Tech entrepreneur and billionaire Elon Musk recently gave $20 million to a PAC supporting Donald Trump at the end of the 2024 campaign, which reportedly makes up only a small portion of the total sum Musk put toward backing the newly-elected president and other Republican figures, according to new campaign finance reports.
Musk, whom Trump recently selected to advise him on cutting spending across the federal government as a co-chair of his “Department of Government Efficiency” initiative, has been among the top–and probably the most visible–donors of the former president during his campaigning. He has also made regular appearances at Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s Florida estate, and has played a significant role during the transition to a Trump administration.
According to a report the group filed Thursday night with the Federal Election Commission, Musk financed RBG PAC, which did not disclose its donors before the election, and launched ads contending that Trump did not support a federal abortion ban. All of the $20.5 million that the group pulled in reportedly came from a single donation from the Elon Musk Revocable Trust in Austin, Texas. RBG PAC spent almost all of its money on digital ads, mailers and text messages, which covered Oct. 17 through Nov. 25, the finance report reads.
The group’s website says Trump and the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg agree on the abortion issue, drawing criticism from Ginsburg’s granddaughter Clara Spara, who told The New York Times that the message was “nothing short of appalling,” considering Trump’s appointed Supreme Court members overturned Roe V. Wade.
According to federal disclosures, Musk also financed America PAC, a super PAC that spent heavily on canvassing, text message-based get-out-the-vote efforts, printing and postage (most likely for direct mail), as well as digital advertising, while also running a controversial cash giveaway that gave out $1 million each day to someone who signed the group’s conservative-leaning petition.
America PAC’s latest campaign finance report showed Musk donated $238 million to the group throughout the election cycle, including in-kind contributions, with $120 million of that total coming in the final weeks of the race alone. The upwards of $250 million Musk has used to back Trump is part of a $277 million total he has put toward boosting Republicans affiliated with the administration.
The X-platform and Space X CEO also gave $3 million to the MAHA Alliance, a super PAC affiliated with Robert F. Kennedy’s “Make America Healthy Again” push, in late October.
Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner sued Musk and America PAC in late October trying to stop the donation, alleging it was an “illegal lottery scheme,” but a judge in the state did not agree to stop the program. The Justice Department also warned the PAC around the same time that the giveaway might be illegal, yet they have not taken public action on it.
