Elon Musk was the sole funder of a super PAC formed in the final weeks of the election that spent millions on ads claiming Donald Trump’s position on abortion was aligned with that of the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
Musk poured $20.5 million into the group on Oct. 24, according to a campaign finance filing submitted to the Federal Election Commission late Thursday. The timing of the donation meant that Musk’s support did not have to be disclosed until after the election.
The group, named RBG PAC, spent nearly all of that money on advertising. Its ads claimed that Ginsburg — the liberal longtime justice and staunch women’s rights advocate who died in 2020 — was of “one mind” with Trump on the issue of abortion. Its website featured photos of Trump and Ginsburg with the caption “great minds think alike.”
Justices largely avoid speaking publicly about presidential politics, but Ginsburg’s dying wish in 2020 was that she not be replaced on the court by Trump, her granddaughter said. Trump replaced her with Amy Coney Barrett shortly before the 2020 election; Barrett was in the judicial majority that voted to overturn Roe vs. Wade two years later.
The flurry of advertising came in the final weeks of the election, after Democrats spent months — years — hitting Trump on the issue of abortion after the court led by justices he appointed overturned Roe, leading more than a dozen states to ban the procedure.
Musk became a major political donor to Republican causes this year, and his involvement with RBG PAC represented just a fraction of his overall political investments. The world’s richest man — who is poised to advise Trump under the banner of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency — put at least $118 million into his own super PAC, America PAC, as of mid-October. That super PAC had not yet filed its post-general FEC report, which is due at midnight, and may reveal further donations from Musk.
In late October, Musk also gave $3 million to a super PAC linked to Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and $924,600 to Trump 47 Committee, his first direct donation to Trump’s operation. That joint fundraising committee sends money to Trump’s campaign as well as the Republican National Committee and other GOP groups.
Musk this year also previously gave $1 million to the GOP-linked super PAC Early Vote Action and several hundred thousand dollars to a joint fundraising committee affiliated with Rep. Ken Calvert (R-Calif.).
