Elon Musk Donates $75 Million to His Personal Professional-Trump Group

Elon Musk, a far-right influencer who additionally occurs to be one of many wealthiest individuals on this planet, fashioned a political motion committee in Could known as America PAC, a bunch devoted to re-electing former president Donald Trump. And the PAC’s quarterly submitting with the Federal Election Fee was posted publicly late Tuesday, revealing Musk has donated nearly $75 million since July 3. That sum makes Musk one of many largest contributors to Trump-aligned propaganda teams on this election cycle.

Musk responded overnight on X to information of his donations being made public that his America PAC, “is simply aiming for widespread sense, centrist values.” It needs to be famous, after all, that that is horseshit. It’s full and utter horseshit, since Trump is a racist, convicted felon and sexual predator who dismantled abortion rights on this nation and guarantees to be a dictator on day one. , centrist stuff.

The Wall Street Journal reported again on July 16 that Musk was more likely to donate round $45 million per thirty days to his PAC, a declare the Tesla CEO initially denied. Musk tweeted a graphic that learn “fake gnus” in regards to the preliminary report, main a lot of his defenders to assume he wasn’t donating something. However that wasn’t the case, clearly.

pic.twitter.com/RJdF7MWeEi

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 16, 2024

Musk later admitted he was contributing money to America PAC, simply not $45 million per thirty days. The billionaire didn’t elaborate, making a guessing recreation for most of the people because it grew to become more and more clear that Musk had inserted himself into the election cycle. Other than selling pro-Trump content material on the social media website he bought, previously often known as Twitter, Musk additionally appeared at an Oct. 5 rally for Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, the place he jumped around like a clumsy toddler, exposing his abdomen and customarily making a idiot of himself.

However the day after we would lastly learn the way a lot cash Musk had donated was inevitably going to return round. In actuality, the tech mogul donated $14.95 million in July, $30 million in August, and $30 million in September, in response to the FEC submitting, totaling $74.95 million.

The FEC submitting covers donations from July 1 to Sept. 30, so it’s unclear if Musk has made any donations prior to now two weeks. And whereas Musk’s preliminary donations weren’t reaching the extent of $45 million per thirty days, because the Wall Road Journal claimed, it was nonetheless a great chunk of cash. Musk additionally is aware of fairly nicely that this was the final FEC submitting earlier than the election on Nov. 5, so there’s loads of time for Musk to inject more money earlier than any of it may be made public.

Musk’s donations:

• $5 million on July 3
• $5 million on July 10
• $4.95 million on July 18
• $7.5 million on Aug. 5
• $7.5 million on Aug. 6
• $15 million on Aug. 20
• $30 million on Sept. 5

What does all of this cash get spent on? The group buys digital advertisements on platforms like Google, YouTube, and Fb in an effort to persuade those that Trump, a convicted felon and racist dullard, is definitely the one that ought to run this nation once more. There are additionally a handful of advertisements for Republicans in very aggressive Home races.

A number of the advertisements even characteristic Musk himself, imploring individuals to “struggle, struggle, struggle” and “vote, vote, vote” for Trump, like within the advert beneath, one which’s at present working on YouTube.

The Fb advertisements are significantly embarrassing, given the truth that they promise anybody who requests a mail-in poll for the upcoming election will get their identify despatched to Trump at his dwelling in Mar-a-Lago. A number of the advertisements even check with one thing known as the 47 Club, a reference to Trump hoping to be the forty seventh president.

“The 47 Membership isn’t for everybody. It’s an elite group Trump trusts,” the narrator says. “To develop into a member, you should do one factor. Request a mail-in poll. When you do, your identify goes straight to Mar-a-Lago. Vote by mail and save America.”

The model appears to imitate the “secret” membership golf equipment promoted by toy and cereal producers within the 1950s and 60s when the audience of Boomers have been youngsters. The implication is that Trump himself will see their identify, although anybody who’s impressed by that transparently pretend promise most likely isn’t sensible sufficient to signal their very own identify on a poll, not to mention function a pc.

America PAC additionally made headlines just lately when it promised to offer $47 cash to anybody who indicators a “petition” in a swing state that pledges to help the First and Second Amendments. The ploy is clearly a technique to acquire private data on voters in battleground states, although it’s not clear how many individuals have really participated nor whether or not they’ll really receives a commission. It’s additionally unclear what the data will probably be used for this near the election.

The group additionally pays individuals to go door-to-door and ask them to vote for Trump. However new reviews from the Washington Post and the Guardian about on-the-ground actions of the group make all the endeavor sound like a disorganized shitshow. And that most likely gained’t come as a shock to many individuals, given Musk’s fame as a person who mismanages so many facets of his companies.

America PAC reportedly pays staff between $20-40 per hour to knock on doorways and persuade seemingly Trump voters in essential swing states to get out and vote early. However these staff seems to typically have dangerous information, in response to the Publish, usually coming upon houses occupied by individuals who say they’ll vote for Kamala Harris or undecided voters who’re arduous to steer.

The employees use an app known as Marketing campaign Sidekick which might be glitchy, because the Washington Publish reviews, and requires quick cellular connections to work as meant. That’s clearly an issue in additional rural areas of battleground states like Wisconsin, the place the Publish spoke with a employee who was out knocking on doorways.

When a given employee doesn’t have a quick cellular connection, they’re supposed to make use of the app in “offline” mode, which presents much more challenges, in response to the Guardian, because it doesn’t add accomplished routes correctly because the information outlet tells it. Monitoring these routes is crucial to make sure staff are hitting the precise homes but in addition to ensure efforts aren’t being duplicated. Marketing campaign Sidekick didn’t instantly reply to a message Tuesday however pushed again to the Guardian in opposition to claims the app is glitchy, “saying it has at all times been upfront in regards to the limitations of offline walkbook.”

To complicate issues additional, the employees might not even be correctly participating individuals after they exit on their routes, in response to the Guardian, with some workers simply “speed-running” an assigned route and throwing marketing campaign supplies on the door with out knocking. Employees are paid by the variety of doorways they knock, which creates much more dangerous incentives for individuals who will not be true believers in MAGA’s fascist trigger. All of it feels like a large number, clearly. However that’s to be anticipated on some stage with paid workers employed in a rush.

And it feels like all the pieces actually has been in a rush. The Publish reviews that a few of Musk’s early political advisors warned him that he was making an attempt to maneuver issues too shortly, given the time obtainable earlier than the election, “cautioning that it will require months extra to correctly rent and practice the required workers.” However doing issues too shortly and making an attempt to cope with the fallout is form of Musk’s total playbook, as anybody who noticed the smoke and mirrors at Tesla’s massive Cybercab occasion last week can attest.

The newspaper additionally notes that Musk fired not less than three distributors over the summer time simply as they have been about to get began, making an already condensed timeline much more chaotic. And Musk has been micromanaging issues in a irritating manner, in response to a number of reviews that date back to September.

Musk endorsed Trump shortly after the previous president was shot at throughout certainly one of his neo-fascist rallies in Butler, Pennsylvania. And Musk has mentioned that he believes Democrats will put him in prison if Trump doesn’t win, although it’s not completely clear why he may assume that. Musk additionally reportedly banned a reporter from X for releasing a file on JD Vance after the Trump marketing campaign coordinated with the billionaire. That reporter has since been reinstated to Musk’s social media platform after the coordination grew to become public.

The race between Trump and Harris continues to be neck-and-neck should you can consider it, with FiveThirtyEight’s polling common exhibiting Harris up simply 2.4% within the nationwide polling. Issues are even tighter within the must-win states of Wisconsin, the place Harris is up simply 0.5%, Pennsylvania, the place she’s up simply 0.7% and Michigan, the place she’s additionally up simply 0.7%. It’s going to be a detailed one if the polls are to be believed.