By MEG KINNARD, Related Press
Elon Musk was the only funder of an excellent PAC fashioned lower than a month earlier than the election that centered on promoting supposed to persuade voters that Donald Trump ‘s stance on abortion was akin to that of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
A group titled RBG PAC, formed in mid-October, received a single contribution of $20.5 million from an entity entitled “Elon Musk Revocable Trust” a week later, according to federal campaign finance reports filed this week. Because of the short timeline between the donation and Thursday’s reporting deadline, Musk’s affiliation with the group — which he didn’t discuss publicly — wasn’t revealed till the filings turned public.
Within the closing weeks earlier than the Nov. 5 election, the RBG PAC group ran a TV advert noting Trump’s statements that he wouldn’t, as president, signal a nationwide abortion ban, with a narrator saying he “does support reasonable exceptions for rape, incest and the life of the mother.”
Ginsburg believed that the Structure protected a lady’s proper to an abortion, although she prompt in 2012 that the landmark Roe v. Wade resolution “moved too far too fast,” doubtlessly altering how the controversy over abortion rights performed out over the following a long time.
Trump nominated three of the Supreme Court docket justices who voted to overturn Roe in 2022. That allowed many conservative-led states to ban or limit entry to abortion.
In keeping with a report filed Thursday with the Federal Election Fee, the Musk entity spent practically all of its cash on digital advertisements, mailers and textual content messages.
That group’s funding represents a small fraction of the greater than $200 million Musk spent within the 2024 election cycle, most of it by way of his tremendous PAC supposed to elect Trump, a sign of the affect rich individuals are angling to wield in U.S. politics and Trump’s incoming administration.
The world’s richest man, Musk poured tens of millions right into a get-out-the-vote effort to assist the previous president return to the White Home. He’s recognized politically for having remodeled Twitter into X, a platform embraced by Trump’s “Make America Great Again” fanatics.
Musk’s tremendous PAC, America PAC, ran advertisements that warned if individuals sat out the election, “Kamala and the crazies will win.” The PAC launched a $1 million-a-day voter sweepstakes that landed the group in court docket earlier than a decide stated it was allowed to proceed.
Thursday’s submitting got here as Musk and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy have been on Capitol Hill for closed-door conferences with lawmakers to debate Trump’s DOGE initiative to dismantle elements of the federal authorities.
Trump tapped the 2 enterprise titans to move his Division of Authorities Effectivity, or DOGE, a nongovernmental activity pressure assigned to seek out methods to hearth federal employees, reduce applications and slash federal rules — as a part of his “Save America” agenda for a second time period within the White Home.
Meg Kinnard reported from Chapin, South Carolina, and will be reached at http://x.com/MegKinnardAP.
