PBS News Hour

GEOFF BENNETT: The world's richest man, Elon Musk, is now a powerful megadonor for Donald Trump.

Musk is using his vast resources to campaign for him in Pennsylvania and taking aggressive measures for Mr. Trump in other key battleground states.

Some of those moves are raising major legal and ethical concerns as well.

Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk unveiling a new tactic to boost Donald Trump's campaign, pledging to randomly award $1 million to registered swing state voters daily through Election Day.

The catch, sign a petition for his pro-Trump political action committee.

The petition is in support of the First and Second Amendments.

ELON MUSK, OWNER, X: It's very straightforward.

You don't even have to vote.

You don't have to vote.

You just have to sign a petition saying you believe in the Constitution.

GEOFF BENNETT: Musk's political action committee known as America PAC has already committed $75 million to the Trump campaign.

Some election experts say Musk's latest effort could be illegal.

That's because federal law prohibits offering, paying or accepting payment in exchange for voter registration or voting.

But Musk and his allies argue there's an important distinction.

Payments and voter status aren't directly linked.

They say voter registration is merely a prerequisite to sign the petition.

Democratic Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, a supporter of Vice President Kamala Harris, on Sunday called it deeply concerning.

GOV.

JOSH SHAPIRO (D-PA): Musk obviously has a right to be able to express his views.

I don't deny him that right.

But when you start flowing this kind of money into politics, I think it raises serious questions that folks may want to take a look at.

QUESTION: So you think it might not be legal, yes or no?

GOV.

JOSH SHAPIRO: I think it's something that law enforcement could take a look at.

GEOFF BENNETT: It's not clear whether federal officials are looking into the payments.

In campaign appearances and online, Musk has spread unfounded claims about widespread voter fraud and made incendiary statements about immigration.

Donald Trump has already offered him a key appointment if he's reelected.

DONALD TRUMP, Former President of the United States (R) and Current U.S. Presidential Candidate: At the suggestion of Elon Musk, I will create a government efficiency commission task with conducting a complete financial and performance audit of the entire federal government and making recommendations for drastic reforms.

And Elon, because he's not very busy, has agreed to head that task force.

GEOFF BENNETT: Let's bring in New York Times investigative reporter David Fahrenthold, who's been closely following Elon Musk, his connections with Donald Trump, and his business contracts with the federal government.

He joins us now.

Thanks for being with us.

DAVID FAHRENTHOLD, The New York Times: Hey.

It's great to be here.

GEOFF BENNETT: So before we delve into Elon Musk's political leanings, help us understand the degree to which his sprawling tech empire is entangled with the federal government.

DAVID FAHRENTHOLD: Enormously entangled.

It's hard to overstate how entangled Elon Musk is with the federal government.

And there's two dimensions to that.

One is his -- the federal government is a customer of his, a huge customer of his.

NASA and the Defense Department pay billions of dollars a year to SpaceX to launch their satellites, to launch their people, launch their rockets.

There's 300 contracts within the federal government and Elon Musk's companies this year alone.

The other dimension of that relationship is that he fights with the federal government all the time.

Regulators from different agencies are limiting what his companies can do, checking on his companies, making sure they live up to their promises.

He doesn't like that.

He's often complaining about these different regulators.

So there's a good side and there's a bad side, but there's a huge breadth of entanglements between Elon and the federal government.

GEOFF BENNETT: Meantime, Elon Musk is pouring millions of dollars into Donald Trump's reelection effort.

What's the connection between Elon Musk's business interests and Donald Trump's electoral success come Election Day?

What's in it for Elon Musk, as he sees it?

DAVID FAHRENTHOLD: Well, what he's done is, he sort of prodded Trump to say that, if Trump is elected, he will name Elon Musk to be the head of a government efficiency commission, basically a commission that has the responsibility or the power to recommend huge cuts in the spending and the regulation the federal government does.

Now, why does that matter for Elon?

Well, it matters a lot because now the people that oversee him, the agencies that oversee him, Elon's going to flip that relationship.

Now he oversees them.

He's the one who could decide, OK, how much is your budget going to be?

How much cuts am I going to recommend?

So now you're in a situation where the people who are supposed to be keeping tabs on Elon Musk and his companies, making sure that they're safe for the public, he's going to have a position of power over them.

So the question is, what will -- how will he use that power?

And even if he doesn't use it explicitly, how will that sort of chill and scare the regulators who are supposed to be keeping tabs on his businesses?

GEOFF BENNETT: You and your colleagues report that two of Elon Musk's companies, SpaceX and Tesla, account for at least $15.4 billion in government contracts over the past decade.

How did the federal government become so dependent on Elon Musk's companies over the years?

DAVID FAHRENTHOLD: Most of that is a story about SpaceX.

SpaceX is really good at what it does.

It shoots rockets up in the air much more often, much more safely, much more effectively than any of its rivals.

And so SpaceX, through some lobbying, but mostly just through its own sheer skill, has managed to take over the space launch business in the U.S.

So, that means that for NASA, NASA basically -- SpaceX dictates to NASA when NASA can shoot up its biggest payloads, not the other way around.

The Defense Department is enormously indebted to SpaceX, is a huge customer of SpaceX, because SpaceX shoots up their spy satellites and other satellites, and because SpaceX's Starlink satellite communication service provides this incredible satellite service all over the world for communication.

So those two agencies alone, NASA and the Defense Department, account for a huge chunk of that spending because they want to be in space, and Mr. Musk's companies are the very best at getting you there.

GEOFF BENNETT: So it sounds like, even if there were federal officials and lawmakers who view Elon Musk as an unreliable or problematic partner, that, even if there was a will to roll back some of that dependence, there really isn't a way to do it, at least not yet.

DAVID FAHRENTHOLD: That's right.

Elon Musk has said, oh, if Kamala Harris is elected, I'm going to jail or something like that, I'm going to lose my contracts.

That's not going to happen.

NASA and the Defense Department, which have huge budgets, are hugely dependent on SpaceX.

And as we have seen from Boeing, Boeing's failed attempts to rescue its own astronauts from outer space.

There's nobody out there who could even give those contracts to.

So even if Kamala Harris gets elected and burns with hatred in her heart for Elon Musk, there's really nothing she could do, because the government is so dependent on his companies.

GEOFF BENNETT: Lastly, there's lots of attention around the legality of these cash incentives that Elon Musk is offering to swing state voters who sign this petition of his.

We have not seen anything like this before.

What questions does it raise for you as you do your reporting on Elon Musk and these perceived conflicts of interest?

DAVID FAHRENTHOLD: Well, the question for me is whether this is effectively buying a vote.

Is he paying you to vote for Donald Trump?

Is he paying you to vote at all if he knows you're a supporter of Donald Trump?

Legally, what he says he's doing is just paying you to sign this petition, to sign up for this -- to get e-mails from this PAC.

That probably as far as it goes is legal.

But if it becomes a way to pay you for voting for Donald Trump or pay you to incentivize you to vote for Donald Trump, that becomes illegal.

However, that said, the enforcement mechanisms for U.S. election law are so weak that, if it's just a borderline case, I doubt anything happens to him here.

GEOFF BENNETT: David Fahrenthold of The New York Times, thanks for being with us.

DAVID FAHRENTHOLD: Thank you.