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Elon Musk hands out $1m cheques to voters in Wisconsin, his odd cheese hat grabs eyeballs | Video
Elon Musk handed out $1 million cheques to Wisconsin voters despite backlash from critics, as well as a lawsuit from the state’s attorney general.
Elon Musk handed out $1 million cheques to two Wisconsin voters despite backlash from critics, as well as a lawsuit from the state’s attorney general ahead of a Supreme Court election in the state. The cheques were given to two Wisconsin men who have voted for and donated to GOP campaigns that support President Donald Trump. Musk clarified that only “spokesmen” for an online petition against “activist” judges would be eligible for the money, according to the New York Post.
At the town hall he hosted in Wisconsin, Musk wore a cheese hat as an ode to the state's cheese industry and its Green Bay Packers football team. Video shows the Tesla boss signing the hat before tossing it to elated fans in the crowd.
Musk’s America PAC shared a video on X, writing, “Elon Musk takes the stage in Wisconsin and throws a signed Cheesehead hat into the crowd”.
Donning the odd-looking hat, Musk rallied for Brad Schimel, a conservative politician running for a Wisconsin Supreme Court seat. Schimel is being backed by Trump, Musk and many of the X owner’s support groups that have spent over $20 million in the campaign supporting Schimel. “And if the [Wisconsin] Supreme Court is able to redraw the districts, they will gerrymander the district and deprive Wisconsin of two seats on the Republican side. Then they will try to stop all the government reforms we are getting done for you, the American people,” Musk said.
State Supreme Court’s decision
In a unanimous decision, the state Supreme Court refused to hear an eleventh-hour attempt by Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul to stop Musk from giving the massive handouts minutes before the rally started. Kaul’s challenge had already been rejected by two lower courts. His challenge argues that it is illegal to offer “anything of value” in Wisconsin, in exchange for a vote. Musk’s attorneys, on the other hand, claimed that the payments were "intended to generate a grassroots movement in opposition to activist judges, not to expressly advocate for or against any candidate," Irish Star reported. The court did not explain why it made the decision it made.
The Wisconsin Supreme Court is expected to rule on various issues in the coming months, including abortion rights, congressional redistricting, union power, and voting rules. This could decide the fate of the 2026 midterms and also the 2028 presidential election in the battleground state.
