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We had an item Monday discussing how, as far as political operatives go, Elon Musk is pretty good at... building electric cars. The Musk-funded GOTV operations, underway in several swing states, are something of a fiasco.
Further, Musk appears to be having poor results with his efforts to, in effect, buy votes. Last week, he announced that people who signed his petition promising that they: (1) support the First Amendment, (2) support the Second Amendment, and (3) have registered to vote, would be eligible for a $1 million prize. In an effort to make the scheme "legal," Musk eventually altered it, such that the $1 million is no longer a "prize," it's "salary" for serving as a spokesperson for his PAC. In any case, he's given out two $1 million prizes so far, and both went to... hardcore Trumpers who had already cast their ballots. The general supposition is that Musk is not attracting many new voters to the Trump banner, and that the participants in his de facto lottery are almost entirely people who were already on board the S.S. Tiny (Handed) Dancer.
That said, Musk is not above playing dirty pool, and he has more than one trick up his sleeve. OpenSecrets just issued a report on one of his other "initiatives." He is substantially (or entirely) funding the Building America's Future PAC. And one of the Building America's Future PAC's main activities is creating websites and sending out text messages that appear to be part of Kamala Harris' campaign, but aren't.
The main fake site is Progress2028.com, which is meant to appear like a Harris-campaign-run response to Project 2025. It makes her look a few ticks more liberal than she actually is, particularly on issues that get conservatives' blood boiling. Meanwhile, the phony text messages read like this:
Kamala Harris believes LGBTQIA youth deserve access to gender-affirming care and safe, inclusive schools in Grand Rapids. Kamala will ensure minors can access the care they need without fear of parental intervention or discrimination. Help make our schools as trans-friendly as possible.
That's not exactly a misrepresentation of her position, but it puts it in the most assertive form possible. And obviously, Harris herself is not looking to highlight her stances on the election's most divisive issues.
What Musk is doing is probably not illegal. The texts do not claim to come from Harris or her campaign, they come from (the phony) Progress 2028, and are designed to encourage you to conclude on your own that they are from her. Will it work? Maybe, though we doubt many people read political text messages right now, since there are so many of them. Plus, Musk isn't doing so well with his other political maneuvering, so this could go nowhere like all the other stuff. (Z)