World's richest man Elon Musk spends big to stop Donald Trump becoming lame-duck president

As you can see, I'm not just MAGA, I'm Dark MAGA. Now, as tech billionaire, or depending on how the stock market is performing, trillionaire Elon Musk just over two years ago when he joined Donald Trump on stage at a campaign rally for the first time. During the 2024 presidential race, Musk became Trump's most prominent backer, donating millions of dollars to his re-election bid. Those efforts put him at the center of the MAGA universe and earned him public praise from Trump, who credited Musk with helping him to win the 2024 election according to federal election commission filings Musk spent at least 288 million dollars to try and get Trump and other Republican candidates elected and now Musk the world's richest man has been digging into his very deep pockets to influence the outcome of November's midterm elections new figures first reported by the New York Times show that Musk has donated more than $276 million since July this year to ensure the Republicans don't lose control of Congress. That makes him the biggest known donor by far to the 2026 midterm campaigns. And for a closer look, I'm joined now by our Washington correspondent, Benjamin Alvarez. Benjamin, the richest man on the planet, now the biggest known donor in the midterms let's pick this apart where are these huge sums going huge sums indeed you mentioned the scale is really extraordinary if we have this 366 million dollars in this election cycle so 2025 and 2026 since July alone 276 millions it's a mix where this money is going part of it is going to his PAC this political action committee so these are organizations that collect the funds from individuals from corporations from different unions and then take the money so it's different that he's not giving it to the campaign of his candidates directly some of them are going to a so-called Senate Leadership Fund so something focused just on Republicans regaining in this time the control of the Senate others are going to his own organization that is focused on voter turnout, so a communication especially for Republicans. I mean, that's the main goal here from Elon Musk, to give the Republicans this chance of maintaining both chambers, so the Senate and the House of Representatives. And there's something else called the Congressional Leadership Fund that is supporting House Republicans. So these are three big organizations where the money is actually going to. What does he want in return? So publicly he has said that he wants Republicans to maintain the control of Congress, of both chambers, of the Senate, of the House of Representatives. But what he is not saying openly, but that's something that we can imagine, is that he is interested in having a Congress that will give him or will support lower taxes, will be less scrutinizing of his role as part of this DOGE, this Department of Government Efficiency. or the role that he had under the second administration of President Trump. So we can expect that there are some interests there too, because Elon Musk is not only very wealthy, putting a lot of economics, a lot of money into these races, but many of his companies also have ties to the government. We know SpaceX, we know several of his companies that have contracts with the Pentagon when it comes to defense. So for him, it's very important to have people in power that actually will help him not only grow his wealth there, but also will be less scrutinizing of the role that he played during the second Trump administration, but also when it comes to taxes or when it comes to his own companies in this case. Yeah. Benjamin, correct me if I'm wrong. About a year ago, Musk announced he was taking a break from politics. Does this mean he's back in the game now? could he potentially seek a more active role even that's right and we still remember those a huge fight that broke out between Elon Musk and President Trump that carried on for several weeks with many wondering what this would mean the difference is that during the last presidential campaign Elon Musk took a far more visible role not just when it comes to spending so when it comes to money but also he attended rallies of President Trump he was very vocal on social media remember also with a colleague attended one in Butler where this assassination attempt happened on President Trump so once Trump returned Elon Musk was also on stage then we had this huge break with President Trump where Elon Musk also mentioned something on Trump is on the Epstein files where it was quite clear that they were parting ways but that has changed now we have seen Elon Musk recently several times at the White House he was there with a meeting with several bosses of artificial intelligence that President Trump renamed super intelligence then he also got an award from the U.S. president so we can expect that he's taking a more active role and even though as you mentioned there he said that he would take a smaller role now he's been more actively financially, but not on an open stage. So he is taking kind of a quieter approach while spending more money now that he spent back in 2014, 2024 for the last presidential election that President Trump won. Yeah. If we look at the polls, it's not looking great for Donald Trump and the Republicans stand to lose at least one chamber of Congress. Now, looking at all of this And knowing that Elon Musk is throwing a lot of money at Republican success in these midterms, what do you read into it in terms of the state of Elon Musk's relationship with Donald Trump? So if we look at how much money, how much mega donors actually can influence elections, presidential elections, midterm elections, you mentioned it, President Trump is under a lot of, there's a lot of pushback also from within the Republican, from within the MAGA base When it comes to inflation, when it comes to lowering prices, one of his main campaign promises when it comes to ending the war in Iran, there's no end in sight there. And that's, of course, directly tied to how expensive, how prices are going up. And that's something that many here in this country see on a regular basis. But if we look only briefly to Texas, a state that will be crucial for the upcoming midterms in just a couple of weeks, If you see how much money, especially Republicans, are pouring into that Senate race for Ken Paxton, for the Republican candidate, but also for James Tulloric, the Democrat, to actually lose this race, it shows that they are not taking Texas for granted, they are not taking Republican states for granted, and definitely not taking for granted that they will retain both chambers of Congress, the Senate and the House of Representatives is that you mentioned that there is a chance that Democrats will actually regain control of that. Money makes a big difference, but it's also not magic. And regardless of how much money Elon Musk or other donors might be putting into several races, it still might have a different result than one that many might expect. So I'd say seeing that Elon Musk is spending so much more money is definitely showing that he's not taking it for granted, that Republicans will retain control of a Congress during this midterm elections. And definitely, that is not clear if Republicans will control or maintain control of the White House if there is a Democratic president in the next race. So that's definitely something to look forward to. But the fact that Elon Musk is taking a far more active approach, even if it is behind the scenes, it might show that he might be getting or looking at polls and saying this is not looking good so we might need to increase our support for those Republican candidates incredible sums being thrown at at several races and at this entire campaign what does it tell us about the importance of the midterms specifically for Donald Trump's agenda going forward they are crucial because if President Trump has control of Congress has a Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, it's easier for him to continue with his agenda or at least block attempts by the Democrats to push back on certain points. So it is crucial not just for the midterm for the elections now, but also what it will mean for the remaining years of his term and definitely what it will also mean for 2028. It's usually a sign of if voters are happy or if they're not happy with the way that the government is actually taking care of the problems. If the if President Trump can fulfill also what he promised during the campaign. So it shows that President Trump is under a lot of pressure and also that he once again mentioned these $5,000 that he would give out to the voters if Republicans maintain control of Congress actually shows that there is some desperation and that he maybe is throwing everything out there to try to keep those votes of many voters that maybe are not happy with the way that President Trump is taking care of several of the problems that he promised to tackle quite quickly in the second term. Yeah, and a lot of people are upset about the big project that we see behind you there, the ballroom. That was our Washington correspondent, Benjamin Alvarez. Great speaking to you as always. Thanks so much.