After a year of praise and expression of love for each other, Elon Musk and Donald Trump exploded their political partnership in dramatic ways this week. Highly open divisions include the world’s wealthiest people, accusing the U.S. president of dating with infamous sex offenders. Trump said Musk “lost his mind.”
As Musk and Trump insult on their social networks, they also issued threats and had tangible consequences. Trump suggests that he can cancel all of Musk’s government contracts and subsidies – “the best way to save money”, a move that will not only have devastating consequences for tech billionaires’ companies, but also devastating consequences for federal agencies that already depend on them. Musk responded that he would begin retirement of the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft, which NASA relies on transport missions, although he later reversed the decision.
While the ongoing plot is the tenor of reality-sensing TV, the fight between Trump and Musk once again exposes the danger of holding key public goods in the hands of a billionaire-controlled private company. It emphasizes that once a conceited and collective national business like space travel can now be almost completely whimsical by one’s emotions.
Musk and Trump’s partnership has sparked months of attention to corruption and called for investigations into the use of its stance in the administration to benefit the company. The breakup highlights another risk of Musk’s close ties to the government, where the services he provides can now become collateral damage to interpersonal disputes. Tens of thousands of dollars are hanging in the balance of the battle.
The messy and open way of conflict also reminds people how unpredictable their decision-making abilities are. Musk vowed Sideline SpaceX’s spacecraft and its reversal, without these promises, to immediately prevent the United States from reaching the International Space Station, for example, in a series of other insults against Trump, people seem to be emotional and almost impossible to tell whether he is serious or not.
Musk released without warning on Thursday: “In view of the president’s statement on canceling my government contract, @spacex will be retired immediately.”
“Okay advice. OK, we won’t retire the Dragon.” Musk followed up less than a day later, responding to an anonymous user with about 5,000 followers who said he should “calm down and back off for a few days.”
If the battle between Musk and Trump ultimately undermines government services or further transforms it into political leverage, then it won’t happen without warning. Since Musk refused to let Ukraine use Starlink to launch a surprise attack on Russian forces in 2023, the government has been dealing with the uncomfortable reality of Musk’s control over global infrastructure. Musk’s claim that he could hinder Ukraine’s “whole frontline” by closing Starlink, which caused diplomatic incidents earlier this year. Meanwhile, European governments have been anxious to find alternatives to star links recently due to concerns about Musk’s unpredictability.
Although Musk aroused foreign governments and acted as an irresponsible global power broker, the United States continued to hand him contracts and increase his reliance on the company. In particular, space operation has become synonymous with Musk.
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Since SpaceX won its first NASA contract in 2006, the government has awarded the company about $15 billion worth of contracts and relied on it to transport astronauts and cargo into space. NASA also signed with SpaceX for its planned crew mission, as well as a mission to explore one of Saturn’s moons. Last year, the agency needed to rescue two astronauts, and the agency turned to SpaceX.
The government’s dependence on the Musk Empire also exceeded NASA. The Pentagon has extensive contracts with Musk to launch intelligence satellites using SpaceX. SpaceX is also the leader in the Trump administration’s plan to build a “Golden Dome” missile defense shield, which has become a U.S. defense priority. Musk’s satellite communications service Starlink has also gotten involved in the government, which has installed it at the White House this year.
Musk remains responsible for market forces and investors who support his company, which is about 14% of stocks fell by about 14% during the dusty period between Tesla and Trump. Musk had previously stated that he was willing to lose money because of his ideology, and his huge wealth in some way isolated him, even if it had a huge impact on his company. When Tesla’s stock price fell on Thursday, his net worth totaled about $34 billion in one day, but he remains the richest man in the world by a gap of more than $90 billion.
The wide reliance on the privatization of musk and government services has been aroused criticism from ethical regulators and some experts in the aerospace or defense industry, but now Musk threatens to take certain services hostages, which seems particularly risky. It also faces projects that cut and privatize federal government privatization, during which Musk was in office. Musk is fiercely opposed to bureaucracy, courts and regulators as obstacles to doing things, but these dangers also serve as bastions against the irresponsible personal power and unstable whimsicality he and Trump exhibited during the conflict.
