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Just a few years in the past, when Elon Musk was turning heel to individuals anxious about local weather change, becoming a member of forces with Republicans and breaking apart with Democrats, I wrote about how the federal government couldn’t just quit him.
It’s nonetheless true now that Musk is breaking apart with President Donald Trump, on whose candidacy Musk spent somewhere in the neighborhood of $300 million.
Musk obtained a literal golden key to the White Home and the chance to take a chainsaw to the federal forms from Trump in trade for the friendship that marketing campaign coin purchased him.
The Trump-Musk bromance, which burned scorching in the course of the marketing campaign and for the primary few months of Trump’s second time period within the White Home, has now skilled what SpaceX may euphemistically name a “rapid unscheduled disassembly.”
Even when Trump all however calls for that key again and the connection can’t be put again collectively once more, a everlasting divorce would essentially be messy and drawn out.
At one level as they have been lobbing shots at each other on their respective social media platforms, Trump prompt canceling Musk’s authorities contracts. Musk prompt not letting NASA use his SpaceX’s Dragon Spacecraft. Each have retreated from these ideas.
As I wrote again in 2023: “NASA wants his rockets. The Pentagon wants his satellites. The federal government wants for electrical autos to entry his community of chargers. Officers want his social media platform — Twitter, now known as X — to speak with individuals.”
It’s all nonetheless true, though Trump has no real interest in electrical autos, and a standoff over whether or not an enormous tax invoice ought to proceed to incentivize Individuals to purchase electrical autos might have contributed to their beef. There are nonetheless a rising variety of Individuals shopping for electrical autos, and Tesla’s charging community is part of that infrastructure.
If something, the intervening years have made the federal government much more depending on Musk and significantly SpaceX, which not solely offers rockets to NASA, but additionally has the Starlink web system, which is essential to the Pentagon and has been floated as an choice to enhance protection for rural America.
SpaceX has gotten greater than $20 billion in contracts from NASA and the Pentagon, in response to CNN’s Chris Isidore.
Isidore additionally explains Trump can’t simply go to a different rocket firm.
Changing SpaceX on these contracts, nonetheless, shouldn’t be reasonable. That’s as a result of there isn’t a different firm accessible to exchange it. For instance, Boeing, the one different firm ready transport astronauts to and from the Worldwide Area Station (ISS), had issues on its solely crewed flight final yr. That required its Starliner spacecraft to return to Earth with out two astronauts, who have been stranded at the ISS for nine months as a substitute of the deliberate journey of a handful of days.
CNN’s Jackie Wattles, who covers area, advised me the federal government’s reliance on SpaceX goes a lot additional.
“It’s arduous to understate how essential SpaceX’s capabilities are for civil and navy area endeavors,” Wattles stated. “NASA not solely depends solely on SpaceX to get astronauts to and from the Worldwide Area Station, the area company awarded SpaceX almost $1 billion final yr to develop a technique to safely drag the ISS out of orbit when it’s decommissioned — a transfer anticipated to occur within the early 2030s if not sooner.”
She ticked off quite a lot of methods by which the US depends on SpaceX:
If the US does find yourself eager to go to Mars, SpaceX’s Starship, which remains to be in growth, is the one car designed for the aim.
The US is paying SpaceX $4 billion for moon landings. It’s counting on SpaceX to get rid of the Worldwide Area Station sooner or later.
SpaceX carries extra payload for the navy than another firm.
It launches most US spy satellites, and the Pentagon plans to rely on Starlink for connectivity.
Plus, Starlink is now engaged on updating the expertise the Federal Aviation Administration makes use of to handle US airspace, one thing that raised questions on conflicts of curiosity when it was introduced, however now looks like yet another factor binding the federal government to Musk.
Musk’s corporations are on the mercy of federal regulators, as we explored with a have a look at the ethical minefield created by Musk’s involvement with the Division of Authorities Effectivity.
His Neuralink, which goals to implant chips within the brains of people, should cope with the Meals and Drug Administration.
SpaceX has to cope with the FAA and different businesses.
X, previously Twitter, options within the oversight of the Federal Communications Fee.
Tesla has been investigated by the Nationwide Freeway Visitors Security Administration.
Trump’s administration has shown no reluctance to make use of the cogs of presidency to go after perceived enemies. Simply ask Harvard.
But when Trump have been to make use of authorities to assault Musk, it might be like one thing out of Vladimir Putin’s playbook in Russia, the place oligarchs rise and fall primarily based on whether or not they’re in favor with the federal government.
“Trump can go after (Musk’s corporations), however then it’ll be fairly specific that’s what he’s doing,” stated the tech journalist Kara Swisher, showing on CNN’s “The Scenario Room” Friday.
“Then he’ll look precisely like what individuals accuse him of, which is an autocrat,” Swisher stated.
It will harm the nation if Trump did goal Musk, she stated. In additoin to Tesla, SpaceX and Neuralink, she pointed to the significance of Musk’s forays into AI.
“We actually do want cogent, essential steerage on AI because it goes ahead,” Swisher stated.
