Elon Musk’s pro-Trump PAC hired Ron DeSantis alums. Did he get what he paid for?

Elon Musk. Image via AP.

Elon Musk, the South African-born tech and business titan, has spent at least $119 million mobilizing Donald Trump’s supporters to back the Republican nominee. His social media platform, X, has become a firehose of pro-Trump propaganda. And he’s playing a starring role in Trump-style rallies in critical battleground states.

Musk is hardly the only person whose megawealth places him at the nexus of politics, business and foreign policy. But few are working so publicly for a single candidate as Musk, whose expansive business ties and growing bravado pose a vexing test of one unelected person’s political power. His stature is perhaps one of the most tangible consequences of the Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United decision, which eliminated many limits on political giving.

Musk’s conversion to a self-described “Dark MAGA” Trump warrior is a recent one. In the past, he donated modest sums to both Republicans and Democrats, including $5,000 to Hillary Clinton in 2016, records show. He didn’t contribute to Trump’s political efforts until this year, according to federal campaign finance disclosures.

He was all in once he did.

Musk is now leading America PAC, a super political action committee that is spearheading Trump’s get-out-the-vote effort.

As a newcomer to politics, there have been growing pains.

Over the summer, America PAC struggled to reach its voter contact goals. Musk brought in a new team of political consultants, Generra Peck and Phil Cox, who worked on Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis ’ losing Republican presidential primary bid.

On paper, the numbers have improved. But Republican officials, operatives and activists say in some critical places it’s been difficult to tell how active the PAC’s ground effort has been.

The PAC’s presence is not perceptible in rural Georgia, according to three Republican strategists who are closely monitoring the ground game in the battleground state. For example, America PAC has shown little evidence of leaving literature behind on doorsteps, as is common when a voter is not home, especially in remote places, the three people said.

There are also indicators Musk, a tech innovator, has been taken advantage of at his own game. In Nevada, three other people familiar with America PAC’s efforts said hired canvassers paid tech-savvy operatives to digitally manipulate an app used to track their progress — appearing to falsify their data so they could get paid for work that they did not do. Canvassers are typically paid by the number of doors that they knock on.

There are signs the practice wasn’t limited to Nevada. One person warned America PAC leadership weeks ago that canvasing data from multiple states showed signs that it had been falsified, but their concerns were not acted on, according to two people with knowledge of the matter.

The individuals, like others who provided details about Musk’s political operation, insisted on anonymity to discuss the matter out of fear of retribution.

Musk has become frustrated with the inner workings of his political organization and has brought in private sector associates, including Steve Davis, president of the Boring company, Musk’s tunnel building company, according to three people with knowledge of the move. Davis’ role with America PAC was previously reported by The New York Times.

A person close to the PAC disputed that the group had been taken advantage of, suggesting it was a conspiracy theory based on a poor understanding of how political canvassing works. The person insisted on anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the inner workings of the PAC.

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Republished with permission of the Associated Press.