Elon Musk backs down from $45 million a month pledge to Trump, says he
doesn�t �subscribe to cult of personality�
July 23, 2024 at 5:35 PM EDT

Elon Musk is not spending $45 million a month to elect former President
Donald Trump, though he has created a new super political action committee
(PAC) to fund the Republican candidate, the billionaire told conservative
commentator Jordan Peterson during an interview Monday evening.

During the interview, which was hosted on Musk�s platform, X, Peterson
asked Musk if he had �shocked� himself by donating a substantial amount of
money to Trump�s campaign. Musk � who has previously criticized Trump,
calling him a �bull in a china shop� � paused to correct the �media.�

�What�s been reported in the media is simply not true,� Musk said. �I am
not donating $45 million a month to Trump.�

The Wall Street Journal first reported on the claim, citing sources
�familiar with the matter.� The outlet has not yet issued a retraction or
follow-up article altering its reporting.

Musk did note that he created a super PAC, called the America PAC, to help
support Trump. A super PAC is a group that can raise unlimited amounts of
money for a campaign�s independent expenditures�such as for ads, or for
day-to-day operations� but doesn�t donate directly to the campaign. They
have become prominent among both Democrats and Republicans since a 2010
D.C. appeals court decision that authorized the existence of the super
PACS. For a normal PAC, donors are limited to gifts of only $5,000 a year.

Several tech company leaders have donated to America PAC, including Ken
Howery, an early executive at Paypal along with Musk, Antonio Gracias, a
private-equity leader, Sequoia Capital�s Shuan Maguire, and the Winklevoss
twins.

The super PAC is also led in part by Joe Lonsdale, a co-founder of the
software company Palantir and politically ambitious venture capitalist in
Austin who is close to Musk, according to the New York Times.

The Austin-based America PAC �is not supposed to be a sort of
hyperpartisan� organization, Musk said. He said that he isn�t part of
MAGA�or Make America Great Again, Trump�s campaign slogan�but rather, his
principles are aligned with �MAG�: Make America Greater.

�I don�t prescribe to [a] cult of personality,� Musk said. But, he added
that Trump demonstrated �great courage� after being shot by an attempted
assassin on July 13, and that strength helps intimidate America�s enemies.

Additionally, Musk spoke about the �core values� that make America great,
which he thinks the Republican party embodies more so than the Democrats.

�One of those values being meritocracy, as much meritocracy as possible, so
you get ahead as a function of your skill, and nothing else,� Musk said.

He also added that one of the principles the PAC aligned with was
�freedom,� particularly freedom from �as much government intervention as
possible.� The hand of government gets heavier every year, and if we don�t
roll back some restrictions and regulations, eventually, �everything will
be illegal,� Musk said.

When Peterson pressed Musk for why he was switching to Trump, after long
voting Democratic, Musk said that Democrats had become the party of
censorship.
He also criticized a lawsuit that the Justice Department�under President
Joe Biden�s administration� launched against his company SpaceX, last year,
alleging that Musk discouraged refugees and asylum seekers from applying to
work at the aerospace company. A court order later blocked the U.S. from
pursuing the lawsuit.

On 7/23/2024 7:37 PM, Grille wrote:
> Elon Musk is not spending $45 million a month to elect former President
> Donald Trump, though he has created a new super political action committee
> (PAC) to fund the Republican candidate

Flip/flop.

Bet he knows the entire EV scam is about to implode.

The corporate HQ move from Cali to Texas was cost cutting, not dead-naming.

Har har har!