Elon Musk says he is NOT donating $45 million to Donald Trump for this reason – even after ex-president promised to ‘make life good for him’

Elon Musk denies he will donate $45 million a month to help Donald Trump win the presidential election.

The Tesla boss said he planned to begin donating in July to the America PAC he founded to support the former president with massive cash infusions.

Musk reportedly donates $45 million a month in personal donations, in addition to donations from other big-budget Trump fans.

But he later denied last week’s Wall Street Journal report citing the huge sum, citing sources familiar with Musk’s plans.

“What’s been reported in the media is simply not true. I’m not donating $45 million a month to Trump,” he said during a video with Jordan Peterson.

Musk later responded on Twitter, calling the $45 million figure “ridiculous” and explaining why he supported the Republicans.

“I do donate to America PAC, but at a much lower level. The PAC’s core values ​​are supporting meritocracy and individual liberty,” he wrote.

“Republicans are largely, but not exclusively, on the side of merit and freedom.”

It is unknown whether the sources cited in the original report were incorrect or if Musk simply changed his mind and claimed this was never the intention.

Musk also discussed his reasons for donating heavily to Trump and the Republicans in his conversation with Peterson on Twitter, which Musk owns.

The controversial psychology professor, dressed in a bizarre suit jacket featuring dozens of icons of Jesus, asked Musk about his switch to the Republicans.

I don’t write for [a] “A cult of personality,” he said, stressing that his super PAC “cannot be a hyper-partisan” entity.

Musk said he and the Republican Party were more aligned on their “core values” than he and the Democrats.

“One of those values ​​is meritocracy, as much meritocracy as possible, so that you advance based on your skills and nothing else,” he said.

He said the PAC was in favour of freedom from “as much government intervention as possible” and claimed the state was becoming more restrictive every year.

Musk said Trump showed “great courage” after the attack on his life at a rally on July 13, when a bullet grazed his ear.

The businessman first voiced his explicit support for Trump as president in the hours after the attempted assassination, although this had been suspected for some time.

Trump did the same, touting the intelligence of his new superfan at a rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

“We’ve got to make life good for our smart people, you know? We’ve got some smart people,” he said.

“We have to make life better for our smart people, and he’s the smartest man there is.”

Musk told Peterson that he stopped supporting Democrats after voting for Joe Biden in 2020, claiming Democrats were the party of censorship.

This is despite Republican state governments banning books they disagree with and Musk regularly railing against transgender people.

Musk also referenced an aborted lawsuit filed against Space X by the Justice Department last year, alleging that Space X discouraged refugees from applying to work for them.

The billionaire has stepped up his attacks on Biden and Democrats in general this year, mocking Vice President Kamala Harris on Sunday by using pronouns in a 2022 video.

Musk has tapped several wealthy donors to his America PAC in recent weeks, including Lonsdale Enterprises and the Winklevoss Twins.

The company donated $1 million, and Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss each contributed $250,000.

Others involved with Lonsdale include former U.S. Ambassador to Canada Kelly Craft and her husband, Joe Craft.

Musk was not mentioned in a document from the group, which showed the company had raised more than $8 million.

Musk’s support for Trump confirms his shift to the right and gives the former president a key pillar of support in his bid to return to the White House in the Nov. 5 election.

Trump has chosen Senator J.D. Vance of Ohio as his running mate for vice president, officially nominating the former president to run for re-election in the White House.

In March, Trump met with Musk and other wealthy donors, causing such a stir that Musk later made a statement about it on social media.

“To be very clear, I am not donating money to any of the candidates for president of the United States,” he said on March 6.

In May, he also denied media reports that there had been discussions about a possible advisory role for him during a possible Trump presidency.

Biden campaign spokesman James Singer said Musk knows Trump is “a loser who will betray America, cut taxes, and raise taxes on the middle class by $2,500.”

“Joe Biden has spent his entire career standing up to people like Elon and fighting for the middle class. That’s why he will win in November,” Singer said in a statement.

Unlike other billionaires, Musk hasn’t spent large sums on political donations, but he has previously donated money to both Republicans and Democrats.

Musk has personally provided money to politicians including Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Marco Rubio, George W. Bush and John Kerry.

His companies Tesla and SpaceX have benefited from federal government contracts and subsidies.

In recent years, however, Musk appears to be leaning more towards the Republican Party.

This may be partly due to a snub by the Biden administration in 2021, when it did not invite Tesla to an electric vehicle summit.

“Let’s not forget when the White House gave Tesla the cold shoulder and excluded us from the EV leadership,” Musk wrote in December, more than two years after the insult.

The following year, he encouraged his followers on Twitter to vote for a Republican Congress before the midterm elections.

After Musk bought social media platform Twitter in 2022, he restored Trump’s account after it was suspended after January 6.

Musk has generally spoken out against left-wing, “woke” politics and echoes right-wing rhetoric on immigration.

“America will perish if it tries to absorb the world,” Musk wrote on X on Tuesday.

He also claimed that Democrats are “bringing in huge numbers of illegal immigrants” to commit voter fraud, although there is no evidence of this.

Early in the Republican primary season, Musk signaled that he supported Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.

DeSantis kicked off his campaign with a livestreamed interview with the billionaire, but it did not lead to a donation.

Trump last month reiterated his pledge to immediately drop the Biden administration’s “mandate” to support the electric car industry. But he added: “I’m a big fan of electric cars. I’m a fan of Elon.”

“He’s doing an incredible job at Tesla.”

Musk said they had “some conversations” and that Trump is a “big fan of the Cybertrucks,” referring to Tesla’s electric pickup trucks.

Musk has openly criticized Biden’s policies on immigration, electric vehicles, and even his age. Yet he made no formal endorsements during the November election. Trump has also said he doesn’t know if Musk supports him.

According to a study by CivicScience, Musk’s views have damaged his reputation among some consumers.