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After sinking more than a quarter-billion dollars into the 2024 election and then taking a central role in President Donald Trump’s administration, billionaire Elon Musk is demonstrating that he’s not done with his efforts to reshape American politics.
The public face of Trump’s attempts to take a chainsaw to the federal bureaucracy, Musk is a constant fixture on White House grounds and on his social media platform X. Meanwhile, the super PAC he founded is the top outside spender in the April 1 election that will determine the majority on Wisconsin’s state Supreme Court, and Musk is also demonstrating his willingness to use his wallet to reward Trump loyalists in Congress — and, some fear, to punish others — as he closely watches the political landscape.
It all makes Musk a megadonor without much parallel in modern political history — someone who not only can fundamentally reshape a campaign with a single check but is also a prominent political figure in his own right, both as a business executive and as the de facto leader of Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency.
In short, Musk’s prominence, his virtually unlimited bank account and his penchant for controversy are poised to play a big role in upcoming elections — for both parties, in different ways.
America PAC — the super PAC Musk started during the last presidential election, which spent more than $261 million primarily on helping Trump — is the top outside spender in the Wisconsin Supreme Court race, spending about $6.6 million so far on ads and organizing. While the group’s fundraising isn’t public yet, Musk, whose net worth is north of $300 billion, was responsible for the vast majority of the money it raised in 2024.
The third-largest outside spender in that race is Building America’s Future, a Republican-aligned non-profit to which Musk has previously sent millions of dollars, according to reporting from the Wall Street Journal and Reuters. Building America’s Future has spent $4.5 million so far in this race, Wisconsin campaign finance documents show, though it’s unclear whether Musk has any current involvement in the effort.
Still, Musk’s past donations and prominent political role have made him a boogeyman in the Wisconsin Supreme Court race. A recent ad for Judge Susan Crawford, the Democratic-backed candidate running against Republican-backed Judge Brad Schimel, claims that “Elon Musk is trying to buy Schimel a seat on the Supreme Court because he knows Schimel always helps his big campaign donors.” It’s the first time Musk has appeared in a TV ad in Wisconsin, according to AdImpact, a firm that tracks political ad spending and content, following repeated Democratic mentions of Musk on the trail and in digital ads.
Musk has also been rewarding members of Congress who have expressed support for impeaching judges who issued rulings against elements of Trump’s agenda. A person familiar with Musk’s donations confirmed to NBC News that the billionaire gave $6,600 apiece, the maximum campaign donations under federal law, to Reps. Eli Crane, R-Ariz., Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., Andy Ogles, R-Tenn., Andrew Clyde, R-Ga., Derrick Van Orden, R-Wis., and Brandon Gill, R-Texas, as well as Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa. (Only Van Orden is expected to be running in a competitive race next year.)
Those donations, first reported by The New York Times, came after the president and his allies railed against a Saturday ruling from Judge James Boasberg, chief judge of the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. Boasberg ordered the administration to return flights to El Salvador deporting alleged Venezuelan gang members and return them to the U.S. The administration did not do so.
Trump has called for Boasberg’s impeachment, while Musk has spent days posting on X in support of efforts to remove judges he perceives to be anti-Trump.
A senior Senate GOP aide told NBC News that Musk’s direct contributions are “obviously always appreciated” but are “basically marginal in races like that,” especially when those direct contributions are capped at such a low level, unlike super PAC donations that Musk can make with no limits.
But it’s “definitely beneficial for [Musk] to be involved though,” the aide wrote, adding that Musk was “a huge help in PA and a few other states for us last cycle.”
While a handful of $6,600 donations are basically nothing to the world’s richest man, they still send a loud message: He’s watching what congressional Republicans do very closely. And though Musk has focused most of his spending so far on general elections, the notion that he could bankroll an insurgent Republican in a primary race looms large.
Musk said in November that America PAC’s future included playing a “significant role in primaries” and implied that there’s “no other way” to “drain the swamp” besides funding primary challenges against Republicans that don’t back Trump’s agenda. The warnings aren’t lost on Republicans, including the small sliver who aren’t in lockstop behind Trump.
During a press availability this week at the Alaska Legislature, GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski, a critic of some of DOGE’s cuts, lamented that other Republicans may see some of the criticism she’s faced from within the party and decide to be “zip-lipped, not saying a word, because they’re afraid they’re going to be taken down, they’re going to be primaried.”
“It may be that Elon Musk has decided he’s going to take the next billion dollars he makes off of Starlink and put it directly against Lisa Murkowski,” she added. “And you know what? That may happen, but I’m not giving up one minute, one opportunity, to try to stand up for Alaskans.”
Musk didn’t just bankroll America PAC like an ordinary megadonor in 2024 — he barnstormed swing states on Trump’s behalf, appearing at events held by his group and at rallies alongside Trump as he made the case for the future president. And as he continues to engage on social media and with his political spending, it seems likely he will remain active moving forward.
One Trump ally said Musk’s cash would be a huge boost in the 2026 midterm elections — while noting the GOP could be facing the typical midterm headwinds, something a check alone won’t be able to fix.
“I think any money is good money to put into these races,” this person said. “And it will matter. But what matters more is the environment. If the environment is good, they will need less money. If it’s bad, they will need more.”
“We are in an environment where Republicans have become less reliable voters than Democrats,” this person continued, adding, “We need to change the composition of the electorate. That’s a much harder task than straight persuasion. And it is a rarity in politics. Certainly something that we have not done in decades without Donald Trump on the ballot.”
Meanwhile, Democrats will have an opportunity, they believe, to use Musk and DOGE’s cuts against the Republican Party — and to use Musk as a proxy, like in the new TV ad airing in Wisconsin.
The new NBC News poll found that 39% of registered voters view Musk positively and 51% view him negatively, making the tech titan’s public image worse than both Trump and Vice President JD Vance. (He’s also far less popular than federal workers, according to the survey.)
Voters are split on DOGE in new NBC News polling, with 46% saying it’s a good idea, 40% saying it’s a bad idea and 14% unsure. But 41% view DOGE positively and 47% view it negatively. And while a third want DOGE to continue as is, the remaining share of the electorate either want DOGE to slow down or think it’s reckless.
Some of that frustration has fueled criticism at Republican lawmakers’ town halls in recent weeks, energy Democrats believe they can harness.
VoteVets, a progressive veterans group, announced this week it’s launching a six-figure ad campaign criticizing five vulnerable House Republicans with messaging that focuses on Musk and DOGE alone, with no mention of Trump.
“If Republicans are not going to speak out against Elon Musk buying access to fire middle class veterans, they’re going to be held accountable to it in the midterms,” said Matt Corridoni, the vice president of communications at VoteVets.
House Majority Forward, a super PAC that supports the House Democrats’ political agenda, launched ads and billboards featuring Musk too, using him as a face of the GOP budget resolution, which Democrats warn could lead to Medicaid cuts. Last month, the group put out messaging guidance telling Democrats: “On Elon Musk, it is important to focus on how his conflicts of interest as head of DOGE could lead to cuts to Medicare and Social Security and leave the interests of the middle class behind.”
And Musk is a fixture in Democratic fundraising ads — lawmakers like Sens. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., Chris Murphy, D-Conn., Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., and Reps. Sean Casten, D-Ill., Robert Garcia, D-Calif., Jamie Raskin, D-Md., and Maxwell Frost, D-Fla., are among those who have launched digital fundraising appeals evoking Musk in recent weeks, according to AdImpact.
“You’re using him as a foil to explain what Republicans are doing — they’re laying off people, they’re cutting Medicaid benefits, X and Y and Z, and then they are profiting off of that,” said one Democratic strategist involved in House races, explaining the Musk emphasis. “You can use Musk as a boogeyman, but you have to relay it back to real life things that are happening.”
Another Democratic strategist at an group that’s attacking Musk told NBC News that attacking Musk serves multiple purposes, both electoral and personal.
It’s a way to highlight Trump’s “policies that are actively harming people,” the strategist said, “and also get under his skin, reminding him he’s not the center of his own show.”
“If we get into a mud fight over whether people like Donald Trump, we’ve been shown time and time again that we lose that,” the strategist continued.
But, this person added, “If we show people how these policies are hurting them, and we make Trump feel less secure, we win on two planes.”
Ben Kamisar is a national political reporter for NBC News
Allan Smith is a political reporter for NBC News.
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