Robert Kraft

Kraft has been described as a “lifelong Democrat,” and he has mostly donated to Democratic candidates and PACs for the last 30 years. However, Kraft is reported to have been friends with former Republican President Donald Trump for decades. ¹

Kraft has donated hundreds of millions of dollars to philanthropic causes, primarily in health care and education. He has also donated to some pro-Jewish and pro-Israel causes. Kraft is a co-founder of REFORM Alliance, a left-of-center criminal justice reform advocacy group.

As of 2022, Kraft has an estimated net-worth of $12.1 billion. ²

Career

After graduating from Columbia University and Harvard Business School, at age 27, Robert Kraft had a brief stint in politics as the elected chairman of the Newton, Massachusetts Democratic City Committee. He considered running for Congress but decided not to do so. ^{3 4}

Around the same time, Kraft began working at the Rand-Whitney Corp, a packaging company owned by his father-in-law. In 1968, Kraft acquired the company through a leveraged buyout. In 1972, Kraft founded International Forest Products, a paper-commodities trading company. Over the following 20 years, the two companies would grow until Kraft was the largest private holder of paper and packaging in the United States. In 1998, the two companies and other business interests were put under an umbrella company, Kraft Group. ^{5 4 6}

In 1983, Kraft became a director and chairman of New England Television Corp. In 1987, after leading a stock buyback, he became the company’s president. ⁷ In 1991, Kraft sold his stake for $25 million. ⁸

Sports

In 1975, Kraft purchased a share in the Boston Lobsters in the mixed-gender World Team Tennis league. In 1978, the franchise dissolved. ⁴

Kraft made unsuccessful attempts to buy the Boston Celtics and the Boston Red Sox. ⁹

In 1994, Kraft acquired the New England Patriots in the National Football League for $172 million, the highest price paid at that time for an NFL franchise. Kraft had been involved in an on-going takeover attempt since 1988 when he purchased Foxboro Stadium, at which the Patriots play, for $25 million at a bankruptcy sale. He refused to relinquish the Patriots’ lease on the stadium despite numerous buyout offers from the team’s owners who were attempting to move the team to St. Louis. Under Kraft, the Patriots became one of the most successful NFL franchises, winning six Super Bowls. ^{10 6}

Paradise Papers

In 2017, the Paradise Papers, a set of leaked confidential financial documents, revealed that Kraft owned a holding company (officially a branch of International Forest Products) and bank accounts in Bermuda, possibly to be used as tax havens. A representative for Kraft claimed the Bermuda holdings were formed to do business with a single client and never held substantial funds. ¹¹

Political Donations

Since 1978, Robert Kraft has made at least 138 FEC-reportable political donations to candidates and PACs worth over $676,000. Kraft has donated almost exclusively to Democrats but has also supported Republicans. He donated $30,800 to a PAC supporting President Barack Obama‘s 2012 presidential campaign and $25,000 to a PAC supporting his 2008 campaign, but Kraft also donated $25,000 to a PAC supporting President Obama’s 2008 opponent, then-U.S. Senator John McCain (R-AZ), and $22,700 to the Republican National Committee. ¹²

Kraft donated $1 million to President Donald Trump‘s (R) inauguration committee. ¹³

In July 2022, Kraft donated $1 million to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). ¹⁴

REFORM Alliance

In 2019, Robert Kraft co-founded REFORM Alliance, a criminal justice advocacy organization that focuses on left-of-center policy change, to change the probation and parole laws in the United States, primarily at the state levels. It was also co-founded by rappers Meek Mill and Jay-Z. ¹⁵

Relationship with Former President Donald Trump

Robert Kraft has been described as a “longtime friend” of former President Donald Trump. In the 1990s, President Trump often attended Patriots games at Foxborough Stadium with Kraft in the owner’s box. In 2005, Kraft attended President Trump’s wedding to Melania Trump. President Trump and Kraft’s friendship reportedly intensified in 2011 after the death of Kraft’s wife: “When Myra died, Melania and Donald came up to the funeral in our synagogue, then they came for memorial week to visit with me… then he called me once a week for the whole year, the most depressing year of my life when I was down and out. He called me every week to see how I was doing, invited me to things, tried to lift my spirits. He was one of five or six people that were like that. I remember that.” ^{16 17}

Kraft attended a pre-inauguration dinner in honor of then-President-elect Trump, and shortly after his inauguration, Kraft attended a dinner with then-President Trump and then-Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. ^{16 17}

In 2019, TMZ revealed a leaked audio clip from 2017 of Kraft condemning then-President Trump’s opposition to left-wing protests by NFL players, most notably Colin Kaepernick’s decision to not kneel during the national anthem: “The problem we have is, we have a President that will use that as fodder to do his mission that I don’t feel is in the best interest of the matter… It’s divisive and it’s horrible. And, it’s actually the opposite of what you all are trying to do.” ¹⁸

In 2021, ESPN alleged that Trump had offered money to then-U.S. Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA) in 2008 on behalf of Kraft to stop the federal investigation into “Spygate,” a cheating scandal in which the New England Patriots allegedly used camera to spy on other teams’ practices. President Trump and Kraft both denied the allegations. ¹⁹

Philanthropy

The Kraft Family Foundation was established in 1951. Since Robert Kraft made his fortune in the 1980s, he and his late wife, Myra Kraft, have donated hundreds of millions to philanthropic causes, including university endowments, Jewish education, health care development, and medical research. ²⁰

In April 2020, Kraft sent his private plane to China to import 1.7 million N95 masks for use during the COVID-19 pandemic. ²¹

In 2019, Kraft pledged $20 million to build the Foundation to Combat Antisemitism dedicated to fighting antisemitism and the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel. ²²

Kraft has donated at least $4 million to the Boys and Girls Clubs of Boston’s Myra Kraft Giving Back Scholarship Fund in honor of his late wife. ⁶

Vladimir Putin Ring Dispute

In 2005, Robert Kraft and a group of American businessmen met with Russian leader Vladimir Putin in Moscow. After Kraft showed Putin his 2005 Super Bowl ring and noticed Putin’s admiration of it, Kraft gave him the ring: “I decided to give him the ring as a symbol of the respect and admiration that I have for the Russian people and the leadership of President Putin.” ²³

However, in 2013, Kraft told the New York Post that Putin had actually stolen the ring from him. Kraft claimed that he considered attempting to retrieve the ring, but he got a call from the White House telling him to let Putin keep it to avoid a diplomatic incident, so he told the media that he had given the ring to Putin as a gift. ²⁴

In 2017, Kraft publicly expressed that he hoped then-President Donald Trump (R) would retrieve the ring from the Russian leader. ²⁵

Prostitution Charge

In January 2019, Robert Kraft was accused of paying for sexual services at a day spa in Jupiter, Florida after allegedly being caught on video in a sting operation. Kraft pled not guilty but publicly apologized for his behavior. Then-President Donald Trump (R) defended Kraft and invited him to the White House along with the New England Patriots despite the charges. In September 2020, prosecutors dropped the charges after a court excluded surveillance footage from being used as evidence. ^{26 27 16}