Billionaire Elon Musk headlined a rally for Donald Trump this month at Madison Square Garden in New York.
AFP via Getty Images
Earlier this month, during his final push to help Donald Trump return to the White House, Elon Musk incorporated a mysterious entity called “United States of America Inc.,” Forbes first revealed.
Details about the company were scant at the time, apart from its connection to the billionaire’s family office through a shared mailing address in Austin, Texas. It was unknown, for example, whether the entity was part of Musk’s political action committee, “America PAC,” which has spent millions of dollars campaigning for Trump and other Republican candidates since its launch in May.
This week, however, people who participated in Musk’s voter blitz began receiving checks issued by United States of America Inc., finally shedding some light on its purpose.
“I received a check in the mail today for $94.00. No check stub attached. No return address. It’s from… are you ready for this?…THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, INC.”
America PAC voter giveaway participant
The payouts are part of America PAC’s voter giveaway that promised participants $47 for each registered swing state voter they referred to sign its petition “in favor of free speech and the right to bear arms.” On Tuesday, the committee claimed it had distributed more than 187,000 checks, amounting to at least $8.7 million, Forbes estimated. Musk has said his goal was to secure one million signatures.
One Arizona resident told Forbes he referred three people to the PAC’s petition and received three checks from United States of America Inc. within seven days. “I received an email for each from America PAC notifying me that I had been listed as a referral and that checks for each would come my way,” he said. Other individuals claim to have received their payments by hand.
On X, a handful of winners shared photos of their checks, which do not identify America PAC in any way. “I received a check in the mail today for $94.00. No check stub attached. No return address,” one person tweeted. “It’s from… are you ready for this?…THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, INC.” Another said of their bounty: “Neither one of us knows what it is or why. I finally figured out that 47 must mean it’s come from a Trump PAC.” United States of America Inc. hasn’t yet appeared in the PAC’s Federal Election Commission filings, and its next batch of disclosures aren’t due until December. Musk did not respond to a request for comment.
Got a story tip? Contact reporter Sarah Emerson on Signal at 510-473-8820 or email semerson@forbes.com.
Meanwhile, the tech mogul is facing a lawsuit from Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner over the legality of America PAC’s cash prizes. Krasner argues the PAC has violated a Pennsylvania law prohibiting the buying of votes through its $1 million lottery payments to randomly selected petition signers. On Wednesday, ahead of a hearing at which he was required to appear, Musk’s legal team delayed a potential ruling on the suit by filing to move the case into federal court. The PAC was separately warned this month by the Justice Department’s Public Integrity Section that its lottery may run afoul of federal law.
With just days left to vote, Musk has since shifted his attention to the polls, and is now promoting his PAC’s “election integrity community” on X, where users are encouraged to report alleged instances of voter fraud. Reviews of posts to the community, however, have uncovered a prevalence of unsupported claims, doxxing attempts and misinformation.
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Publish date : 2024-11-01 04:17:00
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