U.S. President-elect Donald Trump and Elon Musk watch the launch of the sixth test flight of the SpaceX Starship rocket on November 19, 2024 in Brownsville, Texas.
Billionaire Elon Musk poured more than $20 million into a mysterious super PAC at the end of the 2024 campaign, part of more than $250 million he spent overall to boost President-elect Donald Trump, new campaign finance reports show.
Musk financed RBG PAC, according to the group's report filed Thursday night with the Federal Election Commission. The super PAC, which did not disclose its donors before the election, launched ads contending that Trump did not support a federal abortion ban.
All of the money the group pulled in — $20.5 million — came from a single donation from the “Elon Musk Revocable Trust” located in Austin, Texas. RBG PAC spent almost all of its funds on digital ads, mailers and text messages, according to the campaign finance report, which covered Oct. 17 through Nov. 25.
The group's website states that Trump and the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg agree on the abortion issue, drawing criticism from Ginsburg's granddaughter Clara Spara, who told the New York Times that the message was "nothing short of appalling."
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Trump took credit for the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, a decision that came after three Trump-appointed justices voted with the majority to overturn the national right to an abortion. (One of those justices, Amy Coney Barrett, was appointed to replace Ginsburg weeks before the 2020 election, after Ginsburg died in mid-September.) As president, he supported a federal ban on abortion after 20 weeks.
But during this campaign, Trump backed away from that position and instead declared he supported states' rights to decide abortion laws. Democrats still hit Trump hard on those past positions to argue that if elected, he and a Republican Congress would act to restrict abortion nationwide.
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The late ad blitz from RBG PAC only represents a fraction of Musk's total election spending this year: He also financed America PAC, a super PAC which reported spending $157 million supporting Trump in the presidential race.
America PAC's latest campaign finance report showed Musk donated $238 million to the group throughout the election cycle, including $120 million in the final weeks of the race alone.
Federal disclosures show America PAC spent heavily on canvassing, text message-based get-out-the-vote efforts, printing and postage (likely for direct mail) and digital advertising too. It also ran a controversial cash giveaway that gave out $1 million each day to someone who signed the group's conservative-leaning petition.
Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner sued Musk and America PAC in late October trying to halt the giveaway, but a judge in the state didn't agree to stop the program. The Justice Department also warned the PAC around the same time that the giveaway might be illegal, but it's taken no public action on it.
America PAC’s campaign finance report lists each of those $1 million prizes as payments for a "spokesperson consultant."
Musk also gave $3 million to the MAHA Alliance, a super PAC affiliated with Robert F. Kennedy's "Make America Healthy Again" push, in late October.
It's possible that Musk donated more to pro-Trump efforts too, as political committees continue to file fundraising reports pegged to Thursday night's deadline.
The Space X and Tesla founder is one of Trump's top donors this cycle, but he's also been among his most visible. He's been a regular presence at Mar-a-Lago and by Trump's side during the transition (to the consternation of some in Trump's orbit).
Trump tapped Musk to advise him on cutting spending across the federal government as the co-chair of his "Department of Government Efficiency" initiative.
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