Musk gave tens of millions to Republicans far earlier than previously known

The Tesla CEO quietly gave tens of millions of dollars to groups with ties to Trump aide Stephen Miller and supporters of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s presidential bid, according to people familiar with the matter.

The financial contributions, which haven’t previously been reported, show how Musk, who seemed to undergo a rapid political transformation this year, was a major force in funding Republican initiatives and candidates well before starting a super political-action committee in support of former President Donald Trump.

They also make him one of the biggest donors to conservative causes, which in combination with his large social-media following makes him one of the most influential figures in U.S. politics. His track record thus far in backing winners, however, is mixed at best.

In the fall of 2022, more than $50 million of Musk’s money funded a series of advertising campaigns by a group called Citizens for Sanity, according to people familiar with his involvement and tax filings for the group. The bulk of the ads ran in battleground states days before the midterm elections and attacked Democrats on controversial issues such as medical care for transgender children and illegal immigration.

Citizens for Sanity was incorporated in Delaware in June 2022, with salaried employees from Miller’s nonprofit legal group listed as its directors and officers.

Miller, a senior aide in Trump’s White House, was an architect of the previous administration’s restrictive immigration policies and a leading backer of its socially conservative initiatives.

The following year, Musk gave $10 million in support of DeSantis as he ran for president, people familiar with his donation said.

The money was routed through a group called Faithful & Strong Policies, according to the people familiar with the matter. Musk’s contribution to DeSantis’s presidential efforts hasn’t previously been reported.

More than half of the money ended up in the coffers of a pro-DeSantis political-action committee called Never Back Down. DeSantis dropped out of the race in January.

Representatives for Musk and DeSantis didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

Republican consultants and lawyers helped keep Musk’s fingerprints off the transactions. He used a limited-liability company to send money to groups that are known for the section of Internal Revenue Service code they fall under: 501(c)(4). Sometimes called “social welfare organizations," or “dark money" groups, they are exempt from disclosing donors and can raise unlimited amounts of money from people and companies.

They are required to report grants they make, allowing The Wall Street Journal to track money through a series of such groups that people familiar with the matter said was Musk’s. When discussing Musk’s contributions to Citizens for Sanity, people involved in the transactions often communicated on the encrypted messaging app Signal, one of those people said.

The Journal recently reported that the billionaire secretly invested hundreds of thousands of dollars into attack ads targeting the liberal district attorney in Austin, Texas, who easily won his primary in March despite Musk’s efforts to unseat him. DeSantis exited the presidential race before the first primary, misreading Trump’s durability. And most of the ads placed by Miller’s group aired in battleground states in the run-up to bad midterm elections for Republicans.

‘I lost my son’

For Musk, transgender issues are deeply personal. His transgender daughter publicly cut ties with him in April 2022, months before he sent money to Miller’s group.

Then 18 years old, she said in a California court petition to change her name that she no longer wished to be related to Musk “in any way, shape or form."

People close to Musk said his estrangement from his daughter, which he blames on “woke" indoctrination, led to his political awakening as a Republican.

In an interview with psychologist Jordan Peterson earlier this year, Musk said he signed documents approving puberty blockers for his child, then a minor, during the pandemic without fully understanding the ramifications.

“And so, I lost my son, essentially," he said. “So I vowed to destroy the woke mind virus after that, and we’re making some progress."

Musk’s daughter has said on her Threads account that she has no regrets about transitioning. “I absolutely knew what I was getting into and medical transitioning helped stop any further irreversible damage that male puberty could cause," she said in a July post.

She has described Musk as an absentee father who mocked her femininity and queerness. “I want to make one thing absolutely clear," she said. “I disowned him, not the other way around."

ACLU answer

Miller’s American First Legal has made common cause with Musk. The group has accused the Federal Trade Commission of partisan retaliation against Musk and Twitter after he acquired the social-media company, which he has since renamed X.

The legal group filed ethics and inspector general complaints against the FTC and sued the agency last year for records about its efforts to collect information from the social-media site that ramped up once Musk took over the company. The lawsuit is ongoing.

Miller founded America First Legal in 2021 to challenge Biden administration initiatives at odds with Trump-era priorities. The nonprofit legal group, which Miller has billed as the answer to the American Civil Liberties Union, has also filed complaints against companies challenging diversity initiatives and against school districts over transgender policies.

Citizens for Sanity, where Musk’s money landed, was made up of employees of America First Legal. The group’s 2022 tax filing lists its president as Gene Hamilton, who is the executive director of America First Legal. The group’s secretary and treasurer also are employees of America First Legal.

The group raised more than $90 million in the second half of 2022, tax filings show, the bulk of it coming from two other groups that don’t have to disclose donors: Building America’s Future and Freedom’s Future Fund, both linked to Republican consultants Phil Cox and Generra Peck, according to people familiar with the matter.

Musk’s donation to the group was routed through another group called Building America’s Future, according to people familiar with the matter. BAF had been a pro-business group, supporting protections for companies against coronavirus-related lawsuits and opposing tax increases. In 2020, the group listed Peck as its president and raised $300,000.

BAF replaced its board of directors around the time Musk became a donor, according to its 2022 tax filing. It collected more than $53 million that year, nearly five times as much as it raised in 2021. BAF sent $43 million of its treasure to Citizens for Sanity, the 2022 filing shows. It was Musk’s money, according to the people familiar with the matter.

An offshoot of BAF called Freedom’s Future Fund, formed in Delaware in January 2022, raised another $34 million that year, according to corporate and tax filings. The group sent about $28 million to Citizens for Sanity, before dissolving in December 2022, Delaware corporate documents show.

Citizens for Sanity spent nearly all of its cash in a matter of months on advertisements that aired around the 2022 midterm elections. They accused Democrats of promoting sex-reassignment surgeries for children and portrayed illegal immigrants as causing crime waves and draining economic resources.

Some ads targeted specific Democratic elected officials such as President President Biden, Sen. Mark Kelly (D., Ariz.) and Sen. Raphael Warnock (D., Ga.). Others showed images of other Democratic officials such as Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) as being complicit in the policies the ads attacked.

Musk, who has said he historically voted for Democratic leaders until more recently, has identified undocumented immigration as one of his major concerns with the trajectory of the country in private meetings, according to people in attendance. Miller helped set the agenda for much of Trump’s first-term immigration policy, which focused on building a wall on the Southern border to prevent waves of immigration, and the travel ban from seven predominantly Muslim countries.

DeSantis bond

Trump wasn’t Musk’s first choice for presidential candidate. In 2023, Musk became interested in supporting DeSantis’s presidential bid. That spring, technology investor David Sacks brokered an introduction of the Florida governor and Musk, following a fundraiser at his home, according to people familiar with the meeting.

During the late evening meeting, Musk and DeSantis found common ground on their stances against diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, which conflicted with their view of a meritocracy. Both the governor and the billionaire shared an “anti-woke" mentality, and Musk told DeSantis he was interested in backing him financially, with a major contribution, the people said.

In June, Musk followed through with contributions totaling $10 million to Faithful & Strong Policies, according to the people familiar with the matter, which made Musk one DeSantis’s largest financial backers.

More than half of Musk’s contribution was later transferred to a DeSantis super-political-action committee called Never Back Down, according to the people familiar with the matter. Never Back Down received $5.5 million from Faithful & Strong Policies in two installments in June 2023, Federal Election Commission records show.

The contributions were in part secured by Peck, the Republican political consultant and DeSantis’ former campaign manager.

This spring, Musk went all in on support for Trump. In prior years, Musk had criticized Trump saying he “doesn’t seem to have the sort of character that reflects well on the United States" in 2016, and that Trump should “hang up his hat & sail into the sunset" in 2022.

Even as he was contemplating forming a super political-action committee to re-elect the former president, he told confidantes that he wasn’t a giant Trump fan. But in an April meeting at his Austin apartment, Musk said he believed Trump would be stronger on combating crime and government spending, two areas he cared about, according to one person familiar with the meeting.

In May, Musk launched the America PAC with a goal of turning out 800,000 low-propensity voters for Trump in several swing states. Musk told some initial donors that he would fund the majority of the group’s expenditures.

Rebecca Ballhaus and Andrea Fuller contributed to this article.

Write to Dana Mattioli at dana.mattioli@wsj.com, Joe Palazzolo at Joe.Palazzolo@wsj.com and Khadeeja Safdar at khadeeja.safdar@wsj.com