Tesla CEO Elon Musk jumps on stage during a campaign rally for former President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.
AFP via Getty Images
Republican mega-donor Elon Musk has quietly founded two new companies that could signal his additional involvement in American politics, Forbes has learned.
The mysterious entities were created earlier this month, in the billionaire's home state of Texas, using an address shared with his family office; They are United States of America Inc. and Group America LLC. Neither of them had been reported before.
There's not much to shed light on their purpose, but it appears that United States of America Inc. It is a holding company and identifies Musk as its sole director. He is listed as a managing member of Group America LLC, which does not name Musk, but is linked to him through an address shared exclusively by a number of his companies, including Musk Ventures and several limited liability companies that he also reportedly uses to conduct business. Musk's representatives did not respond to a request for comment.
Over the past few months, the tech mogul has vocally supported Trump. At a campaign rally last week, he jumped on stage noticeably. He is now touring Pennsylvania, an important state in support of the former president. Musk has also become a major donor to Trump, contributing at least $75 million to America PAC, the pro-Trump political action committee he launched in May, according to newly filed campaign finance records.
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While Musk only publicly endorsed Trump in July, calling him “strong” and a “martyr” in the wake of the former president's assassination attempt in Pennsylvania, he has reportedly been bankrolling Republican causes for years. In contrast to his public donations to US PACs, Musk has also funneled millions of dollars into conservative ad campaigns through a limited liability company used to fund “dark money” groups, which are not legally obligated to disclose their donors, the Wall Street Journal reported. And in 2022, more than $50 million of his money reportedly ended up with Citizens for Sanity, a group behind a series of attack ads on transgender rights, crime and immigration, and with ties to former Trump speechwriter Stephen Miller.
Musk's new companies do not appear in Federal Election Commission records that could reveal whether they have been used to give or receive campaign funds. The latest batch of filings stops at this year's third fiscal quarter, which does not include October when Musk's companies were founded.
Like many high-profile individuals, Musk relied on LLCs and shell companies to hide some of his activities. In Bastrop, Texas, his tunneling venture, The Boring Company, used a limited liability company called Gapped Bass to purchase large tracts of land. Forbes previously reported how artificial intelligence startup xAI distributed non-disclosure agreements through a sister entity to keep its supercomputer project quiet.
Oddly enough, United States of America Inc. It also shares its name with a far-right conspiracy theory.
Some extremist pockets and “sovereign citizens” (anti-government individuals who claim to be outside the scope of government authority) believe that the country has been secretly reorganized as a for-profit corporation, according to misinterpretations of the 1871 law that incorporated and created the province of Ontario at the municipal level. Colombia. Ryan Bundy — the son of Cliven Bundy, whose violent confrontation with federal law enforcement agents in 2014 became a symbol of the sovereignty movement — referred to “USA Inc.” In his subsequent lawsuit against the US government. In 2021, Recycling Law followers recycled this claim to argue that President Biden's inauguration was in fact illegitimate. The conspiracy theory has been completely discredited by historians, legal experts, and disinformation researchers.
Musk does not appear to have embraced or even commented on this theory, and there is no evidence to suggest it is related to his new company. However, it has been tweeted dozens of times by X users who appear to be promoting this ideology. The billionaire is known to blur the line between online trolling and real life, but it is unclear why he chose this name.
Musk has made extensive efforts to influence US policy, both in public and behind closed doors. His Americas political action committee has received donations from Silicon Valley peers such as investor Marc Andreessen and Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale. The committee is now offering to pay citizens who persuade voters in the swing state to sign a pledge to support the First and Second Amendments. Earlier this year, he secretly bankrolled a campaign to oust a Texas district attorney by bankrolling ads that claimed the district attorney was “filling the streets of Austin with pedophiles and murderers,” the Wall Street Journal reported.
Another possibility is that Musk's new entities have something to do with his plans for a second Trump administration. “At Elon Musk’s suggestion,” Trump said last month, the billionaire expressed interest in leading the creation of a government efficiency commission to “completely eliminate fraud and improper payments” through a broad federal audit. “This is desperately needed,” Musk responded, tweeting the acronym DOGE — Department of Government Efficiency that stands for cryptocurrencies.
With reporting from Zach Iverson.
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