Tech billionaire Elon Musk spent $200m on political action to help get Donald Trump elected and will be involved in local and national elections going forward
Elon Musk’s super political action committee (PAC) spent around $200 million to help elect Donald Trump, according to a person familiar with the group’s spending, funding an effort that set a new standard for how billionaires can influence elections. An AP report said Monday.
The billionaire Tesla and SpaceX CEO provided the vast majority of the money to America PAC, which focused on low-propensity and first-time voters, according to the person, who was not authorized to disclose the figure publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Elon Musk on October 5
America PAC’s work was aided by a March ruling from the Federal Election Commission that paved the way for super PACs to coordinate their canvassing efforts with campaigns, allowing the Trump campaign to rely on the near-unlimited money of the nation’s most high-profile billionaire to boost turnout in deep-red parts of the country. That allowed the campaign to spend the money they saved on everything from national ad campaigns to targeted outreach toward demographics Democrats once dominated.
The plan worked for both sides. Trump saw key turnout surges in battleground states, and at the end of the campaign the president-elect credited Musk’s role in the race. “We have a new star,” Trump said at his election night party in Florida. “A star is born — Elon!”
The billionaire businessman became one of Trump’s highest-profile surrogates in the final months of the campaign, often joining the former president onstage. His support gave Trump a clear opening into the universe of younger men who look up to Musk.
Trump also benefited from Musk’s ownership of X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, and the company’s work to end many of the rules that hampered Trump before he was kicked off in 2021. Like many conservatives, Musk is a fierce critic of social media efforts to counter disinformation, arguing that those efforts amount to pro-government censorship.
Musk is now expected to play a key role in a second Trump administration. The president-elect has said he will place Musk, whose rocket company works with the Defense Department and intelligence agencies, in charge of a new government efficiency commission.
Musk’s outside group was founded in May, but it wasn’t until Musk endorsed Trump in July, after the former president survived an assassination attempt, that the group more clearly began its turnout work. A week later, in an interview with a conservative podcaster, Musk acknowledged the new committee and a host of top Republican operatives with ties to DeSantis joined the effort.
The group ran ads that warned if people sat out the election, “Kamala and the crazies will win.” The highest-profile part of America PAC’s work was a $1 million-a-day voter sweepstakes that landed the group in court before a judge said it was allowed to continue. The sweepstakes and subsequent court case drew considerable attention, but much of America PAC’s work happened under the radar.
Door knocking was arguably America PAC’s most impactful work, with Trump experiencing boosts in turnout in key rural areas in battleground states.
Musk, meanwhile, indicated in an election night conversation on X that his PAC will stay involved in politics, “preparing for the midterms and any intermediate elections, as well as looking at elections at the District Attorney and sort of judicial levels.”
Meanwhile, Musk has faced significant federal regulatory scrutiny as owner or chief executive of the various companies he leads.
Source X/AP/WaPo