news

Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX and Tesla | Reuters

According to a report by CNBC News on August 2, if voters in Michigan search on Google, a somewhat shocking ad may pop up:

A young man was lying in bed late at night when he received a text message saying: Hey, you need to vote! Then there was a video of an attempted shooting of former President Trump, with gunshots and people screaming in the background. As Trump rushed off the stage with blood on his face, the man watching the video said: "America is out of control, what should I do?"

The ad then pops up a website for a political action committee group called USA PAC, which says it will help viewers register and vote.

USA PAC is a political action committee formed by Tesla, whose CEO Musk aims to give Republican presidential candidate Trump an advantage in his race against the de facto Democratic candidate, current Vice President Harris.

"I created a political action committee, or a super PAC," Musk said in a recent interview.

Musk, who also owns social media platform X (formerly Twitter), has a net worth of more than $235 billion, according to Forbes.

According to US media, owning an internationally renowned social media platform provides Musk with a huge public opinion platform to promote his political views. He has also created a political action committee with unlimited resources, which makes Musk a major force in the US presidential election for the first time.

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Musk and Trump, May 30, 2020 | Visual China

Musk's team will use "register to vote" big data

According to AdImpact, Musk's U.S. PAC has spent more than $800,000 on digital ads targeting voters in key "battleground states" (referring to states in the United States where the two parties are fiercely contested and the race is evenly matched) since early July.

The ads appeared on Facebook, Instagram and Google via YouTube, with many people encouraged to register to vote on the US PAC's website.

American PACs use the "voter registration" process to collect information from people, which is a key part of reaching out to voters personally through big data.

"PAC USA is focused on going door-to-door to get out the vote for Trump," said Brendan Fischer, deputy executive director of campaign finance watchdog Documented.

"It could be assumed that voter data collected through these programs would inform PAC USA's canvassing and other political activities," Fischer said, noting that the group's privacy policy states it can use data it collects in registration or fundraising efforts.

According to Federal Election Commission documents, USA PAC has spent more than $21 million on canvassing, digital media, text messaging and phone calls since June. In its federal filings, USA PAC disclosed that all of its work was designed to help Trump or hurt his opponents.

Fischer said he has seen other political action committees try to use "registration to vote" information to collect data on people. But Project USA PAC is unique in who is supporting it and when it was created.

"What makes USA PAC even more unique is that it is a billionaire-backed super PAC focused on door-to-door canvassing that can be coordinated with the presidential campaign," Fischer said. "The Trump campaign is likely providing USA PAC with materials and campaign playbooks to ensure their efforts are aligned."

“I suspect that the ability of USA PAC to coordinate its data-driven get-out-the-vote efforts with the Trump campaign will be very attractive to donors,” he said.

Musk isn't the only prominent American tech executive to back Trump's campaign.

The PAC raised more than $8 million between April 1 and June 30, according to Federal Election Commission records, with contributions from veteran investor Doug Leone, cryptocurrency investors Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss and a firm run by longtime venture capitalist Joe Lonsdale.

According to the New York Times, Lonsdale, co-founder of software company Palantir, is also the leader of the US PAC and "is a political confidant of Musk."

But the records do not yet list Musk as a donor, although he recently said he was "donating to USA PAC" but did not say how much. USA PAC does not need to file third-quarter reports with the Federal Election Commission until Oct. 15, and Musk's name could be listed as a donor for the first time after that.

Musk publicly supports Trump

Musk recommends US PAC on social media

The ads that USA PAC ran on the social media platform also reflected a message that Musk conveyed to his 191 million followers on X multiple times a day: America is in chaos, and voting for Trump instead of Harris is the only way out.

“These PACs are often avatars of the billionaires behind them,” said Daniel Weiner, director of the Elections and Government Program at the Brennan Center.

Election experts said the lack of disclosure about Musk's ownership of the social platform and how he uses it suggests the Tesla boss could use it as a political weapon against Harris and Democrats more broadly with less than 100 days until Election Day.

Matthew Baum, a professor at Harvard Kennedy School, said: "It is somewhat concerning that the owner of X, one of the most important social media platforms, would publicly express his partisanship and use his platform as a tool to pursue his overtly partisan aims."

Baum said that with a social media company like X, there is the potential for "capture of a major platform by partisan actors, who can then use that platform largely freely, regardless of potential negative social or political consequences."

Weiner said there are concerns that Musk is weaponizing the X platform to help his chosen candidate, Trump, for president.

Musk tweets support for Trump

Further reading:

Further reading:

Further reading: