Trump and giveaways: What Musk spent $270M on during the election
Tesla and X CEO Elon Musk spent over a quarter of a billion dollars to help get President-elect Donald Trump back in the White House, according to newly released campaign finance records.
The billionaire tech mogul spent over $270 million of his own money through two super PACs that promoted Trump's candidacy and other Republicans, including one that appeared to refer to deceased liberal Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg, according to filings released Thursday night by the Federal Election Commission.
Musk spent roughly $240 million on his pro-Trump super PAC America. The PAC was created after Musk endorsed Trump in July, which made Musk the single largest political spender in the shortest period of time.
Half of the PAC's money came in the final weeks of the election and in the weeks following the election, and by Nov. 25, the PAC only had $2 million left in the account, according to the FEC.
Much of the money was spent on direct mail, canvassing and phone calls, the PAC's filing showed.
The filing also showed a total of nine $1 million payments given to nine individuals labeled as "spokesperson consultant," which appeared to be the swing state voters that won Musk's controversial daily $1 million prize.
Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner sued the PAC in October contending Musk was running an illegal lottery in Pennsylvania.
Common Pleas Court Judge Angelo Foglietta denied an injunction request a few weeks later after an attorney for the PAC testified that the giveaway wasn't random, despite Musk's claims that they were.
The PAC also reported roughly $433,000 in legal bills paid to THE GOBER GROUP PLLC, according to the FEC.
A new filing showed that Musk was the sole funder of a pro-Trump super PAC named RBG PAC, giving $20 million to the group in the final weeks of the election. The PAC used the initials of former Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg and ran online ads featuring women who claimed Trump would endorse potential national abortion bans.
Trump has long boasted about his role in ending Roe v. Wade by taking credit for nominating three of the six conservative justices who voted to overturn the case in 2022.
Clara Spera, Ginsberg's granddaughter, chastised the PAC in a statement to the Washington Post stating it "has no connection to the Ginsburg family and is an affront to my late grandmother’s legacy."
Earlier in the election cycle, Musk had written big checks to groups supporting House and Senate GOP, including $12.3 million to two super PACs supporting Senate GOP candidates, and another $1.3 million supporting other down-ballot Republicans, according to FEC filings.
In all, Musk spent at least $273 million in support of various Republicans up and down the ballot at the federal level.
Musk has been tapped to co-lead, along with Republican businessman and failed presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, an outside advisory board called the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which aims to cut as much as $2 trillion from the federal budget of what they called waste.
The pair met with Republican leaders on the Hill Thursday to discuss their proposals including removing remote work options for federal workers.
