Prominent members of the United States' billionaire class have shelled out massive sums in the final stretch of the 2024 campaign to elect one of their own, Republican nominee Donald Trump, to the White House, with Tesla CEO Elon Musk donating nearly $75 million in recent months to a super PAC supporting the former president's bid for a second term.
According to federal filings made public Tuesday, at least six other billionaires joined Musk in donating to pro-Trump super PACs in the third quarter of 2024: Miriam Adelson, the widow of casino magnate Sheldon Adelson; businessman Richard Uihlein, the heir to a brewing fortune; David Millstone, co-CEO of Standard Industries; Diane Hendricks, co-founder of ABC Supply; Kelcy Warren, the chair of Energy Transfer Partners; and financier Ike Perlmutter.
Combined, Musk, Adelson ($95 million), and Uihlein ($49 million) funneled around $220 million over the past three months to super PACs supporting Trump, whose campaign has also received huge financial support from reclusive GOP megadonor Timothy Mellon.
Musk, the world's richest man and owner of the critical social media platform X, sent roughly $75 million in donations to his pro-Trump America PAC, which has been accused of voter deception. The Guardian's Hugo Lowell noted that Musk's PAC is "doing the bulk of the Trump campaign's ground game work across the battleground states," and the billionaire has been using his social media platform to incessantly promote the former president.
As The New York Timesreported earlier this month, America PAC has offered to pay $47 to those who help the organization "find Trump voters."
Trump—whose campaign has focused heavily on delivering more billionaire-enriching tax cuts—has said that, if he wins next month's election, he would put Musk "in charge of cost-cutting."
The head of the American Federation of Government Employees expressed alarm last month over Trump's push for a "government efficiency commission" headed by Musk, warning that the two billionaires only "care about one thing: lining their own pockets."
In an X post early Wednesday, Musk announced that he "will be giving a series of talks" throughout the key battleground state of Pennsylvania over the next several days as part of his effort to boost the Trump campaign, whose fundraising operation has struggled to keep up with that of Democratic nominee Kamala Harris.
CNNnoted Wednesday that Harris, who has also received support from prominent billionaires, "has set a blistering pace—raising $1 billion since she became the Democratic standard-bearer in late July—a milestone achieved faster than any other presidential contender."
"Tuesday's filings show that a high-dollar fundraising committee that channels money to her campaign and aligned Democratic committees, took in $633 million during the third quarter—four times the amount raised by Trump's equivalent fundraising arm in that time," CNN added.
The Washington Postemphasized that "a full picture of the financial strength of the Trump and Harris efforts will not be available until Sunday, when the campaigns and parties file detailed reports with the Federal Election Commission."
This year's election is on track to be the most expensive in U.S. history, according to the campaign finance watchdog OpenSecrets, with at least $15.9 billion flowing to candidates for federal office and super PACs—an outgrowth of the Supreme Court's 2010 Citizens United decision.
A report published last month by the progressive advocacy group Americans for Tax Fairness (ATF) estimated that by the end of August, just 150 billionaire families in the U.S. had spent nearly $1.4 billion attempting to influence the outcome of the 2024 election.
"Billionaires are making their 'voices' heard—make sure theirs don't drown out yours," ATF wrote in a social media post on Tuesday, urging people to turn out to vote next month.
