CNN: Elon Musk Spent More Than $290 Million on the 2024 Election

Elon Musk spent 3x as much as Miriam Adelson in the 2024 election.

This doesn’t include the $44 billion he spent to acquire Twitter and transform it into X. No one else in history has spent such a vast sum of money to influence American elections.

CNN:

“CNN — Elon Musk spent a total of more than $290 million on the 2024 election, new federal filings show, boosting President Donald Trump and Republicans in a staggering effort that has helped to secure unprecedented access for the world’s richest person in the new administration.

The year-end filings, covering the final five weeks of the year, also revealed jockeying for influence as the new administration prepared to take power. Trump’s old campaign committee — converted into a new account he can use to flex his political muscle, despite being term-limited — hauled in nearly $21 million in the period. Meanwhile, a top allied super PAC received several million-dollar contributions, including $1 million from the administration’s nominee for ambassador to the UK, on the day he was tapped to serve. …”

The First Buddy now has a White House office and full access to the U.S. Treasury. He might even have your Social Security number.

New York Times:

“Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent gave representatives of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency full access to the federal payment system late on Friday, according to three people familiar with the change, handing Elon Musk and the team he is leading a powerful tool to monitor and potentially limit government spending.

The new authority follows a standoff this week with a top Treasury official who had resisted allowing Mr. Musk’s lieutenants into the department’s payment system, which sends out money on behalf of the entire federal government. The official, a career civil servant named David Lebryk, was put on leave and then suddenly retired on Friday after the dispute, according to people familiar with his exit. …”

None of this will stop activists from banging on about “DA JOOZ” like it is 1989. The media landscape has radically changed since then. The same is now true of the Republican donor class.