Elon Musk Spent Millions On Trump's Campaign (& Now We Know Why Donald Keeps Him Around)

Elon Musk quite literally put his money where his mouth was during the 2024 presidential elections. Although the billionaire took to X, formerly known as Twitter, in 2022 to stress the importance of keeping the social media platform as politically neutral as possible, Musk went against his own beliefs in July 2024 and endorsed Donald Trump following his Pennsylvania rally shooting. In the following months, he posted several tweets that were blatant attempts to try and rally his hundreds of millions of followers behind the divisive Republican candidate. Musk also quite literally jumped at the opportunity to make a few attention-grabbing appearances at Trump's rallies to show his support in person. And, to top it all off, December 2024 filings with the Federal Election Commission revealed that he had shelled out an eye-watering $260 million to pave the road to Trump's victory. 

In fact, $238 million of that staggering amount went towards Musk's own super political action committee, America PAC. The committee aimed to turn the tides in Trump's favor in crucial swing states in many ways, including an ad that warned voters "Kamala and the crazies will win" if they didn't cast their ballots and cautioned them against the so-called dangers of "illegals," per Fortune. The Tesla founder also contributed $20.5 million to the RGB super PAC, which was the brain behind a TV ad that aimed to convey that Trump had the same views on abortion as beloved late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. The commercial promised that the former president wouldn't back a national abortion ban, and he "does support reasonable exceptions for rape, incest and the life of the mother," (via AP News). Musk was the only person in the world who contributed to the RGB PAC.

Elon Musk contributed an additional $3 million towards the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) super PAC. The committee ran ads encouraging former candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s supporters to cast their ballot in Donald Trump's favor instead. While it may seem like Musk went a bit overboard with his donations, the billionaire's investment in Trump apparently started paying off shortly after he was declared the winner of the 2024 presidential election. In the immediate aftermath, Tesla's stock saw a whopping 39% increase in value and added another $70 billion to Musk's already bulging wallet, bringing his net worth to an incredible $320 billion. While the SpaceX founder is likely very pleased with the outcome, Trump may have got slightly more than he bargained for since his pal has seemingly refused to leave his side ever since. 

In fact, Trump even accidentally confirmed that he finds Musk super annoying. While addressing House Republican leaders in November 2024, the president elect "joked" that "Elon won't go home. I can't get rid of him — at least until I don't like him," per Newsweek. In the following days, Trump continued to openly shade Musk for hanging around Mar-a-Lago too much. Speaking to a crowd at the America First Policy Institute Gala, the former "Apprentice" host remarked, "[Musk] likes this place, I can't get him out of here, he just likes this place," (via X). While he insisted that the billionaire was a welcome guest, social media commentators weren't convinced. Additionally, Musk's reported feud with Trump's aide further hinted that there's trouble in paradise.