Musk Plans to Spend at Least $100 Million to Help Republicans in the Midterms
Elon Musk, a year after a huge blowup with President Trump and the Republican Party, is said to be planning to spend in at least eight states to help them in November.
"Elon Musk plans to spend $100-120 million through his super PAC, America PAC, to support Republican candidates in the midterm elections. The super PAC will target Senate races in at least five states and House races in several others, coordinating with other conservative groups. This significant financial commitment adds to the Republicans’ funding advantage over Democrats.
Elon Musk, a year after voicing deep frustration with the Republican Party and threatening to start a third party, appears to be back in the fold and prepared to spend big in the midterms to help G.O.P. candidates.
Mr. Musk, the world’s richest person, has authorized his super PAC to spend $100 million to $120 million on a new field program in at least eight states to help elect Republicans in November, according to two people briefed on the plans, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the private deliberations.
The planned injection of cash from Mr. Musk, the biggest donor in the 2024 presidential election, would only add to Republicans’ yawning advantage over Democrats in funding from super PACs and party groups. While Democratic candidates in key Senate races are raising more than their Republican rivals, many in the Democratic Party have begun to worry about being badly outspent overall in the midterms.
Officials from Mr. Musk’s super PAC, America PAC, have communicated their nine-figure budget to other Republicans in recent weeks as part of an aggressive spending plan that is set to begin next month, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.
The precise amounts could change, but Mr. Musk’s financial commitment is seen as secure enough that officials at his super PAC have relayed its budget to groups like MAGA Inc., President Trump’s super PAC — which also has yet to reveal its midterm spending plan.
Mr. Musk’s group plans to initially target Senate races in at least five states — Alaska, Iowa, Maine, Michigan and Ohio — and is having conversations about the contests in North Carolina, Georgia and Texas, according to two people with knowledge of the super PAC’s plans.
The super PAC is also planning to spend in House races in states including California, Wisconsin and Washington, according to two people with knowledge of the plans.
America PAC said that it would be active in battleground Senate and House races. The group declined to comment on its budget and targeted states. Some of its high-level plans were earlier reported by Axios.
Mr. Musk’s super PAC is closely coordinating with an ecosystem of outside groups that are preparing field campaigns, including Americans for Prosperity, which is part of the billionaire Koch brothers’ political network, and the Sentinel Action Fund, another conservative organization. Republican outside groups are planning to pool their field operations more than ever after a Supreme Court ruling in late June made it cheaper for party committees to work directly with candidates.
To help its efforts, America PAC is lining up firms that focus on knocking on voters’ doors, according to two people with knowledge of the matter. Chris Young, who is Mr. Musk’s top political adviser and oversaw the group’s huge spending in the 2024 election, is in charge again.
Mr. Musk spent close to $300 million on the 2024 campaign, hosting town halls that drew on his celebrity to try to help Mr. Trump. But Mr. Musk is not currently expected to play as front-facing a role as he did during the 2024 presidential race or during a major court election in April 2025 in Wisconsin, where his candidate lost.
After the defeat in Wisconsin, Mr. Musk appeared aware that his public presence in the race had backfired, The New York Times reported last year.
“In terms of political spending, I’m going to do a lot less in the future,” he told Bloomberg News in May 2025. “I think I’ve done enough.”
A few months later, Mr. Musk had a spectacular falling out with Mr. Trump. He left his role overseeing the president’s government-gutting initiative, known as DOGE, and immediately began bashing Mr. Trump’s major domestic policy bill and the Republican Party in general.
That summer, Mr. Musk threatened to start a third party, which made some of his advisers who are aligned with the Republican Party skittish. But he made no moves to start what he said would be called the America Party. By last fall, he had largely made up with Mr. Trump, and advisers began sketching out plans to help Republicans again.
Then again, Mr. Musk’s interest in, and commentary about, politics can seem erratic. In an interview with The Economist published last week, he said of his involvement in Mr. Trump’s administration: “I think I got a little too involved in politics. I got carried away, frankly.”
Theodore Schleifer is a Times reporter covering billionaires and their impact on the world.
Trump and Musk’s Relationship Melts Down in Spectacular Fashion
The speed of the fallout was breathtaking, with President Trump celebrating Elon Musk during an Oval Office farewell just last Friday.
The moment had finally come, and it was every bit as lowdown, vindictive, personal, petty, operatic, childish, consequential, messy and public as many had always expected it would be.
“One thing’s for sure,” Elon Musk posted on X midway through his relentless hourslong attack on Donald Trump, “it ain’t boring!”
The clash of the titans was upon us, and the gloves were off.
The speed of the fallout was breathtaking. Up until about 14 seconds ago, Mr. Musk was flying on Mr. Trump’s planes, staying at his homes, socializing with his children. On Friday, Mr. Trump celebrated him with an Oval Office farewell address and gave him a novelty, oversize key to the White House.
But all was not well. Mr. Musk had been stewing about the sweeping domestic policy bill that the White House was pushing through Congress. By Thursday afternoon, he started spitting venom.
“Without me, Trump would have lost the election,” Mr. Musk wrote on X. “Such ingratitude.”
How sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is!
Usually, when Mr. Trump has a big, messy falling-out in public, it is with someone who needs him, a lesser being who lives in fear of a primary challenge or somehow being ruined. But now he was beefing with the rare person who has leverage over him — political and financial leverage and perhaps even some emotional leverage. When Mr. Trump said on Thursday that he was “very disappointed in Elon,” he sounded as if he meant it.
But Mr. Trump, being the president of the United States, had some leverage of his own.
He mused on Truth Social that the “easiest way to save money in our Budget” would be to wipe out Mr. Musk’s government subsidies and contracts. “I was always surprised that Biden didn’t do it!” Mr. Trump added, causing Mr. Musk to erupt further.
There was a screwball element to their back-and-forth: Because Mr. Trump and Mr. Musk are each the masters of their own social media platform, neither one was directly replying to the other. Anyone following along at home (which is to say, everyone) had to toggle between platforms to keep up with these keyboard cowboys as they aimed shots at each other.
“THE GIRLS ARE FIGHTING” was a top trending topic on Mr. Musk’s platform Thursday. There was a schoolyard aspect to their scrap as many on the playground rushed to jump in. “SPICY,” Laura Loomer posted. “hey @realDonaldTrump lmk if u need any breakup advice,” posted Ashley St. Clair, the mother of one of Mr. Musk’s children. Mr. Musk began to hit the “unfollow” button on accounts belonging to close Trump allies such as Charlie Kirk and Stephen Miller.
Four hours into the shootout, a peacekeeper emerged in the form of Kanye West. “Broooos please noooooo,” he posted on X with an emoji of two people hugging. “We love you both so much.”
But they seemed far beyond the point of hugging it out. A line had been crossed that probably could never be uncrossed. “Time to drop the really big bomb,” Mr. Musk wrote shortly after 3 p.m., “@realDonaldTrump is in the Epstein files. That is the real reason they have not been made public. Have a nice day, DJT!” The implication that Mr. Trump is somehow connected to Mr. Epstein’s crimes was an especially explosive one to make, given that large swaths of Mr. Trump’s base remain so animated by the sordid details of that particular case.
“Some food for thought,” Mr. Musk wrote in another especially cutting post. “Trump has 3.5 years left as President, but I will be around for 40+ years.”
Questions swirled above the fray: Just how hard might Mr. Trump, who has been shown to have no qualms about weaponizing government, actually go after Mr. Musk? Are Tesla and SpaceX about to get DOGE’d?
What would happen to that red Tesla that Mr. Musk parked at the White House, the one that Mr. Trump’s young aides love to drive around and post pictures from?
And would Mr. Musk have to send back his key to the White House?
Shawn McCreesh is a White House reporter for The Times covering the Trump administration."
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