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Elon Musk, by far the richest man on the planet, is investing tens of millions of dollars in efforts to elect Donald Trump. In addition to his extremely valuable promotion of Trump’s messages on donated $50 million to a group linked to immigrant-hater Stephen Miller, the architect of Trump’s morally abominable family separation policy. And then there is the legally problematic Payments of $100 and $1 million lottery style gifts he asks registered voters in swing states to sign a petition declaring the following:

The First and Second Amendments guarantee freedom of speech and the right to bear arms. By signing below, I pledge to support the First and Second Amendments.

Weird, right? But Musk’s return on investment could be enormous if Trump wins and gives him even more power over the very government in which Musk’s companies are located. were fed to profitability – and on which they continue to depend. And let’s remember that tens of millions for this guy is the equivalent of pocket change for the rest of us. Here’s what Musk’s $50 million net worth represents:

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But what about his philanthropy, you ask? Didn’t Musk sign Bill Gates’s?Give a commitment», promising to give at least half of his fortune to charity?

Yes, he signed up in 2012, for what that’s worth. But he is behind in his donations. Consider that, for the whole of 2022, according to the forecasts of its foundation last tax returnhe donated $160.5 million to charitable causes. Musk did more than that yesterday…much more.

That’s right, Musk’s net worth increased by $2.7 billion on Friday, according to Forbes. Billionaires in real timea database that serves as a reminder of the extent to which our supposedly egalitarian American experiment has degenerated into plutocracy – or oligarchyif you prefer – a situation that founder John Adams experienced I hoped we would avoid (although he wasn’t really sure we would).

In other words, the amount Musk donated to charity in a year is what he made in a day:

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Six percent! By the way, Musk is about 100 times richer today than he was when he signed the commitment– a scenario that Andrew Carnegie would consider grotesque. He better start acting more like MacKenzie Scott. Because, as a trusted advisor to industrialist John D. Rockefeller once warned his boss:

We have to distribute it faster than it grows! If you don’t, it will crush you and your children and your children’s children!

Now, Musk has contributed nearly $2.3 billion in Tesla stock to its founding in 2022, receiving a big tax break and securing a huge tax-free capital gain at the expense of American taxpayers. But our rules governing philanthropy are so ineffective that he only needs to disburse a small fraction of these “charitable” assets. His foundation’s nest egg — about $7.2 billion at the end of 2022 — generated $309 million in investment income that year, and the value of its unsold assets gained at least $373 million. Yet the amount she gave to charity was about the same as the previous year.

Federal law requires private foundations to devote 5 percent of their assets each year (which includes air). Musk’s 2022 bond was around $358 million – he didn’t even give half of it. The government lets foundations calibrate their disbursements over five years, but it will have to do so get back into rhythm considerably.

Lest you expect the Musk Foundation’s tax documents to reveal sinister causes he might have donated to, sorry to disappoint. His public gift is indisputable. What you need to be careful about, however, are transfers to donor-advised funds. Since 2018, his foundation has transferred more than $75 million to a Fidelity Charitable fund. For some unfathomable reason, the government allows these transfers to count toward a foundation’s mandatory charitable payouts.

Donor advised funds are even more problematic than private foundations, even though both cost taxpayers a fortune and are, as I explained in our must-have American oligarchy question, deeply undemocratic. Not only are creators not required to distribute a minimum amount of their assets each year, but they are also not required to reveal who they are giving to. In other words, it’s black money – handy for anyone who wants to secretly give to odious non-profit organizationsincluding groups willing to subvert the democratic process if it will help bring a certain candidate back to the White House.