American billionaire Elon Musk has used his social media platform and massive wealth to help Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s efforts to be re-elected, going far past what political mega-donors traditionally do.
Musk, 53, who has mentioned he voted for Democratic presidential candidates previously, has publicly turn out to be extra right-wing throughout this election marketing campaign. He endorsed Trump in July and appeared with him in Pennsylvania this month.
If re-elected, Trump guarantees to call Musk head of a authorities effectivity fee, a place Musk guarantees will assist rid the nation of laws he sees as dangerous for the financial system and a deterrent to doing enterprise.
The Tesla and SpaceX CEO and proprietor of X has thousands and thousands of {dollars} in authorities contracts and his corporations face important and typically pricey authorities laws associated to client and environmental protections.
Neither Musk nor Democrat Kamala Harris’ presidential marketing campaign responded to Reuters requests for touch upon Musk’s pro-Trump actions.
These are a few of the methods Musk helps Trump.
AMERICA PAC
Musk’s pro-Trump spending group, America PAC, is taking part in an necessary position in serving to to mobilize and register voters in battleground states that might resolve the election. Musk, ranked by Forbes because the world’s richest individual, has to date contributed at the very least $75 million to the political motion committee, in accordance with federal disclosures.
America PAC spent about $72 million of that whole within the July via September interval, in accordance with disclosures filed with the Federal Election Fee. That is greater than another pro-Trump tremendous PAC targeted on turning out voters.
America PAC is struggling in some battleground states to satisfy bold targets and is investigating allegations that some pollsters lied concerning the variety of voters they contacted, Reuters reported final week.
PLATFORM
Musk has greater than 202 million followers on social media platform X, which he bought for $44 billion in October 2022, when it was often called Twitter. Since endorsing Trump, he has used the platform to advertise the Republican candidate. A few of their posts unfold misinformation and forged doubt on the integrity of the upcoming elections.
In July, for instance, he commented on a publish by Republican Home Speaker Mike Johnson, during which he wrote, “The objective all alongside has been to import as many unlawful voters as potential,” repeating the false declare that Democrats are deliberately permitting unauthorized voters. residents to the nation in order that they’ll vote within the elections.
The identical month, she shared a video, generated with synthetic intelligence and manipulating Vice President Harris’s voice, during which Harris, the daughter of a Jamaican father and an Indian mom, described herself because the “final range rent” and criticized the president. Joe Biden.
Musk has criticized range, fairness and inclusion (DEI) applications aimed toward boosting racial and ethnic illustration within the office, posting in January, for instance, that “DEI is simply one other phrase for racism. Disgrace on anybody who makes use of it.”
X and different social media platforms have come beneath elevated scrutiny since 2016, when Russia interfered within the US presidential election to attempt to increase Trump’s candidacy and hurt his opponent, Democrat Hillary Clinton.
Since Musk’s acquisition of then-Twitter in 2022, civil rights teams have raised issues about a rise in hate speech and misinformation as a consequence of lowered content material moderation.
Below X’s present coverage, the platform could “tag posts that comprise deceptive media to assist folks perceive their authenticity and supply further context” or take away deceptive posts which have a severe threat of hurt.
Nonetheless, researchers say it stays a supply of misinformation concerning the election, via faux accounts and Musk’s personal amplification of that content material.
MILLION DOLLAR GIFTS
Musk additionally guarantees to donate $1 million every day to randomly chosen individuals who signal his on-line petition pledging to help the First and Second Amendments of the USA Structure, which shield the rights to free speech and gun possession. . The petition is just open to signers who’re registered voters in seven battleground states which are prone to resolve the presidential election.
The petition falls right into a grey space of election regulation, and authorized consultants are divided over whether or not Musk might be violating prohibitions on paying folks to register to vote. Critics say it is a ploy to assist drum up help for Trump.
America PAC has been posting promotional video interviews and photographs of people that received the $1 million drawings on Musk’s X, the place they get thousands and thousands of views. Signers of the petition should present their tackle and mobile phone quantity, suggesting they might be contacted by America PAC door titties.
STORM CAMPAIGN
Musk joined Trump at an Oct. 5 rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, the scene of a July assassination try on the Republican nominee, and returned to the state for extra marketing campaign stops lower than two weeks later.
Whereas touring Pennsylvania, Musk made a sequence of false claims about election fraud, a few of which echoed these made by Trump over the previous 4 years.
He additionally inspired folks to make use of his X platform to spotlight potential electoral dishonest.
“If folks assume there may be fraud, then they need to publish the photographs, publish the movies, publish the proof,” he mentioned.
