Elon Musk spent more than $250 million to help elect Donald Trump, according to campaign finance reports released Thursday, including a late $20 million raise for a super PAC that tapped the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
Details of federal records how Musk – the richest man in the world – spent huge amounts of money 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 for voters in swing states, part of his controversial $1 million giveaways, The New York Times reported.
One of the most revealing files shows how the billionaire backed a group called RBG PAC with a $20.5 million donation on October 24, just weeks before the November elections. The group has a webpage honoring Ginsburg, a leading legal advocate for abortion protections, and has spent millions running ads featuring Trump’s promises to oppose a federal abortion ban if he were elected to voters to reassure.
‘Great Minds Think Alike’, the website readswith a photo of both Trump and Ginsburg.
The group’s donors were not known until after they were filed with the FEC on Thursday.
Brandon Bell via Associated Press
At the time, the judge’s granddaughter denounced the PAC, tells The New York Times it had no connection with her family and was “an insult to my late grandmother’s legacy.”
“The use of her name and likeness in support of Donald Trump’s re-election campaign, and specifically to suggest that she would endorse his position on abortion, is nothing short of abhorrent,” Clara Spera said in a statement to the newspaper.
The Times notes that the full amount of money Musk spent in the 2024 campaign cycle may never be known, noting that he may also have 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 looks to fill his incoming Cabinet with loyalists and attack dogs. Alongside former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, Musk will lead the newly created DOGE, or Department of Government Efficiency.
The couple has promised to reduce government bureaucracycalling the large federal workforce a “fourth unelected branch of government.”