Tesla CEO Elon Musk jumps on stage during a campaign rally for former president and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.
AFP via Getty Images
Republican mega-donor Elon Musk has quietly incorporated two new companies that could indicate his further involvement in U.S. politics, Forbes has learned.
Established earlier this month, the mysterious entities were formed in the billionaire’s home state of Texas using an address shared with his family office; They are United States of America Inc., and Group America LLC. Neither has been previously reported.
There’s little to illuminate their purpose, but United States of America Inc. appears to be a holding company and identifies Musk as its sole director. It’s listed as the managing member of Group America LLC, which does not name Musk, but is linked to him through the address that’s exclusively shared by a number of his companies, including Musk Ventures and several LLCs he’s reportedly also used to conduct business. Representatives for Musk did not respond to a request for comment.
Over the past few months, the tech mogul has loudly supported Trump. At a campaign rally last week, he notoriously leapt about the stage. Now, he’s touring Pennsylvania, an important battleground state, to stump for the former president. Musk has also become one of Trump’s top donors, contributing at least $75 million to “America PAC,” the pro-Trump political action committee he launched in May, according to newly filed campaign finance records.
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And while Musk only publicly endorsed Trump in July, calling him “tough” and a “martyr” following the Pennsylvania assassination attempt on the former president, he’s been reportedly financing Republican causes for years. Unlike his public donations to America PAC, Musk has also funneled millions of dollars to conservative ad campaigns through an LLC used to fund “dark money” groups, which aren’t legally required to disclose their donors, the Wall Street Journal reported. In 2022, more than $50 million of his funds reportedly wound up with Citizens for Sanity, a group behind a string of attack ads on transgender rights, crime and immigration, with ties to Trump’s former speechwriter Stephen Miller.
Musk’s new companies don’t show up in Federal Election Commission records that could reveal whether they’ve been used to give or receive campaign funds. The most recent batch of filings stop at this year’s third fiscal quarter, which does not include the month of October when Musk’s companies were incorporated.
Like many high profile individuals, Musk has relied on LLCs and shell companies to obscure some of his activities. In Bastrop, Texas, his tunneling venture, The Boring Company, used an LLC called Gapped Bass to purchase large swaths of land. Forbes previously reported how his artificial intelligence startup, xAI, distributed nondisclosure agreements through a sister entity to keep its supercomputer project quiet.
Curiously, United States of America Inc. also shares its name with a far-right conspiracy theory.
Some extremist enclaves and “sovereign citizens” (anti-government individuals who claim to be outside the government’s jurisdiction) believe the country was secretly reorganized as a for-profit corporation, according to misinterpretations of the 1871 law that municipally incorporated and established the District of Columbia. Ryan Bundy — son of Cliven Bundy, whose violent standoff with federal law enforcement agents in 2014 has come to symbolize the sovereign movement — referred to the “United States of America Inc.” in his subsequent lawsuit against the U.S. government. In 2021, Qanon followers recycled this claim to argue that President Biden’s inauguration was actually illegitimate. The conspiracy theory has been thoroughly discredited by historians, legal experts and disinformation researchers.
Musk does not appear to have espoused or even remarked on the theory and there’s no evidence to suggest it’s related to his new corporation. Still, “United States of America Inc” has been tweeted at him dozens of times by X users seemingly pushing this ideology. The billionaire has been known to blur the line between online trolling and real life, but it’s unclear why he chose this name.
Musk has made an extensive effort to influence American politics, both out in the open and behind closed doors. His America PAC has courted donations from Silicon Valley peers like investor Marc Andreessen and Palantir cofounder Joe Lonsdale. The committee is now offering to pay citizens who convince swing state voters to sign a pledge in support of the First and Second Amendments. Earlier this year, he covertly bankrolled a campaign to unseat a Texas district attorney by funding ads that claimed the prosecutor was “filling Austin’s streets with pedophiles & killers,” the Wall Street Journal reported.
Another possibility is that Musk’s new entities have something to do with his plans for a second Trump administration. “At the suggestion of Elon Musk,” Trump said last month, the billionaire has expressed interest in spearheading the creation of a government efficiency commission to “totally eliminate fraud and improper payments” through a widespread federal audit. “This is badly needed,” Musk responded, and tweeted the crypto-themed acronym D.O.G.E — Department of Government Efficiency.
With reporting from Zach Everson.
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Publish date : 2024-10-17 08:00:00
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