Elon Musk poured at least $274 million into political groups in 2024, fueling a spending spree that helped Donald Trump win the presidency, and securing a new title: the most prolific donor of the election cycle.
His total puts him well ahead of the second-largest donor, investor Timothy Mellon, who has given $197 million primarily to Republicans.according to contributors tracked by OpenSecrets.
Most of Musk’s donations focused on the presidential race. He gave US$238.5 million to America PAC, political action committee he founded, including an additional $75 million in recent weeks, according to his latest filing with the Federal Election Commission.
America PAC has spent $159 million since its launch earlier this year to help level the financial playing field for Trump, whose campaign was far surpassed by Vice President Kamala Harris.
Trump outsourced to outside groups like America PAC, which spent $86 million on canvassing operations. It also paid for digital advertising on Trump’s behalf, including ads on Meta Platform’s Facebook and Alphabet’s Google.
The super PAC’s filing shows it made 18 payments of US$1 million to individuals who each served as “spokesperson consultant.”
Musk offered a daily gift of $1 million to a registered voter in a battleground state during the final days of the campaign to sign an online petition pledging to support free speech and gun rights. It also offered more modest payments of $47 to people who could get other registered voters to sign the petition virtually.
The United States Department of Justice sent America PAC a letter warning it that the payments could violate federal laws that prohibit paying people to vote or register to vote.
In late October, the Philadelphia district attorney sued Musk and America PAC, accusing them of running an “illegal lottery.” That lawsuit did not get a court order to stop the payments.
Musk also donated $20.5 million to RBG PAC, a super PAC that ran ads claiming that Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the late Supreme Court justice and strong supporter of abortion rights, had the same position as Trump on the issue. RBG PAC attempted to link Trump to reproductive rights and blur an important political responsibility.
The CEO of SpaceX and Tesla had only been a modest political donor until this year. But his donations have brought him into Trump’s orbit: He has become a regular at the president-elect’s Mar-a-Lago estate and has been named, along with businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, to head the Department of Government Efficiencya federal advisory committee that aims to recommend radical cuts in public spending and bureaucracy. Musk and Ramaswamy visited lawmakers on Capitol Hill on Thursday to promote this initiative.
The businessman, who has a fortune of US$361.7 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, has seen his wealth increase since Trump won the presidential election on November 5.
Musk companies with Trump’s victory
Some of Musk’s companies could benefit in Trump’s second term. The president-elect named Jared Isaacman, a Musk ally and SpaceX astronaut, as NASA’s next administrator.
SpaceX is one of NASA’s largest partners and frequently bids for the agency’s contracts. Tesla is seeking regulatory approval for self-driving cars, something they have said will be one of the Department of Transportation’s priorities.
