x - Thomson 158 Reuters https://thomson158reuters.servehalflife.com Latest News Updates Mon, 21 Oct 2024 21:13:08 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.6.2 Elon Musk’s PAC Is Buying Ads for Donald Trump on Elon Musk’s X https://thomson158reuters.servehalflife.com/elon-musks-pac-is-buying-ads-for-donald-trump-on-elon-musks-x/ https://thomson158reuters.servehalflife.com/elon-musks-pac-is-buying-ads-for-donald-trump-on-elon-musks-x/#respond Mon, 21 Oct 2024 21:13:08 +0000 https://thomson158reuters.servehalflife.com/elon-musks-pac-is-buying-ads-for-donald-trump-on-elon-musks-x/ The Elon Musk–backed America PAC has spent thousands of dollars advertising on the Elon Musk–owned social media platform X to support former president Donald Trump’s campaign. According to X’s political ad disclosure data, between July 8 and October 1 the America PAC ran 59 ads, costing more than $166,000 and yielding, per X’s metrics, 32,058,424 […]

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The Elon Musk–backed America PAC has spent thousands of dollars advertising on the Elon Musk–owned social media platform X to support former president Donald Trump’s campaign. According to X’s political ad disclosure data, between July 8 and October 1 the America PAC ran 59 ads, costing more than $166,000 and yielding, per X’s metrics, 32,058,424 impressions. All of the ads targeted swing states: Georgia, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Arizona, and Wisconsin.

Musk first endorsed Trump immediately following the attempted assassination against the former president in July in Butler, Pennsylvania. Since then, Musk has said he is “all in” on his support for Trump, and appeared at a second rally in Butler earlier this month. “This election is the most important election of our lifetime,” said Musk at the time. “This is no ordinary election.” It was one part of Musk’s—and the America PAC’s—efforts to turn out voters for Trump in swing states.

The America PAC has been a driving force behind voter mobilization for the Trump campaign, developing an app to help canvassers target likely voters. (The effectiveness of this strategy remains to be seen, with canvassers reportedly faking voter contacts at scale.) The PAC has offered $47 to any swing state voters who would agree to sign a petition supporting the First and Second Amendments. Musk has also said he will give out $1 million a day to voters who sign the petition, in a move election law expert Rick Hasen described as “clearly illegal.”

Federal Election Commission filings released last week revealed that Musk has funneled $75 million into the PAC since July, dwarfing other Silicon Valley donors who back the former president. Musk has also donated to the Building America’s Future PAC, which has run anti–Kamala Harris ads aiming to dissuade Black and Muslim voters, particularly in swing states.

Musk has also used his ownership of X to further promote Trump. In August, Musk sat down with Trump for an interview hosted on X Spaces. He has also promoted and reshared conspiracy theories pedaled by the Trump campaign, including by alleging that the Democratic Party would allow undocumented immigrants to vote in order to win the election.

In one ad that ran between September 27 and October 1, the post read, “Georgia is filling up with illegal immigrants: In just 3 years, Kamala released more illegal immigrants into our country than almost 3x the population of Atlanta. End Kamala’s Border Chaos and request your ballot for President Trump today.” The ad links to the website votesafe.org, which is paid for by the America PAC and where voters can look up their voter registration status and request ballots.

All of the PAC’s ads are linked to the @theamericapac X account, which links to the PAC’s website. Before his appearance at Trump’s October rally in Butler, Musk had appropriated the @america handle for the America PAC.

The America PAC has also invested heavily in ads on Meta’s platforms, Facebook and Instagram, running more than 250 ads in October alone.

A representative from X did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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Will Elon Musk Tip the Election for Trump? https://thomson158reuters.servehalflife.com/will-elon-musk-tip-the-election-for-trump/ https://thomson158reuters.servehalflife.com/will-elon-musk-tip-the-election-for-trump/#respond Thu, 10 Oct 2024 21:49:47 +0000 https://thomson158reuters.servehalflife.com/will-elon-musk-tip-the-election-for-trump/ Leah Feiger: So Trump brings Musk out, he calls him a truly incredible guy. Musk literally jumps into the air on stage, in what was captured in honestly one of the cringiest photos that I’ve seen online maybe this year, and then Musk talks to the crowd for a couple of minutes. What does he […]

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Leah Feiger: So Trump brings Musk out, he calls him a truly incredible guy. Musk literally jumps into the air on stage, in what was captured in honestly one of the cringiest photos that I’ve seen online maybe this year, and then Musk talks to the crowd for a couple of minutes. What does he say? Talk us through that.

Vittoria Elliott: It’s such a turn from 2020 when there’s all this suspicion around mail-in ballots, around early voting. Now suddenly we’re hearing, “Make sure you’re registered to vote, vote early, do this, do that, get everyone you know to vote.” There’s this really, really big get-out-the-vote push, and that is what Elon was on. When the assassin’s bullet grazed Trump’s ear, he got up and said, “Fight, fight, fight.” And Musk very consciously said, “Vote, vote, vote.” And everyone in the crowd immediately saw that parallel that—

Leah Feiger: I mean, he drew it. Yeah.

Vittoria Elliott: People were very into that, and one of the things that Musk said that got a lot of reaction from the people that I was directly around was he said, “The Second—”

Elon Musk [Archival audio]: The Second Amendment is there to ensure that we have the First Amendment.

Vittoria Elliott: He was there to whip up the troops, to really speak to the true believers, to push, push, push for voter turnout, because I think my sense with the way that the MAGA movement is right now is that they understand what the Biden team understood in 2020 where it’s not about converting new people, it’s about getting the people that are already on your team mobilized. He said, “This election is the most important election of our lifetime.” Quite normal. I think I’ve heard every politician say that for the last 20 years, but then he says, “You have to bring everyone you know to vote. If they don’t, this will be—”

Elon Musk [Archival audio]: This will be the last election. That’s my prediction. Nothing’s more important, nothing’s more important.

Vittoria Elliott: I even had some people repeat that to me on the way out of the rally, and that is also something he has been very public about saying on X, even before coming to this rally. A lot of times when Musk is speaking publicly or when he’s interviewed, he will tamp back some of the rhetoric that he spreads online. If we think back to the Don Lemon interview, where he was confronted about the great replacement theory, he hedged a little bit on that.

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