Elon Musk’s super PAC spent approximately $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 billionaires can influence elections.
According to the person, who was not authorized to disclose the figure publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity, the billionaire CEO of Tesla and SpaceX donated the vast majority of the funds to America PAC, which targeted low-propensity and first-time voters.
America PAC’s work was aided by a March Federal Election Commission decision that allowed super PACs to coordinate their canvassing efforts with campaigns, allowing the Trump campaign to rely on the near-limitless funds of the nation’s most prominent billionaire to boost turnout in deep-red states.
This allowed the campaign to spend the money saved on everything from national ad campaigns to targeted outreach to previously Democratic-dominated demographics.
The plan worked for both parties. Trump saw significant turnout increases in battleground states, and at the end of the campaign, the president-elect attributed Musk’s role to the victory. “We have a new star,” Trump announced at his election night party in Florida. “A star is born — Elon!”
“The FEC ruling cleared the way for us to gain more benefit from soft money enterprises that were going out and doing this work anyway,” said James Blair, political director for the Trump campaign.
Blair served as the primary liaison between the Trump campaign and groups such as America PAC, a far cry from the early days when super PACs had to decide their strategy without officially communicating with the campaigns they supported.
“By conserving hard dollars, we were able to go wider and deeper on paid voter contact and advertising programs,” Blair informed the audience. That, he added, included both broad ad campaigns aimed at a national audience and — more importantly — more targeted campaigns aimed at increasing turnout among Black and Latino men, two areas where Trump saw significant gains in 2024.
Trump benefited from more than just Musk’s money. The billionaire businessman became one of Trump’s most visible surrogates in the final months of the campaign, frequently accompanying the former president onstage. His support provided Trump with a clear path into the universe of young men who look up to Musk.
Trump also benefited from Musk’s ownership of X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, and the company’s efforts to eliminate many of the rules that hampered Trump prior to his dismissal in 2021.
Musk, like many conservatives, is an outspoken critic of social media efforts to combat disinformation, claiming that they amount to pro-government censorship.
Musk is expected to play a significant role in a second Trump administration. The president-elect has said he will appoint Musk, whose rocket company collaborates with the Defense Department and intelligence agencies, to lead a new government efficiency commission.
A challenge to conventional wisdom
The collaboration between the Trump campaign and America PAC has long-term implications.
It has the potential to revolutionize the way presidential campaigns are run, challenging long-held conventional wisdom about campaigns’ lack of complete control over their field operations, the influence billionaires can have in politics, and the efficacy of paid canvassing operations.
One reason for skepticism is that this model has failed spectacularly in previous campaigns, most notably Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ 2024 Republican presidential primary against Trump.
DeSantis, more than any other candidate in the primary, relied on an outside organization to support his campaign. Never Back Down was plagued by internal problems, and despite spending $130 million to promote the Florida governor, it was overshadowed by Trump and his Iowa campaign operation.
One of the most persistent issues, however, was the blurring of legal boundaries between the campaign and the outside group, which concerned some within the governor’s official campaign.
That, however, occurred prior to the FEC ruling, implying that Trump and Musk’s group were operating in a completely different universe than they had a few months earlier during the primary.
The decision “allowed a much more direct line of communication regarding canvassing,” Blair said. “That is a real difference and a critical difference.”
Musk’s outside group was founded in May, but it wasn’t until Musk endorsed Trump in July, after the former president survived an assassination attempt, that the group became more visible in its turnout efforts.
A week later, in an interview with a conservative podcaster, Musk mentioned the new committee, and a slew of top Republican operatives with ties to DeSantis joined the effort.
The group ran advertisements warning that if people boycotted the election, “Kamala and the crazies will win.” The most visible aspect of America PAC’s work was a $1 million-a-day voter sweepstakes, which landed the organization in court before a judge allowed it to continue.
Although the sweepstakes and subsequent court case received a lot of attention, much of America PAC’s work went unnoticed.
Door knocking was arguably America PAC’s most effective strategy, with Trump seeing increased turnout in key rural areas in battleground states. The project, however, was not without controversy.
According to The Guardian, paid canvassers for America PAC were faking their work and claiming to have knocked on doors they had not visited.
Multiple Wired reports claimed that some of those paid canvassers worked in deplorable conditions, including riding in the back of a rented U-Haul van and facing threats to meet unrealistic quotas. Canvassers were fired following the Wired report, prompting a lawsuit against America PAC.
A representative from America PAC declined to comment on the record for this story.
Musk, meanwhile, indicated in an election night conversation on X that his PAC will remain active in politics, “preparing for the midterms and any intermediate elections, as well as looking at elections at the District Attorney and sort of judicial levels.”
