Billionaire Elon Musk has poured an additional $44 million into a super PAC supporting Donald Trump’s presidential bid, bringing his total contributions to the group to nearly $119 million, CNN reports, citing a new campaign finance reports filed Thursday night.
This last-minute infusion of funds comes as Trump’s Democratic rival, Vice President Kamala Harris, continues to outpace him in fundraising, raising some $97 million in the first 16 days of October.
Despite Trump’s substantial fundraising deficit, both candidates and their aligned political operations engaged in a major spending spree during the first half of October, collectively burning through more than half a billion dollars as they scramble for an advantage ahead of Election Day.
Harris’ principal campaign committee spent nearly $166 million between October 1 and 16, outpacing Trump’s $99.7 million in expenditures during the same period. Notably, roughly $130 million of Harris’ campaign spending was directed towards media expenses.
Harris’ strong fundraising momentum, which began after she became the Democratic nominee in late July, has given her a larger financial cushion heading into the final days of the race. Her campaign currently holds nearly $119 million, more than triple the amount remaining in Trump’s coffers.
Data from AdImpact, a political advertising tracker, confirms that Harris has leveraged her financial advantage on the airwaves in key battleground states. Since President Biden withdrew from the race, Harris’ campaign has spent approximately $488 million on advertising, including ads scheduled to run through Election Day. Trump, in comparison, has spent about $284 million over the same period.
Musk has emerged as a key financial player in this election cycle, underwriting an unconventional get-out-the-vote effort on Trump’s behalf in crucial battleground states. This strategy has seen Trump largely cede this function to external groups. In recent days, Musk has also launched a high-profile, $1 million daily sweepstakes for voters in swing states, a move that has attracted scrutiny from the US Department of Justice.
The new filings reveal that Musk made four donations totaling $43.6 million to his America PAC in the first half of October. He also contributed $12.3 million to other super PACs, primarily supporting Republican efforts to secure control of the Senate.
Prior to this election, Musk, the CEO of Tesla and owner of X (formerly Twitter), had made relatively modest donations to federal candidates, supporting a mix of Democrats and Republicans. However, his involvement in this election is significantly more pronounced, with his strong support for Trump’s presidential bid, including joining the Republican nominee on the campaign trail.
Thursday’s filings show that Musk’s super PAC attracted other donors in October. Billionaire businessman Nelson Peltz contributed $1 million to America PAC, while members of the DeVos family, including Trump’s former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, made six-figure donations.
Other significant donors backing Trump include Richard Uihlein, a Midwestern packaging magnate who contributed an additional $6.5 million this month to Restoration PAC, the super PAC he oversees, which has been actively spending to support Trump’s campaign. Uihlein, whose family founded Schlitz Brewing, has a history of backing conservative, anti-establishment candidates and has become one of the largest financial contributors to pro-Trump efforts in this election cycle.
Meanwhile, Jan Koum, the co-founder of WhatsApp, became one of the latest tech figures to support Trump’s campaign, donating $5 million worth of stock in Meta to Make America Great Again, Inc., the main super PAC supporting Trump, according to the new filings. Koum had previously contributed to a super PAC supporting Nikki Haley’s unsuccessful bid for the Republican presidential nomination.
