American billionaire Elon Musk has used his social media platform
Musk, 53, who has said he has voted for Democratic presidential candidates in the past, has become more publicly right-wing during this election campaign. He endorsed Trump in July and appeared with him in Pennsylvania this month.
If re-elected, Trump has promised to make Musk head of a government efficiency commission, a job the billionaire insisted will help rid the country of regulations he sees as bad for the economy and an impediment to doing business.
The CEO of Tesla and SpaceX and owner of X – formerly known as Twitter – has millions of dollars in government contracts and his companies face significant and sometimes costly government regulations related to consumer protection and the environment.
Neither Musk nor Democrat Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign responded to requests for comment. Reuters about Musk’s pro-Trump activities.
These are some of the ways Musk supports Trump.
The super PAC
The Political Action Committee or super PAC, an initiative funded by Elon Musk as part of his support for former President Trump’s Republican election campaign, is playing an important role in helping to mobilize and register voters in the battleground states that could decide the elections.
Musk, ranked by Forbes as the world’s richest person, has so far contributed at least $75 million to the political action committee, according to federal disclosures.
The super PAC spent about $72 million of that total in the July to September period, according to disclosures submitted to the Federal Election Commission. That’s more than any other pro-Trump super PAC focused on mobilizing voters.
The super PAC is having difficulty in some battleground states meeting door-to-door goals and is investigating allegations that some promoters lied about the number of voters they have contacted, it reported. Reuters last week.
The X Platform
Musk has more than 202 million followers on social media platform X, which he purchased for $44 billion in October 2022, when it was known as Twitter. Since endorsing Trump, he has used the platform to promote the Republican candidate. Some of their posts spread misinformation and cast doubt on the integrity of the upcoming elections.
In July, for example, he commented on a post by Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson and wrote, “The goal all along has been to import as many illegal voters as possible,” repeating the false claim that Democrats are intentionally allowing non-citizens to enter the country so they can vote in elections.
The same month, she shared a video, generated with artificial intelligence and manipulating Vice President Harris’s voice, in which Harris, the daughter of a Jamaican father and an Indian mother, described herself as the “ultimate diversity hire” and criticized President Joe Biden.
Musk has criticized diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs aimed at boosting racial and ethnic representation in the workplace, posting in January, for example, that “DEI is just another word for racism. Shame on anyone who uses it.”
X and other social media platforms have been under increased scrutiny since 2016, when Russia interfered in the US presidential election to try to boost Trump’s candidacy and harm his opponent, Democrat Hillary Clinton.
Since Musk acquired the then-Twitter in 2022, civil rights groups have raised concerns about the rise of hate speech and misinformation due to reduced content moderation.
Under X’s current policy, the platform may “tag posts that contain misleading content to help people understand their authenticity and provide additional context” or remove misleading posts that have a serious risk of causing harm.
However, researchers say it remains a source of electoral misinformation, through fake accounts and Musk’s own amplification of that content.
Million dollar gifts
Musk also promises to give $1 million each day to randomly selected people who sign his online petition pledging to support the First and Second Amendments of the United States Constitution, which protect the rights to free speech and possession of property. arms. The petition is only open to signers who are registered voters in seven battleground states that will likely decide the presidential election.
The petition falls into a gray area of election law, and legal experts are divided over whether Musk could be violating prohibitions on paying people to register to vote. Critics say it’s a ploy to help drum up support for Trump.
The super PAC has been posting promotional video interviews and photos of people who have won the $1 million drawings on Musk’s X, garnering millions of views. Signers of the petition must provide their address and cell phone number, suggesting they could be contacted by the super PAC’s door-to-door salesmen.
On campaign route
Musk accompanied Trump at a rally on October 5 in Butler, Pennsylvania, scene of an assassination attempt in July against the Republican candidateand returned to the state for other campaign stops less than two weeks later.
While touring Pennsylvania, Musk made a series of false claims about election fraud, some of them echoing those made by Trump over the past four years.
He also encouraged people to use his X platform to highlight possible electoral fraud.
“If people believe there is fraud, then they should publish the images, publish the videos, publish the evidence,” he said.
Connect with the Voice of America! Subscribe to our channels YouTube, WhatsApp and to the newsletter. Turn on notifications and follow us on Facebook, x and instagram
Add Comment