Top Line
Elon Musk, the billionaire head of Tesla and SpaceX, plans to donate $45 million a month to a pro-Trump political action committee ahead of the November election, marking Musk’s biggest move in a months-long shift toward Republican politics, even though he has a long history of donating to political candidates, including lawmakers from both parties.
Billionaire Elon Musk has a long history of donating to both Democrats and Republicans. … [+]
Key Facts
Musk plans to donate $45 million a month to the super PAC, America PAC, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg, The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times, but Federal Election Commission filings show no record of Musk having donated to the PAC as of June 30.
According to Federal Election Commission records, Musk, who heads electric car maker Tesla, social media platform X and aerospace company SpaceX, made his first political donation in June 2003, giving $2,000 to then-President George W. Bush during his 2004 reelection campaign, and later donated the same amount to Bush’s rival, then-Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), and Democratic candidate Wesley Clark, who narrowly missed out on victory.
Musk went on to support candidates from both parties, including the 2003 re-election committee of then-Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA), former Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), former Sens. Gordon Smith (R-OR) and Ken Calvert (R-CA), former Speaker of the House Jane Harman (D-IL), and the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA).
in 2004. The Tesla chairman donated $25,000 to the National Republican Congressional Committee in 2005, his largest political donation to date, and then donated another $25,000 to Republican committees in 2006 and 2007, and another $28,500 to Republican committees in 2008. Meanwhile, between 2007 and 2010, he donated just over $38,000 to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and more than $40,000 to the Democratic National Committee.
In total, Musk has made about 200 political donations, split between leaders of both parties, including to big names like Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-Iowa), Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), former Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), and the late Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nevada) from 2008-2010.
In 2011, Musk donated to presidential campaigns, donated more than $40,000 to former President Barack Obama’s Obama Victory Fund during his 2012 reelection campaign, and donated $5,000 to Hillary Clinton’s political action committee, Hillary for America, in 2015.
One of Musk’s biggest recipients is former Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), whose campaign received $100,000 between 2011 and 2017. Musk, in turn, has donated smaller amounts to a group of lawmakers including Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Maine Governor Susan Collins and Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.).
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Main Background
Musk has long maintained an independent stance on politics, at times staying out of political debates altogether, and in 2021 said he “doesn’t want to get involved in politics.” But since endorsing Obama and then Clinton in her pitched battle against Trump in 2016, Musk has made a near 180-degree turnaround on his political stance, supporting right-wing issues on social media and donating heavily to Republican candidates. It’s a big shift for the billionaire, who said he voted for Biden in 2020 and told CNBC during Trump’s first presidential campaign that the then-candidate lacked “character that reflects well on America.” Musk has since slammed diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts, called COVID-19 restrictions “fascistic,” and spread unfounded theories that Biden supports mass immigration to rally support for the Democratic Party. In the 2022 midterm elections, Musk urged Americans to vote for Republican congressional candidates, and early in the 2024 campaign cycle, he endorsed Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who was set to lose in the 2024 presidential primary. Musk has also sparred with President Biden during his presidency, lamenting Biden’s alleged shunning of Tesla early in his presidency (Biden did not invite Tesla to a 2021 White House summit on electric vehicles), a surprising rift given Biden’s promise to promote electric vehicles. Biden has remained silent about Musk, but after reports of his donation to a pro-Trump PAC emerged, Biden spokesman James Singer blasted Musk for donating to Trump, telling Bloomberg that the billionaire “knows that Trump is a moron who’s selling out America.”
Amazing facts
While Musk’s donation will go to a pro-Trump political action committee (PAC) and not directly to the former president, it marks a change of direction for Musk, who vowed in March not to donate to “either candidate” in the presidential election.
Forbes Rating
According to Forbes magazine, Musk’s net worth is estimated at $253 billion, making him the world’s richest person, far ahead of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos ($211.5 billion) and LVMH’s Bernard Arnault ($192.6 billion). Musk’s net worth has soared by more than $50 billion in the past four months on the back of a massive surge in Tesla’s stock price, helping him reclaim the coveted title of world’s richest person from Arnault.
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