Elon Musk, the richest man in the world, spent more than US$250 million (R$1.5 billion) in the final months of this year’s election to help Donald Trump win the presidency, federal records released this Thursday revealed ( 6).
The amount is a fraction of Musk’s wealth. However, it’s an impressive amount coming from a single donor, who directed the money to allied groups and is now playing a role in shaping the next administration.
One of Musk’s boldest moves — which only became public this Thursday — was to spend $20 million to support a super political action committee named in honor of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the late liberal Supreme Court justice, but who sought to help Trump by softening his anti-abortion stances.
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Musk directed most of the donated money to his main super PAC, America PAC, writing three checks for $25 million each in the final weeks of the race, according to new filings filed with the Federal Election Commission. Musk also spent $40.5 million on voters in swing states who signed a petition in support of the Constitution.
Over the course of the race, he gave America PAC an impressive $239 million in cash and in-kind contributions.
America PAC led what it described as a comprehensive effort on the ground on Trump’s behalf. Musk came to view President Joe Biden’s defeat as a vital imperative and turned sharply to Trump following the assassination attempt on him in July. He became so involved in the effort that he frequently campaigned for the Republican candidate in Pennsylvania, widely seen as the most important battleground state.
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Musk also donated $4 million to America PAC on November 12, a week after Election Day. He has vowed to keep his super PAC active, targeting progressive prosecutors and supporting Trump’s agenda.
Since the election, Musk has become a fixture at Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s private club in Florida. He is leading an effort to try to reduce the size of the federal government and has spoken out about several personnel choices the president-elect has made.
While some in Trump’s circle — and at times the president-elect himself — have seemed weary of Musk’s constant presence, the benefits he brings in the form of enormous financial support and a large social media platform have clearly outweighed any concerns.
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Musk’s total spending in the election is not yet known — and may never be. He has written other political checks to conservative groups this election, including $12 million to two groups trying to elect Republican senators, the Senate Leadership Fund and the Sentinel Action Fund. Musk, who originally wanted to keep his support for Trump private, may also have funded dark money entities that will never disclose their involvement or donations.
On Thursday, Musk was revealed as the hidden funding source behind RBG PAC, a Republican group that worked to elect Trump but was named after a liberal legal scholar who despised him.
A trust owned by Musk was the sole backer of the RBG PAC, which had not yet disclosed its donors before a filing on Thursday. During the election, the group ran ads arguing that Trump’s stance on abortion was not so different from that of Ginsburg, a feminist icon. “Great Minds Think Alike,” read the text on the super PAC’s website, featuring large photos of Trump and Ginsburg, who died in 2020.
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Her family vehemently opposed the ads. Ginsburg’s granddaughter, Clara Spera, said in a statement in October that the family condemned the use of her grandmother’s name and that doing so to “support Donald Trump’s re-election campaign and specifically suggest that she endorse his position on abortion, is nothing short of appalling.”
The RBG PAC effort aimed to reassure female voters who were wary of Trump because of his opposition to abortion rights. He boasted that he was proud to nominate conservative justices, including Ginsburg’s successor, who helped overturn Roe v. Wade. Wade.
When the group began running ads, there were signs of Musk’s involvement. The group’s leader, May Mailman, at times defended Musk on television.
The ads were part of a broader effort to use various pro-Trump entities to fund ads targeted at specific segments of voters in a race that Trump advisers anticipated could be closer than it turned out to be. He won all seven battleground states and won the popular vote, the first time a Republican had done so in 20 years.
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