Billionaire Elon Musk poured more than $20 million into a mysterious super PAC at the end of the 2024 campaign, part of more than $250 million he spent overall to boost President-elect Donald Trump, new campaign finance reports show.
Musk financed RBG PAC, according to the report the group filed Thursday night with the Federal Election Commission. The super PAC, which did not disclose its donors before the election, launched ads contending that Trump did not support a federal abortion ban.
All of the money the group pulled in — $20.5 million — came from a single donation from the Elon Musk Revocable Trust in Austin, Texas. RBG PAC spent almost all of its money on digital ads, mailers and text messages, according to the campaign finance report, which covered Oct. 17 through Nov. 25.
The group's website says Trump and the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg agree on the abortion issue, drawing criticism from Ginsburg's granddaughter Clara Spara, who told The New York Times that the message was "nothing short of appalling."
Trump took credit for the Supreme Court's overturning Roe v. Wade, a decision that came after three Trump-appointed justices voted with the majority to overturn the national right to an abortion. (One of those justices, Amy Coney Barrett, was appointed to replace Ginsburg weeks before the 2020 election, after Ginsburg died in mid-September.) As president, he supported a federal ban on abortion after 20 weeks.
But during this campaign, Trump backed away from that position and instead declared that he supported states' rights to decide abortion laws. Democrats still hit Trump hard on his past positions to argue that if he were elected, he and a Republican Congress would restrict abortion nationwide.
The late ad blitz from RBG PAC is only a small fraction of Musk's total election spending this year: He also financed America PAC, a super PAC that reported spending $157 million supporting Trump in the presidential race.
America PAC’s latest campaign finance report showed Musk donated $238 million to the group throughout the election cycle, including in-kind contributions. And $120 million of that came in the final weeks of the race alone. Musk also cut a check for more than $920,000 to one of Trump's joint fundraising committees a few weeks before Election Day.
Federal disclosures show America PAC spent heavily on canvassing, text message-based get-out-the-vote efforts, printing and postage (most likely for direct mail), as well as digital advertising. It also ran a controversial cash giveaway that gave out $1 million each day to someone who signed the group's conservative-leaning petition.
Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner sued Musk and America PAC in late October trying to halt the giveaway, but a judge in the state did not agree to stop the program. The Justice Department also warned the PAC around the same time that the giveaway might be illegal, but it has taken no public action on it.
America PAC’s campaign finance report lists each of the $1 million prizes as payments for a "spokesperson consultant."
Musk also gave $3 million to the MAHA Alliance, a super PAC affiliated with Robert F. Kennedy's "Make America Healthy Again" push, in late October.
It's possible that Musk donated more to pro-Trump efforts, too, as political committees continue to file fundraising reports pegged to Thursday night's deadline.
Musk, the founder of Space X and CEO of Tesla, is one of Trump's top donors this cycle, but he has also been among his most visible. He has been a regular presence at Mar-a-Lago, Trump's Florida estate, and by Trump's side during the transition (to the consternation of some in Trump's orbit).
Trump selected Musk to advise him on cutting spending across the federal government as a co-chair of his "Department of Government Efficiency" initiative.
