Elon Musk donates $75m to his Trump PAC

San Francisco — Elon Musk gave about $75m to his pro-Donald Trump spending group in the span of three months, federal disclosures show, underscoring how the billionaire has become crucial to the Republican candidate’s efforts to win the November 5 presidential election.

America PAC, Musk’s political action committee that is focused on turning out voters in closely contested swing states, spent about $72m of that in the July-September period, according to disclosures filed to the Federal Election Commission on Tuesday.

That is more than any other Trump super PAC focused on turning out voters. The Trump campaign is broadly reliant on outside groups for canvassing voters, meaning the super PAC founded by Musk plays an outsized role in the close election race between Trump and Democrat Kamala Harris.

Musk, the CEO of electric car manufacturer Tesla, was the sole donor to the group.

Musk, who has said he has voted for Democratic presidential candidates in the past, has taken a sharp turn to the right this election. He endorsed Trump in July and appeared with him at a rally in Pennsylvania earlier this month.

On Wednesday, Musk said in a post on X that he would be “giving a series of talks” throughout Pennsylvania, less than two weeks after his appearance with Trump in the state.

He said people needed to sign a petition on his America PAC website to attend his talks from “tomorrow night through Monday”.

Pennsylvania is considered a crucial state for both Trump and Harris in the race for the White House.

Musk’s donations to America PAC propel him into the exclusive club of Republican mega donors, a list that includes banking heir Timothy Mellon and casino billionaire Miriam Adelson, who donated $95m to another pro-Trump Super Pac, Preserve America Pac.

However, Musk has reportedly secretly funded a conservative political group for years, well before his public embrace of Trump.

America PAC declined to comment on the Musk donations. Musk did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

America PAC is focused on encouraging Americans who support Trump but do not always vote to cast ballots in November’s election, a high-risk, labour-intensive strategy by the Trump campaign.

The group, which started its work later than other PACs, has encountered some problems with hiring and its contractors. Since July, it has fired two major contractors it hired to knock on doors.

It has also struggled to hire door knockers in several battleground states in part because by the time the PAC became operational many other canvassing groups had already staffed up, six sources briefed on the issues told Reuters.

The group had about $4m left by the end of September, the filings show.

Reuters