Reuters
Elon Musk gave about US$75 million to his spending group supporting former US president and Republican US presidential candidate Donald Trump in the span of three months, federal disclosures showed on Tuesday, underscoring how the billionaire has become crucial to the Trump’s efforts to win the Nov. 5 US presidential election.
America political action committee (PAC), which is focused on turning out voters in closely contested states that could decide the election, spent around US$72 million of that in the period from July to last month, disclosures filed to the US Federal Election Commission showed.
That is more than any other pro-Trump super PAC focused on turning out voters. The Trump campaign is broadly reliant on outside groups for canvassing voters, meaning the super PAC founded by Musk — the world’s richest man — plays an outsized role in the razor-thin election between Trump and US Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic Party’s presidential candidate.
Tesla CEO and X owner Elon Musk speaks during a rally for Republican presidential nominee and former US president Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Oct. 5.
Photo: Reuters
Musk, the CEO of electric car manufacturer Tesla, was the sole donor to the group in that period.
Musk, who has said he has voted for Democratic presidential candidates in the past, has taken a sharp turn to the right this election. He endorsed Trump in July and appeared with him at a rally in Pennsylvania earlier this month.
Yesterday, Musk said in a post on X that he would be “giving a series of talks” throughout Pennsylvania, less than two weeks after his appearance with Trump in the state.
People only needed to sign a petition on his America PAC Web site to attend his talks from “tomorrow night through Monday,” he said.
Pennsylvania is considered a crucial state for both Trump and Harris in the race for the White House.
Musk’s donations to America PAC propel him into the exclusive club of Republican mega donors, a list that also includes banking heir Timothy Mellon and casino billionaire Miriam Adelson.
However, Reuters reported earlier this month that Musk has secretly funded a conservative political group for years, well before his public embrace of Trump.
America PAC declined to comment on the Musk donations.
Musk did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
America PAC is focused on encouraging Americans who like Trump but do not always vote to cast ballots this cycle, a high-risk and labor-intensive strategy by the Trump campaign.
The group, which started its work later in the election than other PACs, has encountered some problems with hiring and its contractors. Since July, it has fired two major contractors it has hired to knock on doors.
It has also struggled to hire door knockers in several battleground states in part, because by the time the PAC became operational many other canvassing groups had already staffed up, a half-dozen sources briefed on the issues said.
The group had about US$4 million left on hand by the end of last month, the filings show.
Separate filings earlier on Tuesday showed that casino magnate Miriam Adelson donated US$95 million to another pro-Trump super PAC, Preserve America PAC, in the same period.
