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Elon Musk donated more than $250mn to Donald Trump’s election campaign, including at least $75mn in the final weeks before the vote, US electoral filings have revealed.
Filings submitted on Thursday to the Federal Election Commission show that Musk donated more than $238.5mn to the America Pac, a political action committee that the Tesla chief executive himself set up and which became one of Trump’s main fundraising vehicles.
The filings show that Musk made three individual donations of $25mn to America Pac in the second half of October alone.
Musk also donated $20.5mn to the pro-Trump RBG Pac, named after the late Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, bringing Musk’s total support for the president-elect’s campaign to more than $259mn. Musk was the sole donor to RBG Pac, according to the filings.
The figures underscore the lengths to which Musk was prepared to go to secure a Trump election victory in November. The billionaire has since forged an increasingly close alliance with the president-elect.
Last month, Musk was charged with overseeing a project — alongside former Trump rival Vivek Ramaswamy — to improve the efficiency of the federal government.
On Thursday, Trump appointed Musk ally venture capitalist David Sacks as the White House’s artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency tsar.
The existence of RBG Pac has caused controversy, with the family of the liberal-leaning Ginsburg, an advocate of gender equality and women’s rights, denying any connection with the Trump campaign.
Ginsburg died in September 2020 and was replaced shortly before that year’s presidential election by Trump nominee Amy Coney Barrett.
RBG Pac’s website shows images of Trump and Ginsburg with the caption “Great minds think alike”, claiming they had the same views on a federal ban on abortion. Ginsburg was a strong supporter of individual choice on abortion and had publicly criticised Trump.
Musk set up America Pac in mid-2024 and its spending was focused on battleground states such as Pennsylvania and Michigan.
The billionaire endorsed Trump in July after the Republican candidate survived an assassination attempt at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
