Tesla CEO Elon Musk jumps on stage during a campaign rally for former president and Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.
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Republican megadonor Elon Musk has quietly incorporated two new companies that could indicate his further involvement in American politics, Forbes has learned.
Established earlier this month, the mysterious entities were formed 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. None of them have been previously reported.
There is little to illuminate their purpose, but the United States of America Inc. appears to be a holding company and identifies Musk as its sole director. It is listed as the managing member of Group America LLC, which does not name Musk but is linked to him via the address shared exclusively by a number of his companies, including Musk Ventures and several LLCs he also reportedly owns used to conduct business. Representatives for Musk did not respond to a request for comment.
Over the past few months, the tech mogul has been vocal in his support of Trump. At a campaign rally last week, he notoriously jumped around the stage. Now he is touring Pennsylvania, a key battleground state, to rally behind the former president. Musk has also become one of Trump’s top donors, contributing at least $75 million to “America PAC,” the pro-Trump political action committee he launched in May, according to newly filed campaign accounts.
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And while Musk first publicly endorsed Trump in July, calling him “tough” and a “martyr” after the former president’s assassination in Pennsylvania, he has reportedly funded Republican causes for years. In contrast to his public donations to America PAC, Musk has also funneled millions of dollars into conservative ad campaigns through an LLC used to fund “dark money” groups that are not legally required to disclose their donors, The Wall Street Journal reported. In 2022, more than $50 million of his funds were allegedly liquidated at Citizens for Sanity, a group behind a series of attack ads on transgender rights, crime and immigration, 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 applications stops at the third fiscal quarter of the year, which does not include the month of October, when Musk’s companies were founded.
Like many high-profile individuals, Musk has relied on LLCs and shell companies to hide some of his activities. In Bastrop, Texas, his tunnel project, The Boring Company, used an LLC called Gapped Bass to buy large tracts of land. Forbes previously reported how his artificial intelligence startup, xAI, distributed non-disclosure agreements through a sister entity to keep its supercomputer project quiet.
Oddly enough, the United States of America Inc. also his name with a far-right conspiracy theory.
Some extremist enclaves and “sovereign citizens” (anti-government individuals who claim to be outside the government’s jurisdiction) believe that the country was secretly reorganized as a for-profit corporation under misinterpretations of the 1871 law that municipally incorporated and established the District of Columbia. Ryan Bundy — the son of Cliven Bundy, whose violent battle with federal law enforcement agents in 2014 has come to symbolize the sovereign movement — referred to the “United States of America Inc.” in his subsequent lawsuit against the US government. In 2021, Qanon supporters recycled this claim to argue that President Biden’s inauguration was indeed illegitimate. The conspiracy theory has been thoroughly discredited by historians, legal experts and disinformation researchers.
Musk doesn’t seem to have supported or even noticed the theory, and there’s no evidence to suggest it’s related to his new company. Yet “United States of America Inc” has been tweeted at him dozens of times by X-users apparently pushing this ideology. The billionaire has been 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 American politics, both out in the open and behind closed doors. His America PAC has courted donations from Silicon Valley pals like investor Marc Andreessen and Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale. The committee is now offering to pay citizens who convince swing state voters to sign a pledge in support of the First and Second Amendments. Earlier this year, he covertly funded a campaign to unseat a Texas district attorney by funding ads claiming the prosecutor was “filling the streets of Austin with pedophiles and murderers.” The Wall Street Journal reported.
Another possibility is that Musk’s new devices have something to do with his plans for another Trump administration. “At the suggestion of Elon Musk,” Trump said last month, the billionaire has expressed interest in spearheading the creation of a government efficiency commission to “totally eliminate fraud and improper payments” through a widespread federal audit. “This is sorely needed,” Musk responded, tweeting the crypto-themed acronym DOGE — Department of Government Efficiency.
With reporting by Zach Everson.