Can Elon Musk Really Buy the Midterms for $276M?

John Johnston (0:00)

By far, the largest known donor in the midterms, 2025 to 2026, 366 million it's up to now.

I mean, this is oligarch stuff. It really is. Trying to put his thumb on the scale. Maybe it could backfire, you know, by people knowing about it, knowing what he's trying to do.

Hi everyone, JJ here. Welcome back to the Lounge. Well, the news has come through today that Elon Musk is spending massively on the midterm elections. This comes after him saying that he wouldn't have such an involvement going forward. He said that before. Maybe he's changed his mind or maybe he's a bit panicked about the polling, which is showing that in many places, in many surprising places, that the Republicans are not doing well. I mean, the war has got a lot to do with that, right? And other things too. But Elon jumping in with some of the biggest political donating ever. I mean, this really is starting to look like an oligarchy. We're not starting to look like it. Now, I might have mentioned before, I have mentioned that I've been reading this book, The United States of Oligarchy, where the author goes through how the United States he thinks is an oligarchy. Has been that way for quite a while, he says and details it. And not just in this administration, which people points out, what about the Democrats, what about previous governments? Well, yes, but now it's getting ridiculous. Inside Elon Musk, $276 million midterm rescue mission for Republicans. This is from the New York Times. There are other articles about this too, because it's been disclosed. The world's richest person has quietly become by far the biggest known midterm donor, trying to save Republican Senate majority with some of the largest donations in American political history.

It's just massive, right? I just can't believe how much money is in US politics. Most countries don't allow this. Of course, Citizens United has a lot to do with that. And in that book, it lays out what led up to that, how it happened, and everything to do with it if you want to read that. So Elon Musk has quietly funneled more than $276 million into Republican groups and his Super PAC since the start of July, building a huge turnout operation to help the party battle headwinds in the midterm election. So maybe this is why he's changed his mind. He's seen the writing on the wall or what could happen. Also, this is the time when that Musk documentary comes out, which is critical of him and his political spending and all of the things that he's done. So he's being exposed in real time now, is that Movies and Theaters, one of the most high profile documentary makers, Alex Skibney in the US. So he's got to be concerned about that too.

The staggering amount of money makes Mr. Musk the richest person in the world, by far the largest known donor in the midterms. Representatives for Mr. Musk supplied the previously unreported figures on his political giving to the New York Times before a federal filing deadline on Thursday. I mean, I've been talking about it like it's 100 million or something like that, but this blows that out of the water. And this adds to what he's already given, which goes into this article. It's getting really up there, huge amounts of money. In an effort to save Republican Senate majority, he gave a total of 158 million this summer to the Senate Leadership Fund, the main Super PAC backing the party's candidates for the chamber, according to his team. In sum, that is one of the largest political donations in American history, and more than the group's Democratic rival raised from all of its donors that quarter. So, yes, he would counter with, what about the Soros funding? And I went through this the other day in a similar video, which went through the donations so far, and that was a while ago. So obviously it's rammed up, and Elon has been giving massively. So this is an interesting graph here. Mr. Musk has also built a major Republican turnout operation through a Super PAC he founded in 2024, America PAC. And I saw a tweet from them today. They were fear-mongering about communists.

I think I replied to that saying, what about the oligarchs? He donated over 76 million this summer to the group, which in turn spent that much on building a sprawling canvassing program to try to turn out hard to reach Republican voters. So this is Elon Musk campaign contributions. So in 2023 to 2024, what, 290 million? 2025 to 2026, 366 million it's up to now. And since July 2026, 276 million. So really adding up. I mean, this is oligarch stuff. It really is.