Elon Musk Says Reports He Will Donate $45M A Month To Pro-Trump Super-PAC Are “Fake Gnus”

Jesse Whittock
·2 min read
183

Elon Musk appears to have denied a report that he will donate around $45M a month to a pro-Donald Trump super-PAC — calling it “fake gnus”.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Musk had told friends he would contribute to America PAC, while The New York Times reported the group would “likely to draw significant support from Mr. Musk.”

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However, Musk responded to the original WSJ story on his X platform with a meme that read “FAKE GNUS” [news]. He had previously written on the platform that he would not be donating to any political party after a previous NYT report noted he had attended a breakfast meeting with Trump and a group of wealthy Republican donors.

The WSJ, which is known for its rigorous editorial standards, has since issued a statement, saying: “We stand by our reporting.”

The U.S. reports say American PAC’s founding donors are members of Musk’s social circle, including tech entrepreneurs who often contribute to each others’ start-ups, philanthropic projects and favored political candidates.

The news comes after Musk made a full endorsement of Trump soon after the Republic nominee survived an assassination attempt and called for senior members of the Secret Service to resign in the waking of the shooting.

America PAC has donated around $15M on behalf of Trump in recent weeks, according to the NYT. Among its reported supporters are Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, the tech entrepreneurs who clashed with Mark Zuckerberg over ownership of Facebook.

The PAC is reportedly run by Joe Lonsdale, a co-founder of software company Palantir and a close associate of Musk. His personal company has donated $1M, while Antonio Gracias, a private-equity mogul and a board director at SpaceX, and Ken Howery, an early PayPal exec who worked alongside Musk, both donated the same amount. Shaun Maguire, a Sequoia Capital investor who is reportedly close to Musk, has invested $500,000.

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