Elon Musk donates $70m to Donald Trump election campaign because he wants a 'centrist' government

Tech mogul has given more than $70 million (£53.8 million) to help win the US presidential election as he claims want's a "centralist" government.

The has got firmly behind Trump speaking out vocally in favour of the former Republican president as he fights with Kamala Harris to win out in the November election.

And now campaign finance disclosures released this week have shown the full extent of his support with $70 million making him one of the biggest donors to Republican Party causes this campaign.

Musk made the donation over the summer to America PAC, a super political action committee he launched in May to aid in his bid to return to the White House. It quickly became a central player in Trump's election effort.

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"The America PAC is just aiming for common sense, centrist values," the Space X and Tesla founder said on Tuesday on his social media platform X, shortly after the sum of money he contributed was made public in a campaign finance filing.

Super PACs such as Mr Musk's America PAC can raise and spend unlimited sums of money but are typically forbidden from co-ordinating their efforts with the candidates they support.

A recent opinion by the Federal Election Commission, which regulates federal political campaigns, allowed for candidates and these big-spending groups to work together on so-called ground game efforts, which are the armies of people deployed to knock on doors to help turn out the vote.

While candidates and political parties have traditionally organised and paid for such efforts, Trump's campaign has struggled to raise money this year and has turned to a handful of outside groups to undertake the work, with Musk's America PAC being top among them.

But in doing so, the campaign has outsourced a core function to a coterie of untested groups that operate independently.
Florida governor Ron DeSantis's decision to have an outside group canvass for him is said to be one of the reasons his presidential bid failed.