Elon Musk invested millions to ensure Trump's victory in US presidential poll
- 06 Dec 2024
Elon Musk spent over a quarter of a billion dollars to help Donald Trump win November's presidential election, according to new filings, underscoring the influence one of the world's wealthiest people had on this year's White House race.
The billionaire owner of electric car maker Tesla and SpaceX gave $259 million to groups supporting Trump's 2024 campaign, according to new Federal Election Commission filings released late on Thursday.
The huge donations made Musk one of the biggest underwriters of a presidential campaign in US history, helping him to become a powerful political ally of Trump and someone who now plays a key role in shaping the incoming Republican administration's policy agenda.
Musk gave $239 million to America PAC, a super PAC he founded to help turn out voters for Trump.
In late October Musk gave an additional $20 million to RBG PAC, a group that sought to convince voters that Trump would not sign into a law a national abortion ban, according to the FEC filings. The group's name refers to the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a liberal icon known for her support of abortion rights.
According to a report, the Musk entity spent nearly all of its money on digital ads, mailers and text messages. That group's funding represents a small fraction of the more than $200 million Musk spent in the 2024 election cycle, most of it through his super PAC intended to elect Trump, a signal of the influence wealthy people are angling to wield in US politics and Trump's incoming administration.
Musk's super PAC, America PAC, ran ads that warned if people sat out the election, "Kamala and the crazies will win." The PAC launched a $1 million-a-day voter sweepstakes that landed the group in court before a judge said it was allowed to continue.
Thursday's filing came as Musk and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy were on Capitol Hill for closed-door meetings with lawmakers to discuss Trump's DOGE initiative to dismantle parts of the federal government.
Trump tapped the two business titans to head his Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, a nongovernmental task force assigned to find ways to fire federal workers, cut programmes and slash federal regulations — as part of his "Save America" agenda for a second term in the White House.
Musk, who also owns the social media platform X, has emerged as a close adviser in Trump's transition team. Trump has chosen him, along with former Republican presidential candidate and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, to head a task force aimed at slashing government spending and regulations.
Musk and Ramaswamy met on Capitol Hill on Thursday with lawmakers whose support they will need to win the sweeping spending cuts Trump has asked them to find.
The two men have called for firing thousands of federal workers, slashing regulations and eliminating programs whose authorization has expired, such as veterans' healthcare.
Agencies
