Korva is a scroll of the internet’s best ideas.
Musk gave $158 million to Senate fund
Musk has spent at least $276 million on campaign donations to Republicans, which is about 0.03% of his wealth. He had said he was done with spending big to support Republican politics after the last election cycle. The Senate Leadership Fund is the political action committee that Senate Majority Leader John Thune helps run.
In recent days Musk was also appointed to co-lead an initiative called Project Meridian, which is assessing the future of warfare. His companies, which work in space, AI, and electric vehicles, do immense business with the US government. This week he also showed off a flying car.
How can one person give $158 million?
Gifts to candidates are capped at a few thousand dollars per election, but super PACs have no cap on contributions. That came from the 2010 federal appeals court ruling in SpeechNow.org v. FEC, which followed the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision earlier that year. Super PACs must report their donors to the Federal Election Commission, which is how large gifts become public. The law bars them from coordinating directly with the candidates they support.
How does SpaceX work with the government?
NASA began paying private companies to carry cargo to the International Space Station in the 2000s, and it chose SpaceX for commercial crew flights in 2014. SpaceX flew NASA astronauts to the station for the first time in May 2020. The company also launches national security satellites for the US Space Force under multiyear contracts. Government customers make up a large share of the launch business worldwide, because few private buyers can afford to put satellites into orbit.
More from Up First from NPR
