Musk paid $1 million a day to swing-state voters, then landed a White House job

EMElon Musk's America PAC launched the sweepstakes on Oct. 19, 2024, paying $1 million per day to registered voters in 🌵Arizona, 🍑Georgia, 🚗Michigan, 🎰Nevada, 🌲North Carolina, 🔔Pennsylvania, and 🧀Wisconsin who signed a petition supporting the First and Second Amendments

The Justice Department's Public Integrity Section sent a letter to America PAC on Oct. 23, 2024, warning the giveaway might violate 52 U.S.C. § 10307(c), which bars anyone from paying or offering to pay for registration to vote or for voting

Philadelphia DA LKLarry Krasner filed a civil lawsuit on Oct. 28, 2024, calling it an illegal lottery violating 🔔Pennsylvania state gaming law JAJudge Angelo Foglietta of the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas rejected Krasner's request to halt the sweepstakes on Nov. 4, 2024, ruling America PAC's lawyers had shown winners were not chosen by random chance.

America PAC's lawyers disclosed in court that the so-called winners were not lottery winners at all but were deliberately chosen based on their personal stories to serve as spokespersons for the group. The first three winners announced on Oct. 19, 20, and 21 all came from 🔔Pennsylvania, timed to coincide with Pennsylvania's Oct. 21 voter registration deadline. Each recipient signed a contract with America PAC to speak publicly about their support for the First and Second Amendments in exchange for the $1 million payment.

FEC filings show EMElon Musk spent more than $290 million on the 2024 election cycle total, contributing $239 million directly to America PAC. This made Musk the single largest individual political donor in recorded U.S. history. After Trump won, Trump signed an executive order on Jan. 20, 2025 creating DOGE and putting Musk in charge as a Special Government Employee—a classification that limits disclosure requirements.

Federal ethics experts flagged that Musk's companies—SpaceX, Tesla, Starlink, Neuralink, X, and The Boring Company—hold more than $20 billion in federal contracts and are regulated by agencies including the FAA, SEC, FDA, EPA, and DOT. White House press secretary KLKaroline Leavitt said Musk would self-police his own conflicts of interest with no external enforcement mechanism.