In response to filings launched by the US Federal Election Fee on Tuesday evening, Elon Musk, founding father of SpaceX and proprietor of X, is now one of many greatest donors to Donald Trump’s marketing campaign. Since publicly endorsing Trump on the heels of the July assassination try in opposition to him in Butler, Pennsylvania, Musk has donated near $75 million to the his personal political motion committee, America PAC, which is aggressively campaigning on the bottom in swing states for the Trump marketing campaign.
Musk has been considered one of many Silicon Valley elites who’ve expressed their assist for Trump. Peter Thiel, billionaire and cofounder of Palantir, has been a longtime Trump supporter (although he stated he wouldn’t be donating to candidates in 2024), and enterprise capitalist David Sacks, who can also be a buddy of Musk’s, has additionally thrown his assist to the Republicans. Trump has additionally acquired assist from PACs and people within the crypto area.
However Musk has put extra money into the Trump marketing campaign than almost every other particular person from the tech trade. Along with his assist for the America PAC, he additionally donated greater than $289,000 to the Nationwide Republican Congressional Committee. Whereas some corporations and establishments in Silicon Valley, like enterprise agency Andreessen Horowitz, have backed Trump, particular person donors from those self same corporations could not. For example, Marc Andreessen and his enterprise associate Ben Horowitz every donated $2.5 million to the pro-Trump Proper for America PAC final quarter. Andreessen has additionally donated to the Democratic Congressional Marketing campaign Committee; Horowitz has backed Democratic campaigns as nicely, and in early October stated he would assist Harris reasonably than Trump going ahead.
The graphic beneath focuses particularly on donations that assist Trump immediately, reasonably than GOP giving extra broadly. You’ll be able to see a breakdown of how a lot every individual gave—and the place the cash went—by scrolling over or tapping every title.
Sacks donated solely $6,600 to Trump’s marketing campaign immediately, however $114,500 to the Republican Nationwide Committee and $250,000 to the Trump 47 PAC. Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, who run the crypto alternate Gemini, every donated greater than $350,000 to the Make America Nice Once more PAC, which helps the Trump marketing campaign. The twins additionally donated $250,000 every to the America PAC. Shaun Maguire, a associate on the enterprise agency Sequoia Capital, has donated $500,000 to the America PAC, $300,000 to the Trump 47 PAC, and $6,600 to the Trump marketing campaign immediately. Billionaire and early Tesla backer Antonio Gracias donated $1 million to the America PAC, as did Palantir cofounder and enterprise capitalist Joe Lonsdale. Kenneth Howery, a PayPal Mafia member and former ambassador to Sweden underneath Trump, put $1 million into America PAC along with smaller direct contributions to the Trump marketing campaign.
Musk has contributed extra to the Trump marketing campaign than all of them mixed, a number of occasions over. That places him in a league with Trump’s most lavish donors, together with Miriam Adelson, the widow of Sheldon Adelson, who donated $95 million to the pro-Trump Protect America PAC over the previous three months—together with $45 million in September alone. Billionaire Timothy Mellon, inheritor to the Mellon railroad fortune, stays the marketing campaign’s largest donor, having put at the least $115 million within the Make America Nice Once more PAC simply this 12 months.
Musk’s largesse, mixed together with his vocal assist of Trump on the platform he controls, has been a windfall for Trump in an more and more shut presidential race. He’ll proceed attempting to get out the vote in individual this weekend with a sequence of appearances in Pennsylvania.
