Elon Musk Spent $239 Million on His Pro-Trump Super PAC — and Maybe More
In an election cycle where billionaires flooded the race with hundreds of millions in cash to support their preferred candidates, apparently no one spent more than Elon Musk, who donated a grand total of $239 million to America PAC, a Super PAC he initially formed to support Donald Trump.
Musk had poured $119 million of his personal fortune into the organization through mid-October, chipping in $15 million of that total before President Joe Biden dropped out of the race, leaving Vice President Kamala Harris to assume the Democratic Party nomination. America PAC had spent nearly $10 million against Biden when he was running as the incumbent candidate. The group eventually burned through $87 million in support of Trump while laying out $57 million opposing Harris.
Musk funneled another $120 million into America PAC from-mid October through late November, per new Federal Election Commission filings. The Super PAC also received $40 million through his two new Texas companies, Group America LLC and United States of America Inc. The latter was the entity that cut checks to registered swing state voters who participated in America PAC’s controversial drive for paid petition signatures. In the closing weeks of the election, the group awarded a daily $1 million prize to voters in critical battleground states who had signed their petition in support of the First and Second Amendments. Trump went on to win all seven of those states.
Other big spenders in 2024 included billionaire and Las Vegas casino mogul Miriam Adelson, who gave $106 million to her own pro-Trump Super PAC, Preserve America. Musk was also joined in funneling millions to Trump and down-ballot Republicans by a number of mega-wealthy associates active in the worlds of Silicon Valley tech, venture capital, and the cryptocurrency industry. Many of these donors are now poised to profit if Musk’s new commission, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), succeeds in convincing Congress to gut federal agencies and slash the various financial and industry regulations they enforce.
Musk additionally gave $20.5 million to RBG PAC, a cynically branded Super PAC that invoked the name of deceased Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and ran ads defending Trump’s record on abortion rights — despite his SCOTUS appointments overturning Roe v. Wade, as he had promised they would. The spots ran in the last days of the election and falsely claimed that Trump held the same position on reproductive rights as Ginsburg, promising that he would not enact a federal abortion ban.
Musk plans to remain active in electoral politics. Days after the election, he announced on X (formerly Twitter) that his Super PAC would not cease operations. “Normally, PACs go somewhat dormant after a big election,” he wrote. “@America PAC is going to do the opposite and keep grinding, increasing Republican registrations in key districts around the country, in preparation for special elections and the midterms. And, of course, play a significant role in primaries.”
Presumably, the richest man on the planet would continue funding America PAC with his vast personal wealth, which rocketed some $90 billion higher following Trump’s election, bringing his net worth to a staggering $353 billion. (It’s now estimated at $344 billion, per Forbes.) As to the question of what non-Trump candidates he may back in the future, they’re likely to be of the culture-warrior variety: Musk’s turn to the GOP, as he’s explained in interviews, was prompted by a burgeoning fear of what he calls “the woke mind virus,” as well as his estrangement from his transgender daughter, who has sharply criticized him on social media.
Of course, if the bromance between Musk and Trump fizzles out — always a possibility with two men known for their big egos, love of the spotlight, volatile moods, and mercurial decisions — Musk may well sour on politics as a hobby. Either way, he’ll still own X, a platform he has turned into a megaphone for the kinds of misinformation and extremism that complement his worldview, and continue to steer the national conversation with it. Which goes to show that there’s more than one way to make your money talk.
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