Musk burned $10 million to help DeSantis before betting on Trump

• Elon Musk funded Republican causes long before he endorsed Trump in July, according to new reports.
• As of 2022, he has collected millions in donations to conservative groups.
• His America PAC also donated tens of millions of dollars to support Trump’s campaign.

Elon Musk, a vocal supporter of former President Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, has been quietly funding Republican causes for years, according to new reports.

The Tesla and SpaceX CEO has given Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis a $10 million donation for his short-lived 2023 presidential bid, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday, citing people familiar with the donation.

Musk gave the money to a group called Faithful & Strong Policies, The Journal reported.

A website for a group of the same name says it “is committed to promoting and supporting conservative policies and ideas rooted in freedom and our founding principles.”

The Journal, citing its sources, reported that more than half of the money given to Faithful and Strong Politics went to Never Back Down, a pro-DeSantis political action committee.

DeSantis, who was once touted as Trump’s fiercest rival for the Republican presidential nomination, dropped out of the race in January.

The Journal also reported that in 2022, Musk invested more than $50 million in funding ad campaigns for a conservative group, Citizens for Sanity, citing people familiar with his involvement and tax filings for the group.

In May, The Guardian reported that Citizens for Sanity had ties to Trump’s inner circle and launched attack ads targeting President Joe Biden.

The Journal, citing its unnamed sources, added that people involved in the transactions with Citizens for Sanity used Signal, an encrypted messaging app, to keep Musk’s funding secret.

Separately, Reuters reported on Wednesday that since 2022, Musk has given millions to Building America’s Future, a conservative political group that has also launched ads and social media campaigns targeting Biden.

The station cited two anonymous sources familiar with the donations.

Musk endorsed Trump in July and has since backed a super PAC called America PAC, which has spent tens of millions of dollars helping Trump’s campaign.

A PAC-funded ad portrays Trump as “America’s Bass.”

In July, the Journal reported that Musk pledged to donate $45 million monthly to the PAC. However, he denied the report in a post on X, which included a meme with the words “fake gnus”.

And according to recent filings with the Federal Election Commission, America PAC supports Republican causes across the board, having spent more than $5 million on more than a dozen House races across the country.

Musk also said Trump’s endorsement of X.

“If Trump is not elected, America will fall into tyranny,” he wrote in an X post on Sept. 18. “Trump must win.”

Representatives for DeSantis and Musk did not immediately respond to an after-hours request for comment from Business Insider.