Elon Musk pledges $180 million to pro-Trump PAC

ANDlon Musk is pledging to invest $45 million a month in a pro-Donald Trump political group, a move that would flood the Republican candidate’s re-election effort with money leading up to the November elections.

Musk’s planned cash infusion could help build Trump’s fundraising advantage over President Joe Biden, who has suffered from a donor revolt in recent weeks, with some calling for him to step aside for a new candidate. The billionaire businessman supported Trump in a post on X after the former president was injured while speaking at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday night.

Palantir’s Joe Lonsdale and crypto billionaires Cameron Winklevoss and Tyler Winklevoss are among other major donors to the America PAC group, which is working to reach voters and convince them to go to the polls in November.

The super political action committee raised $8.8 million in the second quarter, spent $7.8 million and started July with just under $1 million in cash on hand, according to its most recent filing with the Election Commission Federal.

Musk — who did not contribute until July, according to a person familiar with the matter — was not listed in the report, which includes donations made between the PAC’s founding on May 22 and the end of June.

Lonsdale donated $1 million through his company Lonsdale Enterprises Inc. The Winklevoss twins donated $250,000 each. Other donors include Joe Craft, executive director of Alliance Resource Partners, who donated $1 million. His wife, Kelly Craft, was U.S. ambassador to the United Nations under Trump.

Douglas Leone of Sequoia Capital donated $1 million, as did Florida restaurateur James Liautaud.

The donations show the growing momentum Trump has among big donors in the technology and financial worlds, which began after his May 30 conviction by a Manhattan jury on criminal charges related to hush money payments to an adult film star. Venture capitalist David Sacks hosted a fundraiser for Trump on June 6 that raised $12 million.

Citadel’s Ken Griffin and Paul Singer, founder of Elliott Investment Management, both Trump critics, met with the former president to discuss donating to his White House bid. Neither of them committed to donating.

Biden’s disastrous performance in his June 27 debate with Trump, which plunged the Democratic Party into an internecine struggle between his supporters and those who would prefer a different standard-bearer, accelerated the shift to Trump.

See more information: Inside the Biden debate debacle and the fight to quell the democratic panic

America PAC is working mostly behind the scenes to bolster the Trump campaign’s base game.

While FEC disclosures do not detail where the work is taking place, canvassing and voter turnout efforts are conducted most intensively in key battleground states that will determine the outcome of the election.

Democrats have invested heavily in field offices and staff in swing states, moves Biden regularly touts.

A super-PAC that matches these efforts on Trump’s behalf gives Republicans a big monetary advantage to spend official campaign money elsewhere in what is predicted to be the most expensive presidential election in U.S. history.

Among the external organizations that support Trump, América PAC is the one that spends the most on direct contacts with voters. So far, it has spent $15.8 million, of which $13.1 million has gone to field operations, federal records show. It also paid for digital means, text messages and phone calls to reach voters.

The group focuses on door-to-door persuasion and get-out-the-vote efforts. A recent FEC ruling allows super-PACs to coordinate with voter awareness campaigns.