On Monday, Tesla CEO Elon Musk denied a report that he is donating $45 million per month to a Super PAC to boost Donald Trump, while taking credit for starting the group.
The Wall Street Journal reported last week that “Musk has said he plans to commit around $45 million a month” to the pro-Trump super PAC, citing “people familiar with the matter.” Musk, the world’s richest man, rejected the WSJ report in an interview on Monday with conservative commentator Jordan Peterson.
“What’s been reported in the media is simply not true,” Musk said. “I’m not donating $45 million a month to Trump. What I have done is I have created a PAC, or super PAC, whatever you want to call it. I simply call it the America PAC.”
Over the weekend, Trump bragged about Musk’s reported donations at a campaign rally in Michigan.
“I love Elon Musk,” Trump said, telling the crowd: “Elon endorsed me the other day. I read — I didn’t even know this. He did not tell me about it. He gives me $45 million a month. Not $45 million — he gives me $45 million a month. I talked to him just a little while ago to say I was coming here, ‘how you doing.’ He did not even mention it.”
The New York Times reported Tuesday that America PAC is being led by several consultants involved with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ failed Republican presidential bid against Trump this election cycle.
Musk, who is worth an estimated $250 billion, said Monday he’s chosen to fund the Super PAC because he can give more money that way. “You can donate money directly to candidates — that amount is fairly small,” he said. “You can donate a lot more money to … a super PAC. There are various rules that govern the operation of PACs and super PACs, but it certainly allows for a lot more money in the system than would otherwise be possible.”
He said that America PAC is “not meant to be sort of a hyper-partisan PAC,” and that his “intent is to promote the principles that made America great in the first place.” He continued: “I wouldn’t say that I’m, for example, MAGA, or Make America Great Again. I think America is great. I’m more M-A-G, Make America Greater.”
While Trump called Musk “brilliant” over the weekend and praised him for his ingenuity, he previously panned the billionaire and his businesses.
“When Elon Musk came to the White House asking me for help on all his many subsidized projects,” Trump wrote in 2022, “whether it’s electric cars that don’t drive long enough, driverless cars that crash, or rocketships to nowhere, without which subsidies he’d be worthless, and telling me how he was a big Trump fan and Republican, I could have said, ‘drop to your knees and beg,’ and he would have done it.”