According to fresh campaign finance filings, billionaire Elon Musk invested over $20 million in an enigmatic super PAC at the conclusion of the 2024 campaign, as part of his overall expenditure of nearly $250 million to support President-elect Donald Trump.
According to the filing the group submitted to the Federal Election Commission Thursday night, Musk provided funding for RBG PAC. The super PAC, which failed to reveal its contributors prior to the election, ran advertisements claiming that Trump opposed a federal ban on abortion.
A single donation from the Elon Musk Revocable Trust in Austin, Texas, provided the group with $20.5 million. According to the campaign financial report, which covered the period from October 17 to November 25, RBG PAC spent nearly all of its funds on digital advertisements, mailers, and text messages.
According to the group’s website, Trump and the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg share a similar stance on abortion. Ginsburg’s granddaughter, Clara Spara, criticized the statement, telling The New York Times it was “nothing short of appalling.”
Three justices Trump chose voted with the majority to abolish the national right to an abortion, and Trump claimed credit for the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. (After Ginsburg passed away in mid-September, one of those justices, Amy Coney Barrett, was named to succeed Ginsburg just weeks before the 2020 election.) He backed a federal ban on abortions beyond 20 weeks while he was president.
Trump, however, changed his mind during this campaign and stated that he supported states’ autonomy to enact abortion restrictions. Democrats continue to attack Trump harshly for his prior stances, claiming that a Republican Congress and he will impose nationwide abortion restrictions if elected.
RBG PAC’s late ad campaign is just a small portion of Musk’s overall election expenditures this year; he also contributed to America PAC, a super PAC that claimed to have spent $157 million on Trump’s campaign.
According to the most recent campaign finance disclosure from America PAC, Musk gave the organization $238 million during the election cycle, including in-kind donations. And just the last few weeks of the race brought in $120 million of that total.
According to federal reports, America PAC made significant expenditures on digital advertising, printing and postage (presumably for direct mail), canvassing, and text message-based get-out-the-vote campaigns. Additionally, the group conducted a contentious cash giveaway, giving $1 million every day to everyone who signed its conservative-leaning petition.
In late October, Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner filed a lawsuit against Musk and America PAC in an attempt to block the gift, but a state judge refused to do so. At about the same time, the Justice Department informed the PAC that the giveaway might be unlawful, but it hasn’t made any public statements about it.
The $1 million awards are listed in America PAC’s campaign financial report as payments to a “spokesperson consultant.”
In late October, Musk also donated $3 million to the MAHA Alliance, a super PAC connected to Robert F. Kennedy’s “Make America Healthy Again” campaign.
As political committees continue to submit fundraising records with a deadline of Thursday night, it’s probable that Musk also contributed more to pro-Trump initiatives.
Musk, the founder of Space X and CEO of Tesla, is one of Trump’stop donors this cycle, but he has also been among his most visible. To the dismay of some in Trump’s inner circle, he has been by Trump’s side during the transition and frequently appears at Mar-a-Lago, his resort in Florida.
Musk was chosen by Trump as a co-chair of his “Department of Government Efficiency” project to advise him on reducing federal expenditure.
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