Elon Musk backs down from $45 million a month pledge to Trump: ‘I don’t subscribe to cult of personality’

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.

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