New political spending signals Elon Musk's huge role in the GOP is still growing
After having sunk more than a quarter-billion dollars into the 2024 election and then taken a central role in President Donald Trump’s administration, billionaire Elon Musk is demonstrating that he’s not done with his efforts to reshape American politics.
After having sunk more than a quarter-billion dollars into the 2024 election and then taken a central role in President Donald Trump’s administration, billionaire Elon Musk is demonstrating that he’s not done with his efforts to reshape American politics.
Musk, the public face of Trump’s attempts to take a chain saw to the federal bureaucracy, is a constant fixture on White House grounds and on his social media platform, X. Meanwhile, the super PAC he founded is the top outside spender in the April 1 election that will determine the majority on Wisconsin’s state Supreme Court, and he is also demonstrating his willingness to use his wallet to reward Trump loyalists in Congress — and, some fear, to punish others — as he closely watches the political landscape.
It all makes Musk a megadonor without much parallel in modern political history — someone who not only can fundamentally reshape a campaign with a single check but is also a prominent political figure in his own right, both as a business executive and as the de facto leader of Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency.
In short, Musk’s prominence, his virtually unlimited bank account and his penchant for controversy are poised to play a big role in upcoming elections — for both parties, in different ways.
America PAC — the super PAC Musk started during the last presidential election, which spent more than $261 million primarily on helping Trump — is the top outside spender in the Wisconsin Supreme Court race, having spent about $6.6 million so far on ads and organizing. While the group’s fundraising isn’t public yet, Musk, whose net worth is north of $300 billion, was responsible for the vast majority of the money it raised last year.
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