Elon Musk flaunts his wealth and political power unlike any other richest man before him

• Elon Musk is breaking ground as a pro-Trump megadonor.
• While he may not donate the most money this cycle, Musk is behaving differently than any uber-wealthy American before him.
• Tesla's CEO is even hosting his own series of political rallies in a key swing state.

America has never seen a megadonor like Elon Musk.

On Thursday, the world's richest man held a town hall event in Pennsylvania, the biggest swing state in 2024. Tesla's CEO has pledged to hold more events to promote the election of former President Donald Trump. Musk has also invested at least $75 million in a pro-Trump super PAC. His pro-Trump group America PAC is even offering to pay people $47 if they get supporters to sign a petition, which in turn gives the outside group valuable data on potential swing voters. On Friday, Musk upped the offer even further, promising $100 for every voter in Pennsylvania.

“Elon Musk is kind of a natural for Donald Trump,” journalist Roger Lowenstein, who wrote a biography of Warren Buffett, told Business Insider.

Musk is not the biggest spender this presidential election cycle, despite his estimated net worth of $247 billion. According to OpenSecrets, that title among disclosed donors belongs to banking heir Timothy Mellon, who spent a staggering $165 million promoting Trump and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (we won't know the full extent of 2024 donations until after the election experience). , and that excludes so-called “dark money” groups, which, unlike super PACs, don’t have to disclose their donors.)

But Musk stands out because he is one of the richest of the rich. While there have been plenty of wealthy major donors — the Koch brothers, the Adelsons, Michael Bloomberg and others have spent hundreds of millions on super PACs — the men who recently replaced Musk as the richest American and richest person in the world have done so not been nearly as involved. Musk follows a completely different tact than Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos and Warren Buffett.

“The richest man in the world fluctuates over time, but not all of them could or wanted to spend money in politics in the last four presidential elections,” says Ciara Torres-Spelliscy, a law professor at Stetson University who has studied big money in of politics, said Business Insider.

Lowenstein pointed out that even Musk's temperament is exceptionally different from that of someone like Buffett.

“Warren couldn’t be more different,” Lowenstein said. “The fact that Warren is considered the richest person in the world doesn’t change that. He is very careful about what he says. He doesn't like personal confrontations. He's always been fascinated by pragmatic questions in politics.” He doesn't go out and say, “So-and-so is running the country or all the insults that are the political system today. That’s just not his thing.”

Even Musk has changed. Before this cycle, the largest single political donation he had ever given was $75,000 to Californians for Clean Alternative Energy in 2006. His final total for 2024 is already more than 1,000 times that.

It remains to be seen what the South African-born tech titan plans to do, but he is already showing an openness to relying on his assets and businesses in a way that the other three have not.

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Just look at how Musk coined X, formerly known as Twitter. It starts with his own account, which has around 202 million followers.

Musk, who once said he voted for Barack Obama, has spread memes and misinformation on the platform as he becomes increasingly vocal about his views. He also lifted bans on Trump and other right-wing voices. According to the New York Times, X blocked links to a report containing hacked information about Senator JD Vance, Trump's running mate, after the Trump campaign made contact. Recently, Musk's company adopted the @America name to boost its super PAC.

In the post-Citizens United world, the country's billionaires have gone to great lengths to support outside organizations whose advertising spending blitz can shape elections. Over time, the strict ban on campaigns coordinating with super PACs, a limit that always allowed for some creative loopholes, has been further eroded. Super PACs can now work explicitly with get-out-the-vote campaigns for the first time. Trump's campaign is relying on America PAC, along with other outside groups, to make up the difference for what was once a crucial role in the campaign.

Citizens United blew the door open to big money in politics.

The landmark 2010 Supreme Court decision and related lower court rulings opened the door to super PACs. There was almost immediate concern about how the country's wealthiest would influence elections, particularly presidential elections. According to reporter Ken Vogel's 2012 book “Big Money,” President Barack Obama told a room where Bill Gates, then the richest American and previously the richest person in the world, was present that he and a small group of people now had enormous power.

“Now you have the potential to have 200 people deciding who ends up being elected president every time,” Obama told the room that included Steve Ballmer, who later replaced Gates as CEO of Microsoft.

Around the same time, Buffett, who briefly replaced Gates as the world's richest person in 2008, made it clear that he would stay out of the super PAC business.

“I don't want democracy to go in that direction,” Buffett told Berkshire Hathway shareholders during an open question-and-answer session at the multinational's 2012 meeting in Omaha. “You have to take a stand somewhere.”

It wasn't that Buffett and Gates had no political power.

The Oracle of Omaha was the face of the Obama administration's push to raise taxes on the wealthy, the so-called “Buffett Rule.” And during a presidential debate in 2008, both Obama and Republican presidential candidate John McCain brought up the investor as a potential Treasury secretary. (Buffett never joined the Obama administration.)

Buffett also publicly supported Hillary Clinton in 2016 and Joe Biden in 2020. He hosted a fundraiser for Obama in 2012. Thanks to Nebraska's way of allocating Electoral College votes, he has also lived through the era in which Nebraska's 2nd Congressional District, which includes Omaha, exists and parts of the metropolitan area have become a bitter political battleground. The city's oracle has not yet given any confirmation for 2024.

Gates praised Harris after she replaced Biden earlier this summer. He has also been a more outspoken critic of Trump. Gates played a major role in shaping the U.S. response to the COVID-19 pandemic through his and now ex-wife Melinda French Gates' foundation. He also arguably had the largest media presence of the American billionaires until Musk shot to the top.

None of the other richest men in recent memory came even close to Musk's super PAC spending. Bezos made the biggest splash in 2018 when it donated $10 million to With Honor, a super PAC that backed veteran candidates. However, unlike America PAC, With Honor was focused on supporting candidates from both parties.

Both Buffett and Bezos also owned or held shares in media companies. Bezos still owns The Washington Post (which, full disclosure, I was previously employed by). But neither of them positioned these releases the way Musk X used.

Of the unofficial group, Buffett was arguably best positioned for a career in politics. Although he is most associated with Nebraska's largest city, he was born in the nation's capital, the son of an avowedly anti-communist congressman. Instead, he pursued a much gentler and less public exercise of power.

“He’s a pretty good listener and a pretty good advisor to those who want to,” Lowenstein said. “He has a lot of influence in that way. Obviously this effectiveness wouldn’t exist if it became public.”