How the world's richest man is helping Trump's presidential bid
U.S. billionaire Elon Musk has used his X social media
platform and his enormous wealth to support Republican presidential candidate
Donald Trump’s efforts to get reelected, going far beyond what political
megadonors historically do.
Musk, 53, who has said he has voted for Democratic
presidential candidates in the past, has become more publicly right-leaning
during this election campaign. He endorsed Trump in July and appeared with him
in Pennsylvania this month.
If re-elected, Trump promises to
make Musk head of a government efficiency commission, a job Musk vows will help
rid the country of regulations he views as bad for the economy and a deterrent
to doing business.
The CEO of Tesla (TSLA.O) and SpaceX and owner of X have millions of dollars in
government contracts and his companies face significant and at times costly
government regulations related to consumer and environmental protections.
Neither Musk nor the presidential campaign of Democrat
Kamala Harris responded to Reuters requests for comment about Musk’s pro-Trump
activities.
AMERICA PAC
Musk's pro-Trump spending group America PAC is playing a
major role in helping mobilize and register voters in battleground states that
could decide the election. Musk, ranked by Forbes as the world's richest
person, so far has supplied at least $75
million to the political action committee, according to federal
disclosures.
America PAC spent around $72 million of that total in the
July-September period, according to disclosures filed to the Federal Election
Commission. That is more than any other pro-Trump super PAC focused on turning
out voters.
America PAC is struggling in some battleground states to
meet door-knocking goals and is investigating claims that some canvassers lied
about the number of voters they have contacted, Reuters reported last
week.
Musk has over 202 million followers on the X social media
platform, which he bought for $44 billion in October 2022, when it was known as
Twitter. Since endorsing Trump, he has used the platform to promote the
Republican candidate. Some of his posts spread misinformation and sow doubt
about the integrity of the upcoming election.
In July, for example, he commented on a post from Republican
House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson, writing: “The goal all along has
been to import as many illegal voters as possible,” repeating the false claim
that Democrats are intentionally allowing non-citizens into the country so that
they can vote in the election.
The same month, he shared a video, generated with artificial
intelligence and manipulating Vice President Harris’ voice, in which Harris,
the daughter of a Jamaican father and Indian mother, described herself as the
“ultimate diversity hire” and criticized President Joe Biden.
Musk has been critical of diversity, equity and inclusion
(DEI) programs meant to boost racial and ethnic representation at workplaces,
posting in January, for example, that “DEI is just another word for racism.
Shame on anyone who uses it.”
X and other social media platforms have been under greater
scrutiny since 2016 when Russia interfered in the U.S. presidential election
to try to boost Trump's candidacy and harm his opponent, Democrat Hillary
Clinton.
Since Musk's acquisition of Twitter in 2022, civil
rights groups have raised concerns over a rise in hate speech and misinformation
due to reduced content moderation.
Under X’s current policy, the platform may “label posts
containing misleading media to help people understand their authenticity and to
provide additional context” or remove misleading posts that have a serious risk
of harm.
Yet researchers say it continues to be a source of election
misinformation, through fake
accounts and Musk’s own amplification of that content.
Musk is also promising to
give $1 million each day to randomly selected people who sign his online
petition pledging to support the First and Second Amendments of the U.S.
Constitution, which protect the rights to free speech and gun ownership. The
petition is only open to signatories who are registered voters in seven
battleground states likely to decide the presidential election.
The petition falls into a gray
area of election law, and legal experts are divided about whether Musk
could be running afoul of prohibitions on paying people to register to vote.
Critics say it is a ploy to help drum up support for Trump.
America PAC has been publishing promotional video interviews
and photos of people who have won the $1 million giveaways on Musk's X, where
they garner millions of views. Petition signers need to provide their address
and cellphone number, suggesting they could then be contacted by America PAC
door-knockers.
Musk joined Trump at an Oct. 5 rally in Butler,
Pennsylvania, the scene of a July assassination attempt against the Republican
candidate, and returned to the state for additional campaign stops less than
two weeks later.
While touring
in Pennsylvania, Musk made a string of false claims about election fraud,
some of them echoing those made by Trump over the last four years.
He also encouraged people to use his X platform to shine a
spotlight on potential election cheating.
“If people think there's a fraud, then they should post the
images, post the videos, post the evidence," he said.
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