Elon Musk was the sole backer of a super PAC formed less than a month before the election and focused on advertising intended to convince voters that Donald Trump The Supreme Court’s position on abortion was akin to that of the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

A group called RBG PAC, formed in mid-October, received a one-time contribution of $20.5 million from an entity called the “Elon Musk Revocable Trust” a week later, according to federal campaign finance filings. this week. Due to the short time frame between the donation and Thursday’s submission deadline, Musk’s affiliation with the group — which he has not spoken about publicly — was only revealed when the documents were made public.

In the final weeks before the November 5 election, the RBG PAC aired a television ad highlighting Trump’s statements that he would not, as president, sign a national abortion ban, with a narrator saying that he “supports reasonable exceptions for rape and incest”. and the life of the mother.

Ginsburg believed the Constitution protected a woman’s right to abortion, although she suggested in 2012 that the landmark Roe v. Wade “went too far, too fast,” potentially changing the way the abortion rights debate played out in subsequent decades.

Trump named three of the Supreme Court justices who voted to overturn Roe in 2022. This allowed many conservative-led states to ban or restrict access to abortion.

According to a report filed Thursday with the Federal Election Commission, Musk’s entity spent almost all of its money on digital ads, direct mail and text messages.

Funding for this group represents a small fraction of the more than 200 million dollars Musk has spent during the 2024 election cycle, most of it through his super PAC aimed at electing Trump, a sign of the influence the wealthy seek to exert in American politics and in Trump’s new administration.

The richest man in the world, Musk paid millions in an effort to get out the vote to help the former president return to the White House. He is politically known for turning Twitter into X, a platform adopted by Trump’s “Make America Great Again” supporters.

Musk’s super PAC, America PAC, ran ads warning that if people didn’t participate in the election, “Kamala and the Fools will win.” » The PAC launched a Million dollar daily draw for voters which landed the group in court before a judge allowed them to continue.

Thursday’s filing comes as Musk and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy were on Capitol Hill to closed meetings with lawmakers to discuss Trump DOGE initiative dismantle parts of the federal government.

Trump tapped two business titans to lead his Department of Government Effectiveness, or DOGEa non-governmental working group charged with finding ways to fire federal employeescut programs and slashed federal regulations – as part of his “Save America” agenda for a second term in the White House.

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Meg Kinnard reported from Chapin, South Carolina, and can be reached at http://x.com/MegKinnardAP.