Elon Musk gave $75M to his pro-Trump super PAC

Billionaire SpaceX CEO Elon Musk poured just shy of $75 million into his super PAC backing Donald Trump’s presidential campaign last quarter, according to a new campaign finance filing.

Musk, the richest person in the world, was the sole donor to the pro-Trump America PAC, according to the filing submitted to the Federal Election Commission late Tuesday. Musk launched the group over the summer and has funded voter contact across key presidential states and more than a dozen House races.

It’s a staggering sum from a single person — though hardly a dent in Musk’s personal fortune and not even enough to make him the largest pro-Trump donor this cycle. Longtime GOP megadonor Miriam Adelson has given $100 million to another super PAC boosting Trump, Preserve America, while Wyoming banking heir Timothy Mellon has given $125 million this cycle to a third super PAC, Make America Great Again Inc.

The constellation of super PACs has become increasingly important to Trump’s electoral chances as the former president’s own fundraising has waned, with Trump’s campaign fundraising over the past two months substantially trailing what he raised over the same period in 2020. America PAC reported spending $65.8 million on independent expenditures from mid-August through the end of September, more than $60 million of which went toward the presidential race. Unlike Preserve America and MAGA Inc., which are spending most of their money on television advertising, America PAC’s independent expenditures are mostly focused on reaching voters door-to-door and in mailings.

And Musk, in particular, has become increasingly integral to Trump’s political operation since the Tesla CEO endorsed him after the former president was shot in July.

America PAC has been aiding Republicans’ get-out-the-vote efforts in battleground states and recently combined operations with another Trump-allied PAC, Turning Point Action, in Wisconsin. Musk has started hitting the trail for Trump, including appearing alongside the former president during his return to Butler, Pennsylvania — the site of the first assassination attempt against him — earlier this month. (Musk has ties to the state, having attended the University of Pennsylvania.) He also recently unveiled an America PAC program to pay $47 to people who help identify likely Trump voters in the core seven swing states.

But Musk has put more than his personal wealth behind electing Trump. He hosted a live interview with Trump that was streamed on X, his social media platform, in August. And he has become one of the chief amplifiers of the former president’s darkest rhetoric on immigration and other lightning-rod issues, promoting conspiracy theories on his social media platform including that Haitian migrants are eating pets in Springfield, Ohio.