Musk donates $75M to Trump group in 3 months
Elon Musk gave around $75 million to his pro-Donald Trump spending group in the span of three months, federal disclosures showed, underscoring how the billionaire has become crucial to the Republican candidate's efforts to win the Nov. 5 presidential election.
America PAC, which is focused on turning out voters in closely contested states that could decide the election, spent around $72 million of that in the July-September period, according to disclosures filed to the Federal Election Commission.
That is more than any other pro-Trump super PAC focused on turning out voters. The Trump campaign is broadly reliant on outside groups for canvassing voters, meaning the super PAC founded by Musk - the world's richest man - plays an outsized role in the razor-thin election between Trump and Democrat Kamala Harris.
Musk, the CEO of electric car manufacturer Tesla, was the sole donor to the group in that period.
Musk, who has said he has voted for Democratic presidential candidates in the past, has taken a sharp turn to the right this election.
Musk's donations to America PAC propel him into the exclusive club of Republican mega donors, a list that also includes banking heir Timothy Mellon and casino billionaire Miriam Adelson.
Meanwhile a Georgia judge temporarily halted a new rule requiring a labor-intensive hand count of potentially millions of ballots in the U.S. presidential election.
The hand-count rule was passed on Sept. 20 by a pro-Trump conservative majority of Georgia's Republican-controlled election board who say they are attempting to make the Nov. 5 election more secure and transparent.
Georgia, where early voting began, is one of seven states likely to determine the contest between Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and his Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris.
Judge Robert McBurney said in his ruling that it was appropriate to pause the change because it introduced fresh uncertainty into the process just weeks before Election Day.
