Billionaire Tesla CEO Elon Musk has become one of the most prominent Republican mega-donors in the 2024 US presidential election, spending nearly USD75 million to help reelect Donald Trump to the White House, according to data released Tuesday by the Federal Election Commission (FEC).
Musk, who is lauded as the world's richest person, was the sole donor to American PAC, a political action committee he created that spent about USD72 million to support Trump's bid to regain the White House. The fundraising totals were collected from the FEC's quarterly filing between July and September.
Musk endorsed Trump in July following a failed assassination attempt on the former president in the state of Pennsylvania.
Since then, his super PAC has been concentrating efforts in key battleground states and has become a significant fundraising arm for Trump's campaign, with Musk joining the former president on stage at a campaign rally at the site of the assassination attempt.
Other major Republican donors listed in the report included venture capitalist investors Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, who each donated USD2.5 million to a super PAC raising money for the former president.
Horowitz said he would also make a "significant donation," to support Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, according to media outlets.
Miriam Adelson, a prominent Israeli-American Republican power player, alongside her late husband and casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, was listed as another mega-donor. Adelson's super PAC, Preserve America, has raised nearly USD100 million for Trump's bid to retake the Oval Office.
Railroad heir Timothy Mellon was listed as the largest Republican mega-donor this year, contributing USD125 million to the Make America Great Again super PAC.
Despite the cascade of money coming in for Republican political action groups, the amount of funds raised for Trump pales in comparison to the dollars being brought in for Harris and Democratic fundraising organizations.
An example cited by National Public Radio revealed that the Republican political action group, Trump 47, raised USD145 million during the summer.
In contrast, a comparable Democratic joint fundraising group, the Harris Victory Fund, eclipsed Trump 47's fundraising efforts by more than four times the amount, raking in USD633 million during the same period.
Another Harris super PAC, Future Forward, has already raised USD175 million this calendar year. The group's largest individual donors include billionaire and former New York City mayor Mike Bloomberg, who donated USD19 million and LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman, who contributed USD10 million. (Anadolu)
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