Elon Musk spent more than $250 million to help elect Donald Trump, according to campaign finance reports released on Thursday, including a late boost of $20 million to a super PAC that invoked the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
Federal filings detail how Musk — the world’s richest man — spent mammoth amounts to support Trump’s successful bid for the White House. Most of that funding was sent to his pro-Trump super PAC, America PAC, which received a total of $238 million. But Musk also spent more than $40 million on checks to voters in swing states, part of his controversial, $1 million giveaways, The New York Times reported.
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One of the most revealing filings shows how the billionaire backed a group called RBG PAC with a $20.5 million donation on Oct. 24, just weeks before the November election. The group has a webpage honoring Ginsburg, a major judicial advocate for abortion protections, and spent millions running ads featuring Trump’s pledges to oppose a federal abortion ban should he be elected to reassure voters.
“Great Minds Think Alike,” the website reads, which features a photo of both Trump and Ginsburg.
The group’s donors were not known until the Thursday filings with the FEC.
Brandon Bell via Associated Press
At the time, the justice’s granddaughter lambasted the PAC, telling The New York Times it had no connection to her family and was “an affront to my late grandmother’s legacy.”
“The use of her name and image to support Donald Trump’s re-election campaign, and specifically to suggest that she would approve of his position on abortion, is nothing short of appalling,” Clara Spera said in a statement to the paper.
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The Times notes the full figure Musk spent in the 2024 campaign cycle may never be known, noting he may have also funded dark-money groups that are not required to disclose their donors.
Musk has quickly become one of the most visible members of Trump’s entourage as he moves to fill his upcoming cabinet with loyalists and attack dogs. Alongside former GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, Musk will spearhead the newly-minted DOGE, or the Department of Government Efficiency.
The pair have pledged to slash government bureaucracy, calling the large federal workforce a “fourth unelected branch of government.”