Musk plans to give $45 million a month to new pro-Trump PAC, WSJ reports

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Billionaire Elon Musk has said he plans to commit around $45 million a month to a new pro-Trump super political-action committee, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday, citing people familiar with the matter.

Musk had indicated that he planned to start his donations in July to the America PAC, backing former President Donald Trump's presidential run, the newspaper said. However, the South Africa-born businessman was not listed on a Monday filing by the group, which shows that it has raised more than $8 million.

Lonsdale Enterprises and the Winklevoss twins were among the donors to America PAC. Lonsdale donated $1 million, and Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss each contributed $250,000.

Musk, the world's richest person and the billionaire chief executive of Tesla, did not respond to Reuters' request for comment. On X, he replied to a Wall Street Journal post of the report with a meme featuring the words "fake gnus," in an apparent reference to so-called fake news.

Lonsdale also did not respond to Reuters' request for comments.

On Saturday, Musk publicly endorsed Trump for the first time in the U.S. presidential race, hours after Trump was shot in the ear during a campaign rally.

This move cements Musk's shift towards right-wing politics and gives Trump a high-profile backer in his bid to return to the White House in the Nov. 5 election.

Trump chose Ohio U.S. Senator J.D. Vance on Monday to be his vice presidential running mate, as the Republican Party officially nominated the former president to run again for the White House.

(Reporting by Jasper Ward and Nilutpal Timsina; Editing by Michael Perry)