Elon Musk is pledging to spend about $180 million between now and the election in the hopes of getting Donald Trump elected.
The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday that Musk said he is planning to contribute around $45 million a month to a new pro-Trump super PAC, dubbed America PAC. In donating to the PAC, he will join the Winklevoss twins, Joe Lonsdale, co-founder of the spy tech firm Palantir Technologies; and former U.S. Ambassador to Canada Kelly Craft along her husband Joe Craft, the CEO of Alliance Resource Partners, a coal producer.
Musk wrote in March that he would not be “donating money to either candidate for US President.”
With $263.6 billion to his name, the world’s richest man spent the last few months demurring whether he would side with one political candidate or another. Last week, Bloomberg reported that Musk was donating to a pro-Trump group. Musk fully endorsed Trump on Saturday, following a failed assassination attempt against the former president.
Posting a video of the moment Trump was injured at a campaign rally in Butler, Pa., Musk wrote, “I fully endorse President Trump and hope for his rapid recovery.”
Since then, the Tesla CEO has reposted news of the shooting and called the Trump-J.D. Vance presidential ticket one that “resounds with victory.”
In March, Musk reportedly met with Trump and prospective donors at the Palm Beach home of billionaire Nelson Peltz. In April, Musk hosted a dinner in Los Angeles with several right-wing honchos including Peltz, Palantir co-founder Peter Thiel, former Trump Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, and longtime Fox News boss Rupert Murdoch — all to discuss how to win the election.
Trump and Musk reportedly have been discussing for months the possibility of putting Musk in an advisory role should Trump win in November. The Wall Street Journal reported in May that Musk calls Trump several times a month.
The SpaceX founder has claimed to have never voted for a Republican before 2022. After acquiring the social media platform X (formerly Twitter), he has increasingly embraced right-wing ideology online, while reinstating peddlers of misinformation and right-wing extremists who were previously banned from the social media platform.
