Billionaire tech mogul Elon Musk has stepped up his efforts to help re-elect former President Donald Trump, causing confusion across the political world and raising questions about the legitimacy of some of his tactics.
Musk went out last week and over the weekend to drum up support for the Republican nominee — newsworthy on its own, but more so because of what he’s done along the way. Musk on Thursday posited a conspiracy theory that has since been disproved reported election fraud and announced that it would give $100 to every registered Pennsylvania voter who signed a petition supporting the First and Second Amendments to the Constitution.
Two days later, Musk, a A $1 million lottery gift for people in Pennsylvania who signed the petition.
Meanwhile, the news chronicled some of the issues facing America PAC, a political action committee funded by Musk to help boost Trump on the campaign trail. Musk gave about $75 million According to a Federal Election Commission filing, to the PAC — an amount that vaulted the SpaceX and Tesla founder to the top of the GOP donor circuit.
Reuters agency reports citing unnamed sources involved in the work of the committee. informed The PAC is having trouble hitting door-to-door targets in some swing states and is investigating allegations that some canvassers lied about the number of voters they contacted.
The Guardian informed About a quarter of the PAC’s door-knocking in the key states of Arizona and Nevada were flagged as potential fraud by an investigative program used by the committee, according to leaked data and sources familiar with the matter.
NBC News has not independently confirmed either report. The committee and program cited in the Guardian report did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Monday.
Musk has established himself as one of Trump’s most high-profile and vocal supporters, saying the race will decide “the fate of Western civilization” and constantly defending the former president on X, the social media platform he owns.
Trump welcomed Musk’s support. Two men gathered together earlier this month in Butler, Pennsylvania, where the former president survived an assassination attempt over the summer. Leaping onto the stage in a black Make America Great Again hat, Musk described himself to the crowd as “not just a MAGA, I’m a dark MAGA.”
In appearances and online, Musk did inflammatory statements on immigration and accepted controversial allegations of widespread voter fraud.
In a post In Saturday’s X, Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson accused him of “spreading dangerous misinformation.” Musk fired back: “Shame on you for blatantly lying to the public!” (Studies and academic studies have found no evidence of widespread voter fraud in the United States)
Musk’s campaign sprint began Thursday with a town hall hosted at a high school in Folsom, Pennsylvania, considered a must-win in both campaigns. The world’s richest man wore a yellow hat and stood in front of an American flag, pushing the discredited theory that Dominion Voting Systems was part of a plot to rig the US election.
“When you have mail-in ballots and you don’t have proof of citizenship, it’s almost impossible to prove fraud,” Musk said in response to an audience member’s question about voter fraud.
“There are statistically very strange things that are statistically incredibly improbable. There’s always that question about Dominion voting machines. Ironically, I think they were used in Philadelphia and Maricopa County [in Arizona] but not in many other places. Doesn’t that seem like a coincidence?”
Dominion has repeatedly denied any allegations of involvement in attempts to manipulate the election. In a statement last week, a company spokesperson disputed Musk’s comments.
“Fact: Dominion does not serve Philadelphia County. Fact: Dominion’s voting systems already rely on voter-approved paper ballots. Fact: Hand counting and auditing of such paper ballots have repeatedly proven that Dominion machines produce accurate results. These are not matters of opinion. These are verifiable facts,” the spokesperson said in an email.
Musk’s barnstorming continued Saturday with a town hall event in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, where the PAC announced it would award $1 million a day to a “random” registered voter who signs a petition supporting the First and Second Amendments to the Constitution.
He has already issued two checks.
The rollout plan was met with immediate backlash from some suffrage experts. Rick Hasen, a UCLA law professor and NBC News election law analyst, wrote in a post on his website Saturday that the payments were “clearly illegal.”
“Basically what you’re doing is creating a lottery. You’re creating a lottery where the only people eligible to enter the lottery are people who are registered to vote or registered to vote, and that’s illegal,” Hasen told NBC News on Sunday.
Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, a Democrat and a surrogate for Vice President Kamala Harris, On NBC, “Meet the Press” said Musk’s plan was “deeply involved” and “something that law enforcement could look into.”
It was unclear whether federal officials were investigating the payments. In an email, a spokeswoman for the Federal Election Commission declined to comment on “specific actions” and “potential enforcement issues that may come before the agency.”
Trump is not the only presidential candidate backed by a famous tycoon. Harris is backed by billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban, who has spoken at Democratic campaign events and defended the Democratic candidate’s policy plans in interviews.
Musk mocked Cuba at X. In a post last week, Cuba retreated with some choice words of his own: “You can’t stop thinking about me @elonmusk OK? it’s good I understand. If I supported a candidate so incompetent that I had to take over and fund their ground game, I would try to distract myself.