Campaign finance records filed Thursday show Elon Musk spent more than a billion dollars to support President-elect Donald Trump and other Republican candidates.
The amount makes Musk, the world's richest man, the biggest donor to any party in the 2024 election cycle, Federal Election Commission filings show.
The bulk of Musk's spending was through his own America PAC, to which he contributed $239 million. But the filing also revealed that Musk was also behind a political action committee that was using the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's name — “RBG PAC” — in ads with misleading claims that Ginsburg supported abortion. But held views that were similar to Trump.
Ginsberg's granddaughter Clara Spera told the new York Times Said in October that the PAC was “an insult to her grandmother's legacy” and that it was “nothing short of terrible” that Ginsburg's name was being used to support Trump's re-election campaign. While Ginsburg openly supported abortion rights trump The Supreme Court consisted of three conservative justices who were part of the majority opinion in the case striking down the federal right to abortion.
Musk invested $20.5 million in the PAC, the only contribution it received. The group ran ads highlighting Trump's statements. veto National abortion ban if elected, and pointing to Ginsburg's statements that led to the decision in Roe v. Wade Very far,
Musk donated $10 million to the Senate Leadership Fund, which supports Republican Senate candidates, and donated $3 million to the MHA Alliance PAC, a group aligned with Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s “Make America Healthy Again” message. Is.
Through America PAC, his main campaign vehicle, Musk and a handful of other donors funded the effort to get out the vote through door knocking, texting, phone calls, mailers and ads.
So far, America PAC's biggest expenditure was a $40.5 million payment to United States of America, Inc., a company registered at an address associated with Musk, last month. It is unclear how exactly those funds were used.
In October, Musk also promised to give $1 million per day to a registered voter in Pennsylvania who signed his petition. had a sweepstakes challenged in courtBut a judge ruled they could proceed. Musk's lawyers said the winners were not chosen by chance, but based on their personal stories, and that the funds were part of a contract he signed to become the spokesperson for his America PAC. Musk now faces multiple lawsuits from participants who claim it was misrepresented as a lottery.
He rapidly emerged as a major political donor. In March, he Posted On X, the social media platform that Musk owns, it will not donate to any presidential candidate. And then on July 3, he made his first contribution of $5 million to America PAC. Ten days later, he publicly announced his endorsement of Trump and soon became a prominent figure in the former president's campaign.
At a rally for Trump in Pennsylvania on October 20, Musk reiterated a message that appeared in many of his posts.
“This is the most important election of your lifetime,” he said. “If there's ever an election you should ever vote in, this should be it.”
After Trump's victory, the President-elect chose him to lead a new initiative Department of Government Efficiency Former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy advised the President to cut annual spending by $500 billion and reduce federal government positions.