Musk pumped nearly half a billion dollars into Republican campaigns: report
www.independent.co.uk
Elon Musk has reportedly injected around $77 million into his America PAC in the first half of October alone

Elon Musk has reportedly injected around $77 million into his America PAC in the first half of October alone

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has pumped more than $445 million into Republican campaigns ahead of the midterm elections, according to a report.

​The GOP has been forced to contend with grim polling ahead of the midterms, with Democrats surging in polls across the country amid public anger over the war in Iran and the cost of living.

​Musk, among the richest people in the world, has become increasingly tied to the GOP in recent years - even overseeing the Trump administration’s DOGE scheme before dramatically exiting the White House.

  • NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world
    9·
    1 day ago

    Thats 445 million we could have taxed at incredibly high rates if we closed the stupid borrowing against shares until you die because your so wealthy loophole.

    That could have required billions with a high enough tax rate.

    Would he have still done it then?

    Edit: shit, Im wrong if that counts as a donation and is tax deductible:(

    Esit: actually im not fully wrong if its tax deductible. If for example he had to sell 2 billion to get 445 million, he’d only get to write off that 445 million. That’d still be 1.1 billion in taxes.

    • Janx@piefed.socialEnglish
      8·
      1 day ago

      You don’t even have to like them! Just vote against Republicans ever having power again. At the moment, that’s Democrats. But fuck, we need election reform and to get rid of “first past the post” voting…

  • melsaskca@lemmy.ca
    10·
    2 days ago

    C’mon people! Prove to the world that elon can’t just browse the world to purchase politicians. Make him lose some of that chump change he’s callously throwing around! Bring seriously thinking adults back into the fold again!

  • foggy@lemmy.world
    21·
    2 days ago

    Remember when he said curing world hunger was just a money problem and calculated it to be far less than his current net worth?

    Pepperidge Farms remembers

    • abc@suppo.fi
      1·
      1 day ago

      curing world hunger was just a money problem and calculated it to be far less than his current net worth?

      Everyone here knows that none of this is true, right? Right?

    • MagicShel@lemmy.zipEnglish
      6·
      2 days ago

      Half a billion here, half a billion there, and pretty soon we’re talking about real money.

        • MagicShel@lemmy.zipEnglish
          7·
          2 days ago

          Is a joke, mate. U.S. Senator Everett Dirksen said about government spending, “a billion here and a billion there and pretty soon you’re talking about real money,” to mock how detached politicians and governments (and Elon Musk) can be from the economic reality of everyday people.

        • SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.caEnglish
          3·
          1 day ago

          he’s actually not. paper wealth and real money are not the same thing.

          $500M is lot of money for him, but he knows if the GOP get kicked out, he’s going straight to jail.

        • JasonDJ@lemmy.zipEnglish
          41·
          2 days ago

          Seriously, lets put this dude’s wealth into perspective.

          If you have $10,000 in the bank, this is like donating $5.

          If you have $100,000 in the bank, this is like donating $0.50.

          If you have $1,000,000 in the bank, this is like donating a fucking nickel.

          That’s how small and meaningless $500,000,000 is to him.

          And let’s be clear, now, inflation is so high that being a millionaire isn’t the sign of extraordinary wealth it used to be. It’s owning a house in the 'burbs and having a modest 401k. And disparity is so high that I’m sure a fair number of people reading this are saying “I wish I had $10k in the bank…”.

          We shouldn’t even call it “donating”. That makes it sound selfless and helpful. It’s not. This is investing. He invested $500,000,000 into politicians, and if it pays off, it willl pay off big for him.

          Nothing about this should be legal or acceptable.

  • nonentity@sh.itjust.works
    26·
    2 days ago

    Financial obesity is neurotoxic, an existential threat to any society that tolerates it, and needs to cease being celebrated, rewarded, and positioned as an aspirational goal.

    Corporations are the only ‘persons’ which should be subjected to capital punishment, but trillionaires should be forced to transition into billionaires, and billionaires should be euthanised through taxation.

  • FrogCat@piefed.socialEnglish
    8·
    2 days ago

    Rich people pump money into politics in order to amplify their personal whims. Then they wonder why self-described socialist politicians are becoming more popular.