Musk tests the role of money in U.S. politics with multimillion-dollar effort to back Trump
Next week’s presidential election isn’t just a referendum on Donald Trump and Kamala Harris
WASHINGTON — Next week's presidential election isn't just a referendum on Donald Trump and Kamala Harris. It's also a measure of the influence the world's richest man wields over American democracy.
Elon Musk, the South African-born tech and business titan, has spent at least $119 million mobilizing Trump's supporters to back the Republican nominee. His social media platform, X, has become a firehose of pro-Trump propaganda. And he's playing a starring role in Trump-style rallies in critical battleground states.
All the while, he's coming under growing scrutiny. He skipped a hearing on Thursday in a lawsuit over his effort to dole out millions of dollars to registered voters, giveaways legal experts liken to vote buying. He’s being investigated by the Securities and Exchange Commission. And The Wall Street Journal recently reported that Musk regularly communicates with Russian President Vladimir Putin, a potential national security risk because SpaceX, his aerospace company, holds billions of dollars worth of contracts with NASA and the Department of Defense.
Musk is hardly the only person whose megawealth places him at the nexus of politics, business and foreign policy. But few are working so publicly for a single candidate as Musk, whose expansive business ties and growing bravado pose a vexing test of one unelected person's political power. His stature is perhaps one of the most tangible consequences of the Supreme Court's 2010 Citizens United decision, which eliminated many limits on political giving.
“This is definitely an election brought to you by Citizens United,” said Daniel I. Weiner, the director of elections and
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