An Elon Musk-backed US political motion committee spent hundreds of {dollars} promoting on X, a social media platform owned by Musk, to assist former President Trump’s marketing campaign. In keeping with X’s Political Advert Disclosure information, from July 8 to October 1, US PAC ran 59 advertisements at a value of greater than $166,000, producing 32,058,424 impressions in line with X’s metrics. All advertisements focused swing states: Georgia, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Arizona and Wisconsin.
Musk instantly supported Trump for the primary time after the assassination try on the previous president in Butler, Pennsylvania, in July. Musk has since stated he “absolutely” helps Trump and appeared at a second rally in Butler earlier this month. “This election is a very powerful election of our lifetimes,” Musk stated on the time. “That is no strange election.” It is a part of Musk and PAC’s efforts to win over voters for Trump in swing states.
American Political Motion Committee, which has been a driving drive in voter mobilization for the Trump marketing campaign, developed an app to assist canvassers goal doubtless voters. (The effectiveness of this technique stays to be seen, with lobbyists reportedly falsifying voter contact data on a big scale.) The PAC has provided $47 to any swing state voter prepared to signal a petition supporting the First and Second Amendments. Musk additionally stated he would give out $1 million a day to voters who signed the petition, a transfer that election regulation knowledgeable Rick Hasen known as “clearly unlawful.”
Federal Election Fee paperwork launched final week confirmed that Musk has poured $75 million into the PAC since July, dwarfing different Silicon Valley donors who’ve backed the previous president. Musk additionally donated to the Constructing America’s Future political motion committee, which ran anti-Kamala Harris advertisements geared toward discouraging Black and Muslim voters, particularly in battleground states.
Musk has additionally used his possession of X to additional promote Trump. In August, Musk accepted an interview with Trump hosted by X Areas. He additionally promoted and retweeted conspiracy theories fueled by the Trump marketing campaign, together with claims that Democrats would enable undocumented immigrants to vote to be able to win the election.
In a single advert that ran between September 27 and October 1, the put up learn: “Georgia is flooded with unlawful immigrants: In simply three years, Kamala has launched practically as many unlawful immigrants into our nation Thrice the inhabitants of Atlanta. Finish Kamala’s border chaos and ask you to vote for President Trump at the moment. This advert hyperlinks to the web site votesafe.org, which is paid for by America PAC and the place voters can vote. Examine their voter registration standing and request a poll on this web site.
All of PAC’s advertisements hyperlink to the @theamericapac X account, which in flip hyperlinks to PAC’s web site. Earlier than attending Trump’s October rally in Butler, Musk had appropriated the @america account for America PAC.
America PAC has additionally invested closely in promoting on Meta platforms Fb and Instagram, operating greater than 250 advertisements in October alone.
Representatives for X didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.