Elon Musk Spent Over $250 Million to Help Elect Trump

Source: New York Times

Elon Musk Spent Over $250 Million to Help Elect Trump

The enormous spending from the world's richest man quietly fueled allied groups and was revealed only now, as Mr. Musk plays a key role in the presidential transition.


Elon Musk on Thursday in Washington after a meeting with lawmakers on Capitol Hill. Tom Brenner for The New York Times

By Theodore Schleifer and Maggie Haberman
Theodore Schleifer reported from Washington, and Maggie Haberman from New York.
Dec. 5, 2024

Elon Musk, the world's richest man, spent over a quarter of a billion dollars in the final months of this year's election to help Donald J. Trump win the presidency, federal filings revealed on Thursday. ... The sum is a fraction of Mr. Musk's wealth. But it is nonetheless a staggering amount from a single donor, who poured the cash into allied groups and is now playing a role in helping shape the next administration.

One of Mr. Musk's most brazen moves -- which emerged only on Thursday -- was spending $20 million to prop up a super PAC that was named after Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the late liberal Supreme Court justice, but that sought to help Mr. Trump by softening his anti-abortion positions.

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Mr. Musk's total spending on the election is not yet known -- and may never be. He cut other political checks to conservative down-ballot groups this cycle, including $12 million to two groups trying to elect Republican senators, the Senate Leadership Fund and the Sentinel Action Fund. Mr. Musk, who originally wanted to keep his support for Mr. Trump quiet, may have also funded dark-money entities that will never disclose his involvement or donations.

On Thursday, Mr. Musk was revealed as the hidden funding source behind RBG PAC, a Republican group that worked to elect Mr. Trump but was named after a liberal jurist who despised him. (1) ... A trust belonging to Mr. Musk was the sole funder of RBG PAC, which had not yet disclosed its donors before a filing late Thursday. During the election, the group had run ads arguing that Mr. Trump's position on abortion was not dissimilar from that of Justice Ginsburg, a feminist icon. "Great Minds Think Alike," read the text on the super PAC's website, featuring twin large photos of Mr. Trump and Justice Ginsburg, who died in 2020.

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(1) https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/25/us/politics/trump-ruth-bader-ginsburg-abortion-ad.html

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/05/us/politics/elon-musk-trump-rbg-election.html