The midterm elections on the first Tuesday of November could be worrying for Republicans because Trump's poll numbers are at a record low. Billionaires and lobby groups are therefore pumping millions into the election campaign - Elon Musk even pumped in almost half a billion.

The so-called “midterms” are just around the corner. The midterm elections will take place in the USA on November 3rd – and things could get tricky for Trump. According to election polls from October 22nd to 26th, the Republicans, which include President Donald Trump, are well behind the Democrats with 36 percent approval. Their predicted approval is 47 percent. If you include undecided voters, the ratio is 41 to 50 percent.

The reasons for the Republicans' low approval ratings include inflation as well as the hopelessness of the Iran war and the associated high energy costs. But historically it is also common for the opposition to gain support by the midterm elections. Nevertheless, Trump is reaching a record low with the low poll numbers.

A defeat for the Republicans in the midterm elections is feared not only by Donald Trump - who could find it difficult to push through legislative proposals if the Democrats win a majority - but also by a whole group of billionaires, lobby groups and companies. Because the last two years under the Trump administration have been very lucrative for them. In order to continue to capitalize on Trump's accommodating economic policy, they are donating several hundred million US dollars to the Republicans for the election campaign.

Analysis from Al Jazeeraaccording to$1.67 billion in donations went directly or indirectly to Republicans. The person who stands out by far as a private donor is Elon Musk, the richest man in the world. Although he met with the US President last yearviolently quarreled, he donated $446 million - $355 million of it in the last four months alone. With donations to the Republicans of $150 million and $110 million respectively, the billionaire couples Elizabeth and Richard Uihlein and Jeff and Janine Yass are the second and third largest donors behind Musk.

But the Democrats also have a few billionaires at their side: they received $102 million from major investor George Soros and $84 million from the founder of the financial company Bloomberg and former mayor of New York City, Mike Bloomberg. In total, the Democrats have raised $832 million in donations - about half of the Republicans' donations.

The donation loophole

By law, private individuals can actually only donate up to $3,500 to election campaigns of individual representatives. That's significantly less than Elon Musk's $446 million. In order to circumvent this legal barrier, private donors do not direct their donations directly to the candidates, but rather to so-called “Super Political Action Committees”, or Super PACs for short.

Super PACs can receive unlimited donations and spend them on supporting or opposing candidates, primarily in the form of advertising. They therefore function as a type of money aggregator. Although the committees have to report their donors to the Federal Election Commission, a large part of the donation income comes from “non-profit” organizations, which are not subject to any transparency obligations regarding their donors.

For example, three “nonprofit” organizations alone have donated over $250 million to Republicans. They do not reveal who exactly finances the organizations - nor do they have to. In the past, however, individual donations were documented primarily from the pharmaceutical, health insurance, and oil and gas industries.

AI, crypto & Co – Bigtech invests in election campaigns

Over half of super PAC donations attributed to private companies come from the crypto, AI or gaming industries. Over the past two years, the Trump administration has massively weakened cybersecurity laws, delayed privacy regulations and renewed pressure for encryption backdoors. As Big Tech rapidly converges on Trump's government line, personal data protection rights are being increasingly undermined, allowing AI companies to collect personal data in an almost unregulated manner and without consent.

However, the question of privacy is not the most important one among voters. Rather, it is the infrastructural consequences of AI that worry them. Be it mass layoffs caused by AI or huge data centers that constantly emit a shrill noise to residents and pollute their water - voters are becoming increasingly critical of AI companies. It is precisely because of this fear of losing their legal privileges due to the loss of voters that tech companies are pumping hundreds of millions of US dollars into the election campaign.

But not every one of those dollars goes to Republicans. Some companies direct their donations to both Republican and Democratic candidates,like for examplethe crypto companies Coinbase and Ripple with donations of $33 million and $48 million, respectively. Recipients of their donations are usually candidates who represent positions in the interests of their donors, regardless of their party affiliation.

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