Over the past three months, multi-billionaire Elon Musk has donated around $75 million to Donald Trump’s campaign through his political action committee America Pac, making him one of the Republican presidential candidate’s biggest donors.
Filings by America Pac with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) show Musk donating $15 million in July, $30 million in August and another $30 million in September – and what sets America Pac apart from most other political action committees is that Musk is the group’s sole donor.
In a short time and in relative silence, America Pac is said to have become perhaps Trump’s most important partner and now has more door-to-door canvassers in key states than the Trump campaign itself – around 400 per state. They are now working frantically to convince undecided voters to go to the polls and vote Republican.
It is unclear what influence Musk would have over the Trump administration if it wins the election with the backing of America Pac, but the presidential candidate has already said that he could see Elon Musk in some kind of important role in his cabinet during a second term.
Political right turn
It should also be noted that Musk has recently stepped up his personal involvement in Trump’s campaign, announcing last week that he would be travelling to the key state of Pennsylvania in the run-up to the election for a “series of talks”.
In the past, Musk has said he sympathised with the Democratic Party, but in recent years he appears to have taken a right-wing turn politically, and it has been reported that he has donated money to various conservative causes, including those related to migration and LGBTQ.
He also funds the right-wing group Building America’s Future, which works to persuade black voters to vote Republican and has been highly critical of Biden and Harris’ immigration policies.
Despite Musk’s staggering donations, there are those who have given even more to the Trump campaign, according to filings – Israeli-American Miriam Adelson, wife of Jewish financier Sheldon Adelson, has given a whopping $95 million to another pro-Trump political action group.
Harris in the lead
The US electoral system has long been heavily criticised for making it difficult to seriously challenge and compete without the backing of big business and other wealthy financiers, and while Trump has amassed some very wealthy supporters, it is the Democrats and Kamala Harris who have by far the most money in their “campaign coffers”.
According to people with insight into Harris’ campaign, she passed the billion-dollar mark in September – while other data suggests her campaign has raised around $650 million. Whichever figure is correct, it is significantly more than the roughly $340 million raised by the Trump campaign.
The money is generally used to fund physical campaigning of various kinds – but also aggressive marketing on television, in newspapers and, not least, on social media, which has become an increasingly important arena for reaching voters.
“Anti-advertising” is also common – that is, ads, features and articles that are not primarily aimed at highlighting the advantages of one’s own candidate – but at smearing and demonising the opposing side.