Susan Collins Confronted About Elon Musk Donation: ‘I Wasn’t Aware of That’

Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) said Thursday she was unaware that Elon Musk, briefly the world’s first trillionaire, had poured money into supporting her reelection campaign through his super PAC.

Musk’s America PAC is gearing up for a major push in the 2026 midterms, with more than $100 million reportedly available to boost Republican candidates. A campaign finance filing released Wednesday showed the group has already spent roughly $800,000 across 15 competitive congressional races, including seven Senate contests in Texas, Maine, Ohio, New Hampshire, Iowa, Michigan, and Alaska, The New York Times reported.

The renewed spending marks Musk’s return to GOP electoral politics after he publicly feuded with President Donald Trump last year and floated creating a third party.

“Elon Musk’s America PAC has donated more than $170,000 to your campaign,” a reporter noted Thursday. “Mr. Musk is, you know, pretty controversial for his efforts at DOGE and his online conduct. Do you have any comment on these donations?”

“Well, first of all, I wasn’t aware of that donation,” the senator responded. “I knew he was gonna get involved in political campaigns, but I had not heard that there was a specific donation. It must be through some group that — maybe the, um, National Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee. I’m not sure.”

She continued, “Elon and I had discussions when he was head of DOGE. I didn’t support many of the cuts that he proposed. I did support others, where I felt that he did ferret out waste and fraud and abuse that was costing taxpayers money, so, um, I don’t agree with him on everything, but I do agree with him that we need to eliminate waste and be much more efficient in government.”

Collins is facing Democrat candidate Troy Jackson, who replaced scandal-plagued Graham Platner after he was accused of sexual assault.

Watch above on C-SPAN.

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