications Throughout The Security Screening Process For FIFA World Cup 2026 And America 250 Events.”
Last month, Event Strategies staffers were behind the wheel of a “freedom truck” circulating outside a Christian-themed event organized by the White House, which, according to Mother Jones, were created in a partnership with PragerU, the right-wing online educational provider.
The fleet of trucks, which have fanned out across the country for the America 250 celebrations, are filled with “artifacts” from the collection of conservative media firebrand Glenn Beck, who also provides narration for videos shown on the trucks.
Event Strategies, which did not respond on Monday to a request for comment, has said their role on January 6 was purely logistical and has denied playing a part in the ensuing Capitol riot.
