A major endorsement for Donald Trump: Elon Musk will contribute $45 million a month to his campaign

Steph Deschamps / July 17, 2024

Elon Musk plans to donate around $45 million a month to a group supporting Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, to which other tech industry figures are contributing, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday.

Created at the end of May, according to documents released by the Federal Election Commission (FEC), “America PAC” is a super PAC, a “political action committee”, a legal entity not linked to a campaign team.

It cannot directly finance a candidate, but the law authorizes it to carry out support actions, such as advertising campaigns or grassroots activities.

According to the Wall Street Journal, “America PAC” dedicates its resources to encouraging Republican supporters in states likely to swing to Trump’s side to register to vote.

For those who are registered, the Group encourages them to apply for postal voting or to take advantage of early voting windows.

According to documents released by the FEC, donors to “America PAC” include brothers Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, known for their run-ins with Mark Zuckerberg at the creation of Facebook and, more recently, for their investments in cryptocurrencies.

The list also includes Douglas Leone, partner at private equity firm Sequoia Capital, one of the most reputable in Silicon Valley, and Antonio Gracias, who was a director of Tesla from 2007 to 2021.

Elon Musk’s name does not appear in the list of contributors to the super PAC, which had raised $8.75 million by the end of June, according to a financial statement published on Monday. According to the Wall Street Journal, the world’s richest man plans to start donating this month.

If Elon Musk’s intentions, as reported by the financial daily, were to materialize, it would be one of the largest donations ever made by an individual to a U.S. election campaign.

For the 2024 ballot, the largest publicly known donation to date comes from Tim Mellon, heir to Mellon Bank, who entrusted $50 million to another super PAC supporting Donald Trump.

In total, since the start of the campaign, the octogenarian has offloaded over $100 million, most of it to the Republicans, but also a fraction to support independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy.

In March, Elon Musk, whose fortune is estimated at $252 billion by the Forbes magazine website, stated that he would not financially support any candidate.

On Saturday, shortly after the attack on Donald Trump, he publicly declared his support for the former president.