Elon Musk was the sole funder of a super PAC formed in the final weeks of the election that spent millions on ads claiming Donald Trump’s position on abortion was aligned with that of the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
The $20.5 million that Musk put into that group, RBG PAC, accounted for just a small fraction of his total political spending this year, which included $238 million to a super PAC he started and millions more to other GOP groups.
In total, the richest person in the world plowed more than $260 million into the 2024 election, making him likely the single largest individual political donor of the cycle.
Musk’s involvement with his group, America PAC, was well-known, with the tech CEO appearing at events in swing states, posting about the super PAC on X and conducting very public sweepstakes. But RBG PAC — and Musk’s involvement in it — was more secretive. He poured $20.5 million into the group on Oct. 24, which was not revealed until it filed a campaign finance report with the Federal Election Commission late Thursday. The timing of the donation meant that Musk’s support did not have to be disclosed until after the election, and neither he nor the group publicly touted his backing.
RBG PAC spent nearly all of its money on advertising. Its ads claimed that Ginsburg — the liberal longtime justice and staunch women’s rights advocate who died in 2020 — was of “one mind” with Trump on the issue of abortion. Its website featured photos of Trump and Ginsburg with the caption “great minds think alike.”
Justices largely avoid speaking publicly about presidential politics, but Ginsburg’s dying wish in 2020 was that she not be replaced on the court by Trump, her granddaughter said. Trump replaced her with Amy Coney Barrett shortly before the 2020 election; Barrett was in the judicial majority that voted to overturn Roe vs. Wade two years later.
The flurry of RBG PAC advertising came in the final weeks of this year’s election, after Democrats spent months — years — hitting Trump on the issue of abortion after the court led by justices he appointed overturned Roe, leading more than a dozen states to ban the procedure.
Musk — who is poised to advise Trump under the banner of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency — became a major political player this year, endorsing Trump and appearing alongside him on the campaign trail. His spending was mostly in the presidential race, but he also dropped millions for down-ballot elections.
His America PAC raised $252 million over the cycle. Its late spending push included nearly $41 million related to the petition the group circulated, with Musk promising $1 million giveaways to certain signers and smaller checks to others who referred voters to sign. The group also spent tens of millions on canvassing and mailers in the presidential race, and a few million dollars across more than a dozen House races.
In late October, Musk also gave $3 million to a super PAC linked to Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and $924,600 to Trump 47 Committee, his first direct donation to Trump’s operation. That joint fundraising committee sends money to Trump’s campaign as well as the Republican National Committee and other GOP groups.
Musk this year also previously gave $1 million to the GOP-linked super PAC Early Vote Action and several hundred thousand dollars to a joint fundraising committee affiliated with Rep. Ken Calvert (R-Calif.).
