Elon Musk has used the social media platform he controls to generate about 3.3 billion views on X by raising concerns about election security risks since January of this year, making the tech entrepreneur one of the most ubiquitous voices on elections during the 2024 campaign.
“An analysis of nearly 17,000 of Musk’s posts from this year, as well as thousands more he replied to or reposted, found 361 posts specifically on the topic of potential election fraud in U.S. elections. Although these election posts represent a small fraction of the dozens of posts Musk publishes each day, each one had an average of 9.3 million views as Musk continues to be the most followed profile on X,” CBS News reported.
Musk’s massive Twitter account has liberals worried that his reach and power will tip the election in favor of former President Donald Trump and Republicans.
“The tech entrepreneur said that he voted Republican for the first time in a Texas congressional race in June 2022. A month later, he wrote that he thought it was time ‘for Trump to hang up his hat.’ Over the next two years, posts criticizing President Biden and the prosecution of Trump became more frequent,” CBS reported.
“On July 13, 2024, the day of the first attempted assassination of Trump, Musk announced his formal endorsement of the Republican candidate for a second term. Since then, his posts have shown full-throated support for Trump,” the report added.
Musk has made a huge donation to a political organization aligned with Trump, officially making him a Republican “megadonor.
Musk gave $75 million to a superPAC he set up over the past three months, according to election-related financial disclosures, Reuters reported.
America PAC, which aims to mobilize voters in closely contested states that could determine the election outcome, spent approximately $72 million during the July-September period, according to disclosures filed with the Federal Election Commission.
This amount surpasses that of any other pro-Trump superPAC focused on voter turnout. The Trump campaign heavily relies on outside groups for voter canvassing, meaning the superPAC founded by Musk—the world’s richest man—plays a significant role in the tightly contested election between Trump and Democrat nominee Vice President Kamala Harris, Reuters noted further.
Musk, the CEO of electric car manufacturer Tesla, was the only donor to the group during that period.
Although Musk has stated that he has voted for Democratic presidential candidates in the past, he has made a notable shift to the right in this election cycle. He endorsed Trump in July and joined him at a rally in Pennsylvania earlier this month, the outlet noted.
On Wednesday, Musk announced in a post on X that he will be “giving a series of talks” across Pennsylvania, just under two weeks after his appearance with Trump in the state.
He mentioned that people only need to sign a petition on his America PAC website to attend his talks, scheduled from “tomorrow night through Monday.”
Last week, Reuters reported, citing a source, that Musk plans to ramp up his campaigning for Trump in Pennsylvania, which is viewed as a critical state for both Trump and his Democratic opponent, Harris, in the race for the White House.
Musk’s contributions to America PAC elevate him to the ranks of Republican mega-donors, a group that also includes banking heir Timothy Mellon and casino billionaire Miriam Adelson. However, Reuters revealed earlier this month that Musk had been secretly funding a conservative political group for years, long before his public support for Trump.
America PAC aims to motivate Americans who support Trump but do not always vote to participate in this election cycle, employing a high-risk, labor-intensive strategy for the Trump campaign, noted Reuters. The group, which began its efforts later than other PACs in the election cycle, has faced challenges with hiring and its contractors. Since July, it has terminated two major contractors hired to canvass neighborhoods.
Additionally, it has struggled to recruit doorknockers in several battleground states, partly because many other canvassing groups had already staffed up by the time America PAC became operational, according to half a dozen sources briefed on the matter, as reported by Reuters.
According to the filings, the group had about $4 million in its funds left over by the end of September.
“Separate filings earlier on Tuesday showed that Miriam Adelson, the casino magnate, donated $95 million to another pro-Trump superPAC, Preserve America PAC, in the same period,” Reuters said.
