Elon Musk committed another $56 million to elect Donald Trump and other Republicans in the final weeks of the 2024 election, bringing the amount spent by the world’s richest man to elevate his allies in the White House and Congress to a minimum. The shortfall amounted to $132 million, federal filings show.
The donation — revealed in Federal Election Commission disclosures Thursday — shows how the chief executives of Tesla Inc. and SpaceX have poured money into the Washington trifecta: supporting House and Senate Republicans as well as financing Trump’s White House bid. to do.
Musk, who had made only modest political donations until the 2024 election cycle, invested $43.6 million in the first half of October into America PAC, the group he founded, bringing his total contributions for the year to $118.6 million. He spent crores of rupees in the political system, which helped him build a network of associates.
The filing shows donations through Oct. 16 and is the last detailed look at the finances of federal campaigns and super political action committees before Election Day on Nov. 5.
Musk’s super PAC is paying for operations to boost turnout for Trump in battleground states and Republicans in swing districts that could help the GOP regain the House majority. America PAC is also spending on digital ad campaigns, some of which target young men, trying to get them to the polls to balance Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris’ lead among female voters.
Musk’s donations to other groups include $10 million to the Senate Leadership Fund, a super PAC that aims to elect Senate Republicans, and $2.3 million to the Sentinel Action Fund, a super PAC that aims to vote for Republican Senate campaigns. Works, included. Montana, Nevada, Ohio and Pennsylvania.
The donation is the latest demonstration of how Musk, whose companies boast federal contracts worth billions of dollars and who has personally violated government regulations, is expanding his political influence network to include potential future presidents and members of Congress. Are expanding.
His political activities have faced some scrutiny from federal authorities. The U.S. Justice Department sent a letter to its super PACs this week warning that a program giving $1 million a day to registered voters in swing states who sign an online petition could violate federal laws. It is illegal to pay individuals to vote or register to vote.
In addition to Musk, eight other individuals also donated to America PAC, including investor Nelson Peltz and members of the DeVos family, who are longtime Republican donors. Betsy DeVos was Trump’s education secretary.
America PAC spent $47 million in the last 19 days before Election Day and had $3.3 million in cash. Since its launch earlier this year through October 16, America PAC has spent $105 million supporting Trump.
Musk is playing an unprecedented role in the 2024 political donor campaign. In addition to his donations, he has appeared on stage with Trump and held his own campaign rallies without the former president. At an event in Pennsylvania earlier this month, Musk used ominous rhetoric, telling the crowd that “this election is going to decide the fate of America. And the fate of America as well as the fate of Western civilization.” “
The former president has said he would ask Musk to join his administration if he wins a second term, leading an effort to reduce government waste. is the context that Musk has adopted.
Donors with deep pockets are playing a key role in supporting Trump, who is far behind Harris in terms of fundraising. She has been spending on her campaign since Labor Day in all seven states that will decide the final round of elections, according to AdImpact data. His media buys totaled $352 million, compared to $214 million for Trump.
Harris’s financial leverage has also allowed her to open more than 330 field offices with more than 2,000 salaried staffers to help conduct her voter-mobilization operations. But the candidates are statistically tied among likely voters in each of the seven swing states in a Bloomberg News/Morning Consult poll, with very narrow margins in these battleground states, underscoring what a final onslaught of ads, rallies and door-knocking campaigns will be. How can one decide who claims the White House?
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
