US

Musk spent more than quarter of a billion dollars helping Trump win US election

Elon Musk spent more than $250m (£196m) helping Donald Trump win this year’s US election, Sky News’ US partner NBC News reports.

Part of this was said to include a late blitz of advertising from a super PAC into which Mr Musk poured $20m (£15.7m) that claimed Mr Trump did not support a federal abortion ban.

Previously, Mr Trump took credit for the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v Wade.

That was only a fraction of Mr Musk’s reported total contribution to the Trump campaign.

He also financed America PAC, a super PAC that reported spending $238m (£186.7m) supporting the president-elect’s race.

The latest campaign finance report shows the billionaire donated $120m (£94m) in the final weeks of the race alone.

This money was said to have been heavily spent on canvassing, text messages, and digital advertising.

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America PAC also ran the controversial $1m (£0.78m) cash giveaway to get voters to sign up for the group’s conservative-leaning petition.

America PAC is one of several major political action committees in the US.

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Such groups can raise and spend unlimited amounts of money in support of political candidates, on the condition that they do not coordinate with their campaigns or give money to them.

Mr Musk is one of Mr Trump’s top donors this election but also one of his most visible, regularly appearing alongside him on the campaign trail, and at Mar-a-Lago.

Mr Trump selected him to advise on government inefficiencies in a new role in his administration.

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