Why Does Musk and Peltz Donate So Much to the Make America Great Again Campaign? A Conversation with Nelson at his waterfront estate in Palm Beach, Fla
Musk has contributed more to the Trump campaign than any of the other people have. Over the course of the past three months, he has donated $46 million to the pro-Trump PreserveAmerica PAC, making him the 12th wealthiest person in the country and the most generous among Trump’s donors. The largest donor in the Make America Great campaign is billionaire Timothy Mellon, an heir to the railroad fortune. Again PAC just this year.
Sacks gave $06,600 to Trump’s campaign directly, but $114,500 was donated to the Republican National Committee and $250,000 to the Trump 47 political action committee. Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, who run the crypto exchange Gemini, each donated more than $350,000 to the Make America Great Again PAC, which supports the Trump campaign. The America PAC received a $250,000 donation from the twins. Shaun Maguire, a partner at the venture firm Sequoia Capital, has donated $500,000 to the America PAC, $300,000 to the Trump 47 PAC, and $6,600 to the Trump campaign directly. Billionaire and early Tesla backer Antonio Gracias donated $1 million to the America PAC, as did Palantir cofounder and venture capitalist Joe Lonsdale. Kenneth Howery, a member of the PayPal Mafia, put $1 million into America PAC, which was then used to contribute to the Trump campaign.
The graphic below concentrates on donations that support Trump directly, rather than the other way around. You can see how much each person has given by scrolling or tapping each name.
Nelson said that he invited a group of about 20 wealthy, predominantly Republican donors and a few G.O.P. strategists to dinner at his waterfront estate in Palm Beach, Fla. There were many people in the room who had expressed their disapproval of the former President, but it was time to get on board and figure out how to stop him. There were a lot of problems. An especially uncomfortable one was that a lot of donor money was going to paying Trump’s mounting legal bills rather than building a serious political campaign.
Peltz, who was 81 at the time and made his fortune via junk bonds and leveraged buyouts, had gathered some traditional high rollers, including the hedge-fund manager John Paulson and the Las Vegas casino tycoon Steve Wynn, as well as Ronna McDaniel, then the chair of the Republican National Committee. He had also invited Elon Musk.
Musk gave a small amount to candidates of both parties. He was drawn to President Barack Obama, making several visits to meet with him in the Oval Office and inviting him to Cape Canaveral to see SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket. But he didn’t really like spending time with politicians, and never aspired to be a political power broker, at least in the traditional sense. He had a business empire that spanned the globe and administrations everywhere came and went. He thought that he was bigger than any party.
