Washington: Agencies
Elon Musk, the American billionaire owner of SpaceX and the "X" platform, has pumped nearly $75 million into his political action committee to support the campaign of Republican candidate in the US presidential elections, Donald Trump, over the course of 3 months.
According to the filing submitted to the Federal Election Commission, Musk, the richest person in the world, is the only donor to the American political action committee supporting Trump, as he launched the group during the summer and funded contact with voters across key presidential states and more than a dozen races for the House of Representatives.
The magazine described the amount as astonishing considering that it is from one person, although it does not constitute a scratch on Musk's personal wealth and is not even enough to make him the largest donor supporting Trump this cycle, as Miriam Adelson, a long-time Republican Party megadonor, donated $100 million to another political action committee to promote Trump, Preserve America, while Wyoming bank heir Timothy Mellon donated $125 million this cycle to a third political action committee, Make America Great Again. The group of independent political committees has become increasingly important to Trump’s electoral chances as the former president’s fundraising has slumped, with Trump’s campaign lagging far behind what it raised during the same period in 2020 over the past two months. The U.S. political action committee reported spending $65.8 million on independent spending from mid-August through the end of September, more than $60 million of which went toward the presidential race. Unlike Preserve America and MAGA Inc., which spend most of their money on television ads, the U.S. political action committee’s independent spending is focused mostly on reaching voters door-to-door and by mail. Musk, in particular, has become an integral part of Trump's political operation since the Tesla CEO endorsed him after Trump's initial assassination attempt in July. Musk's support for Trump has not been limited to financial support, as he hosted an interview with Trump that aired on X, his social media platform, in August, and has become one of the most prominent promoters of the former US president's rhetoric on immigration and other thorny issues, promoting conspiracy theories on his social media platform, including that Haitian immigrants are eating pets in Springfield, Ohio.