How Many Donations to the Donald Trump Campaign Have You Done? An Empirical Analysis of Musk’s Contributions to SpaceX and X
According to filings released by the US Federal Election Commission on Tuesday night, Elon Musk, founder of SpaceX and owner of X, is now one of the biggest donors to Donald Trump’s campaign. Since endorsing Trump after the assassination attempt against him in Pennsylvania, Musk has donated close to $75 million to his own political action committee, which is campaigning in swing states for the Trump campaign.
Sacks donated only $6,600 to Trump’s campaign directly, but $114,500 to the Republican National Committee and $250,000 to the Trump 47 PAC. Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, who run the crypto exchange Gemini, each donated more than $350,000 to the Make America Great Again PAC, which supports the Trump campaign. The twins also donated $250,000 each to the America PAC. Shaun Maguire, a partner at the venture firm Sequoia Capital, has donated $500,000 to the America PAC, $300,000 to the Trump 47 PAC, and $6,600 to the Trump campaign directly. Antonio Gracias, the billionaire and early investor in Tesla, donated $1 million to the America PAC. Kenneth Howery, a PayPal Mafia member and former ambassador to Sweden under Trump, put $1 million into America PAC in addition to smaller direct contributions to the Trump campaign.
The graphic below focuses specifically on donations that help Trump directly, rather than GOP giving more broadly. You can see a breakdown of how much money was given by scrolling or tapping each person’s name.
Last February, the billionaire financier Nelson Peltz summoned a group of about 20 wealthy, predominantly Republican donors and a handful of G.O.P. strategists to dinner at his $334 million waterfront estate in Palm Beach, Fla. It was clear to everyone that Donald Trump was going to be the candidate, even though there were plenty of people in the room who had publicly severed their ties with him. There were many problems. A lot of donor cash is going to pay Trump’s mounting legal bills, rather than building a political campaign.
The chairman of the Republican National was among a number of high rollers gathered by Peltz at the time, as were hedge fund manager John Paulson and casino mogul Steve Wynn. He had also invited Elon Musk.
For much of his career, Musk gave modestly to candidates of both parties. He invited Obama to see the falcon 9 rocket in Cape Cod after meeting him in the Oval Office. He never wanted to be a political power broker and he didn’t really want to be a politician. His business empire spanned the globe, and administrations everywhere came and went. He thought he was bigger than any party.
