(The Hill) – Elon Musk is tapping into his wealth and the power of his social platform X to help sway the election toward former President Trump, spurring controversy along the way.
After years of drifting toward the political right, the billionaire owner of Tesla and SpaceX is throwing his fortune behind a pro-Trump super PAC and has inundated X, which he purchased in 2022, with content criticizing Democrats and Vice President Harris.
“The big difference [between Musk and other wealthy donors] is that he is himself a sort of Trump-esque figure,” Sarah Bryner, director of research and strategy at OpenSecrets, told The Hill.
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“He’s a very public person. Whereas most of the people we see contributing to politicians are not household names, Elon Musk is,” Bryner continued. “So that is this combination of celebrity and wealth that is a little bit unusual.”
Musk officially endorsed Trump after the former president was injured in an assassination attempt last month. While the billionaire had long been posting and interacting with right-leaning content on X, he had previously refrained from supporting a particular candidate in the presidential race.
Following the endorsement, Musk began frequently posting content that embraced the former president. Musk hosted Trump on X for a roughly two-hour conversation Monday, covering everything from the assassination attempt to the former president’s views on immigration and the economy.
The billionaire has also increasingly shared content disparaging Harris since President Biden dropped out of the race and endorsed his vice president, who has secured the Democratic nomination ahead of next week’s convention in Chicago.
Musk faced backlash late last month after he shared a mock campaign ad that used an artificial intelligence (AI) voice mimicking Harris to spew insults about her campaign and Biden — a move that seemingly violated his platform’s own policies.
His ownership of X has worried some Democrats, as several pro-Harris accounts on the platform have been suspended or labeled as spam in recent weeks.
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The X account of White Dudes for Harris was briefly suspended after hosting a massive fundraising call for the vice president in late July. Several days later, it was labeled as spam and had its reach limited. Progressives for Harris similarly had its account suspended for a short period in early August.
Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.), who serves as ranking member on the House Judiciary Committee, called for an investigation into the potential throttling of Harris’ primary campaign account on X last month after users reported problems following the account.
Nadler called again Monday for an investigation into “political censorship” on the platform, this time pointing to inaccurate information provided by X’s AI chatbot Grok suggesting that Harris had missed the ballot deadlines in several states and was ineligible to appear on the ballot.
President Donald Trump, right, talks with Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk at the White House in Washington, Feb. 3, 2017. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)
Musk’s “literal control” over X, including its algorithm, is “potentially troubling” in the context of the election, said Jonathan Nagler, co-director of New York University’s Center for Social Media and Politics.
“He can change the algorithm on a whim, and he is completely free to tweak the algorithm so it up weights or suppresses any content that he changes,” Nagler told The Hill. “He can decide to suppress any content that is critical of Trump; he can decide to suppress any content that praises Harris.”
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Musk could not be reached for comment. X, SpaceX and Tesla did not respond to requests for comment.
The billionaire’s foray into the financial side of campaign politics appears to have begun earlier than his current social media blitz for Trump.
He reportedly began meeting with consultants and vendors for his super PAC, America PAC, this spring to discuss efforts to turn out 800,000 people to vote for Trump in battleground states, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Musk had not made any public contributions to federal candidates, party committees or super PACs as of June 30, according to the Federal Election Commission (FEC) contributions database.
However, America PAC has already raked nearly $8.8 million in its first month from the billionaire’s close allies, such as Palantir Technologies co-founder Joe Lonsdale and Valor Equity Partners CEO Antonio Gracias.
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Musk previously suggested he would give $45 million per month to America PAC — a promise he soon walked back. Because the super PAC won’t have to file another disclosure until mid-October, donor details between June 30 and Sept. 30 won’t be public until then.
But America PAC has already faced scrutiny for its data collection practices, which are being investigated by the North Carolina State Board of Elections and reportedly by the Michigan Secretary of State’s office.
America PAC’s barebones website included a “register to vote” page, which has since been taken down.
On that page, users in competitive states including Michigan and North Carolina were prompted to submit personal information, such as their address and phone number, but were not directed to a site where they could register to vote in their state, according to the initial report by CNBC.
“The State Board of Elections has received a complaint about this organization. The complaint alleges that the organization is hosting a website that leads people to believe they are registering to vote, but no registration form is ever submitted to election officials. This complaint is being investigated,” the board’s spokesman, Patrick Gannon, told The Hill.
He also noted that it is a crime in North Carolina “for someone to fail to submit a voter’s registration form if that person has told a voter that they would be submitting the voter’s registration form.”
“If, during the course of an investigation, the State Board finds there is evidence to substantiate a violation and warrant a referral, it will be referred to the district attorney’s office for prosecutorial review. The DA’s office determines if charges are filed,” Gannon added.
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The Michigan Secretary of State’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
However, a source familiar with America PAC’s efforts told The Hill that it has proactively reached out to authorities in both states and believes it is in full compliance with the law.
The information provided by swing state voters on the website was being used to fill in voter registration forms that were going to be mailed to prospective voters for signing, the source said.
During a major shakeup of the super PAC’s field operation recently, Raconteur Media, which was handling this process, was fired. The firm has been brought back to finish its work, as first reported by The Wall Street Journal.
