WASHINGTON (AP) — Elon Musk’s super PAC spent about $200 million to help elect Donald Trump, according to a person familiar with the group’s spending, funding an effort that set a new standard for how where billionaires can influence elections.
Billionaire Tesla and SpaceX CEO provided the vast majority of the money to America PAC, which targeted low-propensity and first-time voters, according to the person, who was not authorized to publicly disclose the figure and spoke at condition of anonymity.
The America PAC’s work was helped by a Federal Election Commission ruling in March that cleared the way for super PACs to coordinate their campaigns, allowing the Trump campaign to rely on the virtually unlimited money of its most high-profile billionaire of the country. increase turnout in deep red parts of the country. This allowed the campaign to spend the money it saved on everything from national advertising campaigns to targeted outreach to demographics once dominated by Democrats.
The plan worked for both parties. Trump saw significant turnout increases in battleground states, and at the end of the campaign, the president-elect cited Musk’s role in the race. “We have a new star,” Trump said at his election party in Florida. “A Star is Born – Elon!”
“The FEC ruling cleared the way for us to take more advantage of soft-money companies that were doing this work anyway,” said James Blair, political director of the Trump campaign.
Blair served as the main bridge between the Trump operation and groups like America PAC — a far cry from the early days when super PACs had to strategize without officially communicating with the campaigns they supported.
“Saving hard dollars allowed us to go broader and deeper into paid voter outreach and advertising programs,” Blair said. That, he added, included broad advertising campaigns aimed at a national audience, but also, crucially, more targeted campaigns that sought to increase turnout among black and Latino men, two areas where Trump made huge gains in 2024.
It wasn’t just Musk’s money that helped Trump. The billionaire businessman became one of Trump’s most prominent surrogates in the final months of the campaign, often appearing on stage with the former president. His support gave Trump a clear opening to the universe of younger men who look up to Musk.
Trump also benefited from Musk’s ownership of . Like many conservatives, Musk is a fierce critic of social media. media efforts to counter disinformation, arguing that these efforts amount to pro-government censorship.
Musk is now expected to play a key role in a second Trump administration. The president-elect has said he will put Musk, whose rocket company works with the Defense Department and intelligence agencies, in charge of a new government efficiency commission.
A challenge to conventional wisdom
The work between the Trump campaign and America PAC could have long-lasting consequences.
It could bring about a wholesale change in the way presidential races are run, challenging long-standing conventional wisdom about campaigns lacking total control over their on-the-ground schedule, the impact billionaires can have in politics, and the effectiveness of paid canvassing operations , be nullified.
One reason for skepticism is that this model has failed spectacularly in previous campaigns, most notably during Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’s 2024 Republican presidential campaign against Trump.
DeSantis relied on an outside group to support his campaign more than any other candidate in the primary. The group, Never Back Down, was beset by internal problems, and despite spending $130 million to endorse the Florida governor, it was overrun by Trump and his campaign operation in Iowa.
One of the most persistent issues, however, has been the blurring of lines between the campaign and the outside group around what is legally permissible, an issue that has concerned some within the governor’s official campaign.
However, that was before the FEC ruling, which meant that Trump and Musk’s group was operating in a completely different universe than it was just a few months earlier during the primaries.
The ruling “allowed for a much more direct line of communication regarding prospecting,” Blair said. “That is a real difference and a crucial difference.”
Musk’s outside group was formed in May, but it wasn’t until Musk declared his support for Trump in July after the former president survived an assassination attempt that the group began its emergence work more clearly. A week later, Musk acknowledged the new commission in an interview with a conservative podcaster, and a host of top Republican operatives with ties to DeSantis joined the effort.
The group ran ads warning that if people sit out the election, “Kamala and the crazies will win.” The most prominent part of America PAC’s work was a $1 million-a-day election to voters, which landed the group in court before a judge said it could proceed. The lottery and subsequent lawsuit attracted a lot of attention, but much of America PAC’s work happened under the radar.
Door knocking was perhaps the America PAC’s most impactful work, with Trump experiencing a surge in turnout in key rural areas in battleground states. However, the work was not without controversy.
A report from The Guardian found that America PAC’s efforts were full of paid prospects who falsified their work and said they had knocked on doors they had not visited. Multiple reports from Wired alleged that some of those paid canvassers worked in poor conditions, including riding in the back of a rented U-Haul van and facing threats to meet unachievable quotas. Canvassers were fired after the Wired report, which led to a lawsuit against America PAC.
A spokesperson for America PAC declined to comment for this story.
Musk, meanwhile, indicated in an election night interview on
