After Elon Musk’s recent embrace of Trump, the former president said that he would put Musk in charge of a government efficiency commission if elected.
According to four people familiar with his donations, Elon Musk secretly funded a conservative political group in recent years to illustrate quiet financial support for right-wing causes even before the billionaire entrepreneur endorsed former President Donald Trump’s bid for re-election in July.
Two sources familiar with the donations said Musk’s donations to the group Building America’s Future had started by 2022.
One of the two and a third source added that the donations were in the millions, significantly ramping up funding for a group whose ads and social media campaigns have attacked the Biden administration and progressive political agendas of the kind Musk has increasingly criticized himself.
Reuters could not determine how much was donated over what period and failed to find records linking the group’s finances with Musk. Also, on Wednesday, The Wall Street Journal reported Musk funding other groups seen as friendly to Republicans.
Musk did not comment via email.
A spokesperson for Building America’s Future did not comment, either.
Musk, the billionaire behind projects such as electric carmaker Tesla, space contractor SpaceX, and social media platform X, was long careful not to appear close to either of the major parties in the United States.
As recently as March, months before he publicly backed Trump and announced plans to finance a political action committee to work against Democrats, he wrote on social media: “Just to be super clear, I am not donating money to either candidate for US President.”
