Home Economics Elon Musk backs Donald Trump’s election bid with $75mn donation

Elon Musk backs Donald Trump’s election bid with $75mn donation

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Elon Musk backs Donald Trump’s election bid with $75mn donation

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Good morning. In immediately’s information:

  • Boeing takes steps to shore up its steadiness sheet

  • After a decade of frenetic spending Saudi Arabia cuts again

  • Who’s responsible for cheapflation?


Elon Musk has given almost $75mn to assist Donald Trump’s bid to win again the White Home, in keeping with a federal submitting launched yesterday, because the world’s richest man tries to affect the result of subsequent month’s US presidential election.

Musk made a number of multimillion-dollar donations in the course of the third quarter to America Pac, his political motion committee. The group had already spent greater than $96mn boosting Trump’s marketing campaign, in keeping with the impartial non-profit OpenSecrets, and about $10mn extra serving to Republicans in congressional races.

The donation makes Musk one in all Trump’s largest monetary backers on this electoral cycle. The recent disclosure comes as the previous president tries to shut a funding hole together with his Democratic rival Kamala Harris in a decent White Home race.

The Monetary Occasions’ ballot tracker at the moment places Harris 2.6 per cent forward of Trump nationally however in a digital lifeless warmth in seven pivotal swing states with simply three weeks to run within the race.

Musk, who owns social media group X and runs Tesla, is predicted to seem in a type of swing states — Pennsylvania — later immediately to begin “a collection of talks” all through the state. Learn extra on Musk’s America Pac and the opposite tech entrepreneurs who’ve donated to the fund.

  • Extra election information: Kamala Harris is stepping up her media appearances amid concern amongst prime Democrats that she is dropping momentum in opposition to Trump.

  • Opinion: The final time America had an election this tight was in 2000, writes Edward Luce. He runs via 4 attainable outcomes on November 5.

Right here’s what else I’m conserving tabs on immediately:

5 extra prime tales

1. LVMH shares dropped 7 per cent in Paris this morning, a day after the world’s largest luxurious group reported an sudden fall in third-quarter gross sales. The conglomerate, managed by French billionaire Bernard Arnault, mentioned weak spending by Chinese language customers depressed revenues. Learn extra on the primary fall in gross sales on the Louis Vuitton and Dior proprietor since 2020.

2. Boeing has introduced plans to lift as much as $25bn in new capital and agreed a $10bn credit score facility, because the US airplane maker seeks to shore up its steadiness sheet within the face of a crippling strike by its largest labour union that has halted manufacturing of its best-selling 737 Max and different fashions. Right here’s extra on Boeing’s strained funds.

3. The US has instructed Israel it must take “pressing and sustained actions” to enhance the dire humanitarian scenario in Gaza or navy support from Washington may very well be in danger, in a uncommon public ultimatum to Benjamin Netanyahu’s authorities and an indication of rising frustration on the battle’s civilian toll. Right here’s what the US is demanding.

4. Personal fairness traders are promoting second-hand stakes in ageing funds at a blistering tempo this 12 months. So-called secondary offers, during which traders in personal fairness funds promote their stakes to new traders for money, or a PE agency arranges the sale of an organization stake to a brand new fund, are forecast to smash all-time data.

5. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum mentioned she hoped there could be few modifications to North America’s free commerce deal underneath the subsequent US president, at an occasion with American and Mexican enterprise leaders. US presidential candidate Donald Trump has mentioned that, if re-elected, he would open a full renegotiation of the US-Mexico-Canada commerce settlement, often called the USMCA. Christine Murray in Mexico Metropolis has extra.

The Massive Learn

A montage that includes Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and CGI of buildings in the desert
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has pushed a string of formidable initiatives aimed toward modernising the nation © FT montage/Getty Photos/Reuters/Neom

A frenzy of exercise led by Saudi Arabia’s Public Funding Fund has remodeled the as soon as conservative kingdom into one of many world’s largest development websites and a magnet for worldwide consultants and contractors. However after nearly a decade of frenetic spending, Riyadh is starting to cut back as a sense of realism and pragmatism takes maintain.

We’re additionally studying . . . 

Chart of the day

Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba kicked off 12 days of campaigning in Japan yesterday forward of an October 27 common election. The political backdrop to the snap election suggests the ruling Liberal Democratic celebration is dealing with a drubbing however the pace with which the vote was referred to as has caught opposition events off guard.

Take a break from the information

On the island of Sant’Erasmo within the Venetian lagoon, a pioneering co-operative based by native cooks has established a kitchen backyard to create jobs and save the distinctive flavours of vegatables and fruits utilized in dishes liable to disappearing. Right here’s extra on Venice’s farm-to-table revolution.

Mario Saviolo walks through vegetable plots
Mario Saviolo, the 24-year-old supervisor of Venice’s Osti in Orto, an agricultural co-operative on Sant’Erasmo

Further contributions from Irwin Cruz and Benjamin Wilhelm