Elon Musk Is Prepared to Spend at Least $140 Million to Help Elect Donald Trump

Tesla boss Elon Musk is spending big to help Donald Trump get back in the White House.

The New York Times on Friday reported Musk’s pro-Trump super PAC, dubbed the America PAC, has “spent about $80 million” so far this campaign. But that figure may soon be updated to show anywhere between $140 million and $180 million spent on helping the Republican candidate.

Here’s the key section from the NYT story: “The scale of Mr. Musk’s personal financial commitment will not be made public until the middle of [October]. Initially, Mr. Musk and his friends in the group had spoken of a budget totaling from $140 million to $180 million, almost all it from Mr. Musk himself. The group has told other prospective donors in recent weeks that it is fully funded.”

Musk has been open about his support for the former president in recent months. He publicly endorsed Trump after his first assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania, in July. Since then, he’s posted on X in favor of Trump, hosted a live conversation with him on X Spaces in August and joined the reality TV show host-turned-politician on stage when he returned to Butler last weekend.

“President Trump must win to preserve the Constitution,” Musk said at Trump’s rally last week. “He must win to preserve democracy in America.”

The Times, in its Friday story, called Musk’s support of Trump “obsessive, almost manic.”

America PAC’s website, which includes a picture of Musk in his “dark MAGA” hat, lists a handful of top priorities, including free speech, safe cities and secure borders. The PAC is focused on knocking on doors in battleground states like Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, with a goal of getting 800,000 to 1 million citizens to vote for Trump.

Vice President Kamala Harris, meanwhile, has a number of big-name billionaires backing her, including Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings, former Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg and LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman.

Harris has raised $1 billion in less than three months since replacing President Joe Biden as the Democratic nominee.