In line with filings launched by the US Federal Election Fee on Tuesday night time, 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 towards 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 mentioned he wouldn’t be donating to candidates in 2024), and enterprise capitalist David Sacks, who can 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 practically some other particular person from the tech business. Along with his assist for the America PAC, he additionally donated greater than $289,000 to the Nationwide Republican Congressional Committee. Whereas some firms and establishments in Silicon Valley, like enterprise agency Andreessen Horowitz, have backed Trump, particular person donors from those self same firms could not. As an illustration, Marc Andreessen and his enterprise accomplice 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 properly, and in early October mentioned he would assist Harris fairly than Trump going ahead.
The graphic beneath focuses particularly on donations that assist Trump instantly, fairly than GOP giving extra broadly. You possibly can see a breakdown of how a lot every particular person gave—and the place the cash went—by scrolling over or tapping every identify.
Sacks donated solely $6,600 to Trump’s marketing campaign instantly, however $114,500 to the Republican Nationwide Committee and $250,000 to the Trump 47 PAC. Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, who run the crypto trade 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 accomplice 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 instantly. 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 beneath 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 instances 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 no less than $115 million within the Make America Nice Once more PAC simply this yr.
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 making an attempt to get out the vote in particular person this weekend with a sequence of appearances in Pennsylvania.
