Elon Musk has spent more than a quarter of a billion dollars supporting President-elect Donald Trump and other Republican candidates, according to campaign finance documents filed Thursday.
That sum makes Musk, the world’s richest person, the largest donor to either party in the 2024 election cycle, according to Federal Election Commission filings.
The bulk of Musk’s spending was done through his own America PAC, to which he contributed $239 million. But the documents also showed that Musk was also behind a political action committee using the namesake of the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg – “RBG PAC” – in advertisements containing misleading claims that Ginsburg had views on abortion similar to those of Trump.
Ginsburg’s granddaughter, Clara Spera, told the New York Times in October that the PAC was an “assault on her grandmother’s legacy,” and that it was “just terrible” that the name Ginsburg being used to support Trump’s re-election campaign. Ginsburg openly supported the right to abortion, while Asset appointed to the Supreme Court three conservative justices who were part of the majority opinion in the case overturning the federal right to abortion.
Musk invested $20.5 million in the PAC, the only contribution received. The group has run ads highlighting Trump’s statements that he veto a national ban on abortion if elected, and highlighting Ginsburg’s statements that the decision in Roe v. Wade was far.
Musk also donated $10 million to the Senate Leadership Fund, which supports Republican Senate candidates, and $3 million to the MAHA Alliance PAC, a group affiliated with Robert’s “Make America Healthy Again” message. F. Kennedy Jr.
Through America PAC, his main campaign vehicle, Musk and a handful of other donors funded a get-out-the-vote effort through door-to-door canvassing, texting, telephone calls, letters and advertisements.
America PAC’s biggest expenditure by far was a $40.5 million payment to United States of America, Inc., a company registered last month with an address associated with Musk. It is unclear how these funds were used.
In October, Musk also pledged to donate $1 million per day to a registered voter in Pennsylvania who signed his petition. The draws were challenged in courtbut a judge ruled they could continue. Musk’s lawyers said the winners were not chosen by chance, but rather based on their personal stories, and that the funds were part of a contract they signed to become spokespeople from his America PAC. Musk is now facing several lawsuits from participants who claim the game was falsely represented as a lottery.
He quickly became a major political donor. In March, he posted on X, the social media platform Musk owns, that he would not donate to either presidential candidate. And then, on July 3, he made his first $5 million contribution to America PAC. Ten days later, he publicly announced his support for Trump and quickly became a key figure in the former president’s campaign.
At a rally in Pennsylvania for Trump on October 20, Musk reiterated a message present in several of his X-rated posts.
“This is the most important election of your lifetime,” he said. “If there’s any election where you vote, it should be this one.”
After Trump’s victory, the president-elect tasked him with leading a new initiative called Ministry of Government Effectiveness with former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy advising the president on cutting $500 billion in annual spending and reducing federal government positions.
