How much did Elon Musk, Ken Griffin, Timothy Mellon and Miriam Adelson each give to pro‑Trump super PACs according to OpenSecrets?
Executive summary
OpenSecrets’ aggregation of 2024-cycle filings shows all four — Elon Musk, Kenneth (Ken) Griffin, Timothy Mellon and Miriam Adelson — among the handful of donors who gave well into eight figures to pro‑Trump outside groups, with OpenSecrets and its reporting partners putting each of them at or above the $100 million mark; specific line‑item totals vary by donor and by which filings and dates are isolated (OpenSecrets) [1] [2] [3].
1. Elon Musk — a moving target in OpenSecrets’ tally
OpenSecrets’ tracking and reporting partners describe Musk as the largest single political donor in the 2024 cycle, with total political outlays exceeding $200 million and various tallies placing his total Republican‑leaning giving well into the high hundreds of millions; OpenSecrets notes Musk donated more than $291 million to Republican candidates and outside groups in the cycle, and its reporting also documents that Musk poured roughly $118.6 million into his pro‑Trump America PAC since the summer (OpenSecrets’ analysis and companion reporting) [3] [2].
2. Kenneth (Ken) Griffin — six‑figure millions to Republican causes
OpenSecrets lists Kenneth Griffin among the very largest Republican donors of the cycle, with partner reporting putting his contributions to Republican candidates and outside groups north of $100 million; Newsweek’s summary of OpenSecrets data cites Griffin at about $108 million in spending for Republican causes in 2024 (OpenSecrets’ donor list as reported by Newsweek) [1] [4].
3. Timothy Mellon — the biggest single funder of MAGA super PACs in OpenSecrets’ account
OpenSecrets’ analysis identifies Timothy Mellon as the cycle’s top backer of Trump‑aligned super PACs, with multiple outlets using OpenSecrets data to report Mellon gave well over $100 million to the pro‑Trump super PAC Make America Great Again, Inc.; pre‑election tallies published from OpenSecrets’ data put Mellon’s MAGA‑PAC donations in the roughly $125–$150 million range, with several contemporaneous reports citing $125 million to MAGA Inc. and later figures summarized around $150 million as filings accumulated (OpenSecrets’ data as reported by U.S. News, Forbes and other outlets) [5] [6] [7].
4. Miriam Adelson — concentrated funding of Preserve America and related pro‑Trump operations
OpenSecrets’ reporting shows Miriam Adelson as a principal funder of the pro‑Trump Preserve America PAC and other Trump‑aligned outside entities, with OpenSecrets and its reporting partners documenting roughly $95–$100 million directed to those pro‑Trump super PACs in late‑cycle filings and companion summaries that place her total pro‑Trump giving at or above $100 million (OpenSecrets’ data as summarized by Common Dreams, News18 and OpenSecrets’ own lists) [8] [9] [2].
5. What the numbers mean — timing, PAC structures and reporting lags
OpenSecrets compiles Federal Election Commission disclosures and presents donors’ cumulative totals, but the precise dollar figure attributed to any donor for “pro‑Trump super PACs” can shift with each new filing and depends on whether reporting isolates a single super PAC (for example MAGA Inc. versus America PAC or Preserve America) or aggregates all outside‑group giving; this is why OpenSecrets‑based stories report Musk at different milestones (e.g., roughly $118.6 million into America PAC versus a total Republican‑side outlay above $291 million) and why Mellon’s totals are discussed as both $125 million and $150 million in different contemporaneous pieces (OpenSecrets aggregate methodology and subsequent media summaries) [2] [3] [5].
6. Alternative readings and reporting caveats
Different outlets drawing on OpenSecrets’ underlying FEC data emphasize different slices of the money — some focus on a single super PAC’s donors, others on all Republican outside spending, and some include dark‑money flows routed through nonprofits or hybrid PACs that complicate direct comparisons; OpenSecrets’ published lists make the raw filings available, but journalists’ snapshot totals vary with the cutoff date used and whether transfers between entities are de‑duplicated in public reporting (OpenSecrets database and media summaries) [10] [1] [2].
OpenSecrets therefore anchors the finding that Musk, Griffin, Mellon and Adelson each gave at least nine figures to pro‑Trump outside groups in 2024, while the precise nominal totals cited in contemporaneous reporting—Musk’s ~$118.6M to America PAC (and overall ~$291M to Republicans), Mellon’s ~$125–150M to MAGA Inc., Griffin’s ≈$108M to Republican causes, and Adelson’s ≈$95–100M to Preserve America and related groups—reflect different cuts of the same FEC disclosure data and differing publication dates (OpenSecrets and media summaries) [2] [3] [5] [4] [8].