Elon Musk gave US$10 million to Republican allies just before announcing his own America Party

Elon Musk attends a news conference with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office of the White House, on May 30 in Washington. Musk donated a total of US$10 million to a pair of super PACs aimed at helping Republicans retain their majorities in Congress. (Evan Vucci/AP via CNN Newsource)

Billionaire Elon Musk donated a total of US$10 million to a pair of super PACs aimed at helping Republicans retain their majorities in Congress after next year’s midterm elections, new campaign finance reports show.

The donations of $5 million each to the Senate Leadership Fund and the Congressional Leadership Fund came on June 27 – amid Musk’s bitter feuding with U.S. President Donald Trump over federal spending legislation – and just days before the world’s richest man declared he would form his own political party.

The newly disclosed donations underscore Musk’s outsize influence in US politics and raise fresh questions about what role the mercurial businessman might play in elections moving forward.

The Tesla CEO emerged in Thursday’s filings as the largest individual contributor to each of those congressional super PACs. Separately, campaign reports with the Federal Election Commission show Musk this year plowed more than $45 million of his own money into America PAC, the super PAC he oversees – as he worked, unsuccessfully, to shape the outcome of a Wisconsin Supreme Court race.

In the 2024 election, Musk spent more than $290 million to help elect Trump and his favored congressional candidates. He served as a top White House adviser and the leader of the cost-cutting Department of Government Efficiency for several months this year before stepping back from government work to focus on his companies.

At the time, he signaled he also might pull back on his political spending.

But by early July, Musk was publicly battling again with Trump and congressional Republicans over domestic policy legislation Musk said would explode the deficit.

He also pledged to form the America Party, although there are few signs that he has taken concrete steps in that direction.

Thursday’s report with the FEC covers his super PAC’s activity only through the end of June.

By Fredreka Schouten, CNN

CNN’s Alex Leeds Matthews and David Adkins contributed to this report.