Washington:
Tech billionaire Elon Musk spent at least $270 million to help Donald Trump win the US presidential election, making him the country’s biggest political donor, according to new federal filings.
Musk, the world’s richest man and CEO of SpaceX and Tesla, has been an ardent supporter of President Trump’s White House campaign, pouring money into door-knocking campaigns and speaking at rallies.
His financial support helped him secure a cost-cutting advisory role in the incoming Trump administration and has outspent any single political donor since at least 2010, according to data from the nonprofit organization OpenSecrets.
The Washington Post reported that Musk has donated nearly $200 million this election cycle, outspending Trump supporter Tim Mellon, who was previously the Republican Party’s biggest donor. Ta.
Musk donated $238 million to America PAC, a political action committee he founded to support Trump, according to documents filed with the Federal Election Commission late Thursday.
An additional $20 million was donated to RBG PAC. The group used ads to try to soften President Trump’s hard-line reputation on an issue important to voters: abortion.
Musk has been a close ally of President Trump since winning the presidential election in November, inviting him to watch a rocket launch in Texas by Musk’s SpaceX company.
President Trump has chosen his South African-born business tycoon and ally Vivek Ramaswami to head the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, through which they have promised to cut billions of dollars in federal spending.
But all of Musk’s businesses have varying degrees of interaction with U.S. and foreign governments, and his new position also raises concerns about conflicts of interest.
The president-elect has named several people close to Musk to roles in his administration, including the so-called AI and crypto czar, investor David Sachs.
Meanwhile, billionaire astronaut Jared Isaacman, who has worked with Musk’s SpaceX, has been named head of the US space agency NASA.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
