Elon Musk has denied that he is contributing $45 million a month to a pro-Donald Trump political action committee, saying he is instead donating “at a much lower level” than was initially reported.
“What’s been reported in the media is simply not true. I’m not donating $45 million a month to Trump,” Musk said in an interview with Jordan Peterson, a conservative Canadian pop psychologist and YouTube personality, posted Monday on X, the social media site that Musk owns.
Musk said he created the America PAC not as a “hyper-partisan” group but to “promote the principles that make America great in the first place.” Those principles, he said, include meritocracy and freedom, which he defined as “the least amount of government intervention possible,” a condition without which “everything becomes illegal.”
The Wall Street Journal reported last week that Musk was planning to donate around $45 million a month to America PAC. In response to the reporting, Musk appeared at the time to give mixed signals. He responded to the WSJ article on X with a picture of gnus with human legs and the caption, “FAKE GNUS.” But he also replied to a post claiming he is “pledging $180 million” to re-elect Trump — the equivalent of $45 million a month from July until November — writing, “Yeah.”
Later on Tuesday, Musk posted on X that he is “making some donations to America PAC, but at a much lower level.”
The acerbic Silicon Valley billionaire had publicly thrown his support behind Trump after the attempt on the former president’s life at a campaign rally July 13. The Journal’s report about Musk’s monthly contributions to the super PAC underscored the financial heft behind the efforts by Silicon Valley’s increasingly right-leaning factions to shore up their candidate of choice. At a rally in Michigan this week, Trump himself vowed “to make life good” for people like Musk. (Read more from my colleague Ja’han Jones about Trump’s overtures to Musk.) He also boasted about the tech billionaire’s donations to him. “Elon endorsed me the other day, and I read — I didn’t even know this, he didn’t even tell me about it,” Trump said, “but he gives me $45 million a month.”
Clarissa-Jan Lim is a breaking news reporter for MS NOW. She was previously a senior reporter and editor at BuzzFeed News.
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