Musk tests the role of money in U.S. politics with multimillion-dollar effort to back Trump

Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Next week’s presidential election isn’t just a referendum on Donald Trump and Kamala Harris. It’s also a measure of the influence the world’s richest man wields over American democracy. Elon Musk has spent at least $119 million mobilizing Trump’s supporters to back the Republican nominee. His social media platform is becoming a firehose of pro-Trump propaganda. And he’s playing a starring role in Trump-style rallies in critical battleground states. All the while, he’s coming under growing scrutiny. His stature is perhaps one of the most tangible consequences of the Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United decision, which eliminated limits on political giving.