'First Buddy' Elon Musk donated quarter-billion dollars to Trump's campaign, paid $20mn to a mysterious PAC

Finance reports of several groups that helped in US Presidential campaigns revealed that Tesla CEO Elon Musk paid a quarter of a billion dollars to support President-elect Donald Trump’s bid for the White House

US President-elect Donald Trump and Elon Musk watch the launch of the sixth test flight of the SpaceX Starship rocket in Brownsville, Texas, US, November 19, 2024. File Image/Reuters

A new campaign finance report on President-elect Donald Trump’s bid for the White House revealed that Tesla CEO Elon Musk poured over $20 million into a mysterious super PAC at the end of the 2024 presidential race. Not only this, he spent more than $250 million overall to boost Trump’s campaign.

According to the report filed to the Federal Election Commission on Thursday, Musk financed a group called RBG PAC. It is pertinent to note that the PAC did not disclose its list of donors before the election. The group was responsible for launching ads contending that Trump did not support a federal abortion ban.

As per the report, out of all the money the group has pulled in, $20 million came from a single donation from Elon Musk’s Revocable Trust in Austin, Texas. The report also noted that the PAC spent almost all of the money on digital ads, mailers, and text messages. The money was spent between October 17 through November 15.

The group claimed Trump and RBG agreed on abortion

Interestingly, RBG PAC’s website claimed that Trump and late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg agreed on the issue of abortion. The claim drew criticism from Ginsburg’s granddaughter Clara Spara, who told The New York Times that the message was “appalling.”

In the past, Trump has taken credit for the Supreme Court’s overturning Roe v. Wade, a decision that came after three Trump-appointed justices voted with the majority to overturn the law that provided a national right to an abortion. Before the overturning of the law, Trump appointed Amy Coney Barrett to take over the seat vacated by Ginsburg’s death.

Trump has also expressed support for the federal ban on abortion after 20 weeks when he was in the Oval Office for the first time. However, during the campaign, Trump backed away from that position and instead declared that he supported states’ rights to decide abortion laws. Despite this, Democrats still called out Trump’s hardline position on the matter and claimed if Trump were elected, he and a Republican Congress would restrict abortion nationwide.

Musk’s support for America PAC

Apart from RBG PAC, Musk also financed America PAC, a super PAC that reported spending $157 million supporting Trump in the presidential race. The group’s finance report showed that Musk donated a whopping $238 million to it throughout the election cycle. This includes the donation of $120 million in the final weeks of the race alone.

The federal finance disclosure, which was published after the polls, stated that the American PAC spent heavily on canvassing, text message-based get-out-the-vote efforts, printing and postage (most likely for direct mail), as well as digital advertising. Not only this, the group also ran a controversial cash giveaway that gave out $1 million each day to someone who signed the group’s conservative-leaning petition. The initiative was later questioned in court.

The Tesla CEO 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. Musk may have donated more to pro-Trump efforts which might emerge soon since all such groups have to submit their records by Thursday night.