
Elon Musk spent more than $290 million on the 2024 election, year-end FEC filings show
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.
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. In addition, the filings showed how the parties and some of their key members are getting set for the 2026 midterm election cycle, with potentially vulnerable incumbents in battleground states like Georgia, North Carolina, and New Hampshire stockpiling cash. And the Democratic National Committee spent heavily in the weeks following the party’s losses in 2024, dropping more than $56 million settling headquarters expenses, paying legal fees, and soliciting its voters feedback and funds. The new filings with the Federal Election Commission on Friday showed that Musk put about $11.2 million into his main super PAC, America PAC, on the final day of the year — which brought his total political giving for the cycle to more than $290 million, a massive sum rivaled by only a handful of competing mega donors. Musk’s end-of-the-year contributions were earmarked for “petition incentives,” related to the million-dollar giveaways that he organized through the super PAC in the home stretch of the race. Those giveaways — aimed at encouraging voter registration — drew legal challenges, though they were ultimately allowed to continue. The latest filing from Musk’s super PAC shows that the giveaways cost him a total of more than $50 million, out of the more than $290 million that he spent on the 2024 election.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth risked compromising sensitive military information that could have endangered US troops through his use of Signal to discuss attack plans, a Pentagon watchdog said in an unclassified report released Thursday. It also details how Hegseth declined to cooperate with the probe.

Two top House lawmakers emerged divided along party lines after a private briefing with the military official who oversaw September’s attack on an alleged drug vessel that included a so-called double-tap strike that killed surviving crew members, with a top Democrat calling video of the incident that was shared as part of the briefing “one of the most troubling things” he has seen as a lawmaker.

Authorities in Colombia are dealing with increasingly sophisticated criminals, who use advanced tech to produce and conceal the drugs they hope to export around the world. But police and the military are fighting back, using AI to flag suspicious passengers, cargo and mail - alongside more conventional air and sea patrols. CNN’s Isa Soares gets an inside look at Bogotá’s war on drugs.

As lawmakers demand answers over reports that the US military carried out a follow-up strike that killed survivors during an attacked on an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean, a career Navy SEAL who has spent most of his 30 years of military experience in special operations will be responsible for providing them.









