Billionaire Elon Musk spent at least $288 million to help elect President Donald Trump and other Republican candidates, according to a Washington Post analysis of new Federal Election Commission filings that offered an end-of-year snapshotof what was spent during the 2024 election cycle.
Friday’s FEC filings cement Musk’s status as the biggest political donor of the recent presidential cycle at a moment when he has amassed an extraordinary amount of power as a member of Trump’s inner circle — and decried by critics as a de facto, unelected co-president. He is also a driving force behind the effort to shrink the size of the federal workforce, helping to engineer a controversial offer this week to hundreds of thousands of career civil servants to quit their jobs and get paid through September.
The staggering 2024 political spending by Musk and the extent of his influence over Trump, as well as the levers of the federal government, cap a remarkable transformation for the richest man in the world, who had only dabbled in politics before being welcomed into Trump’s inner orbit last year.
After the election, the then-president-elect tapped Musk to lead the newly formed “Department of Government Efficiency,” which he tasked with cutting federal spending and regulation. The loosely defined role could give Musk the ability to influence policy and spending decisions that directly impact his companies, such as Tesla and SpaceX.
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Musk helped form America PAC last year to support Trump in part by targeting lower-propensity voters with an expansive canvassing operation across key swing states. Because of an obscure FEC ruling in March that relaxed some of the rules for contact between campaigns and super PACs, America PAC and other outside groups were able to closely coordinate their messaging and plans for canvassing with Trump’s top campaign lieutenants.
Ultimately, America PAC became one of the most prominent get-out-the-vote efforts for the Republican candidate, raising $263 million. The group was seeded with donations not just from the SpaceX CEO but also many of his close allies, including Tesla board member Antonio Gracias, Palantir co-founder and Austin-based tech investor Joe Lonsdale and Sequoia Capital investor Shaun Maguire.