Elon Musk is on a crusade versus federal government costs. Unless, obviously, it’s going to him.
” If action is not required to suppress the deficit, America remains in deep difficulty. No various than an individual who enters into excessive financial obligation,” stated the DOGE employer on his social media network X in December.
” The corruption and waste is being rooted out in real-time,” he included on February 2, as he took a sledgehammer to federal firms and all however took apart the U.S. Firm of International Advancement without any permission from Congress.
Yet according to federal information examined by The Independent, Musk’s own business have actually been assured or granted almost $21 billion by the U.S. federal government because 2008.
The money was still streaming since Feb 17, with another $76.7 million assured because Donald Trump’s inauguration.
So just how much of cash is the American taxpayer handing over to each of Musk’s business, and what is all of it for?
Flying NASA to the moonThe large bulk of this financing originates from federal agreements with SpaceX, the personal area business Musk established back in 2002.
According to USASpending.gov, a legally-mandated public database of federal agreements, the most typical method to determine such agreements is to take a look at the overall quantity the U.S. federal government is contractually required to pay. So that is what we’ll do.
Considering that records started, SpaceX has actually been assured almost $20.7 billion in federal government agreements, research study grants, and other kinds of public support, with approximately $8.7 billion really paid up until now.
Of that assured cash, $14.6 billion originated from agreements with NASA, covering whatever from supply goes to the International Spaceport Station to the style and screening of a brand-new moon lander.
One agreement covers launch services for numerous NASA satellites, while another covers freight flights to the firm’s prepared Lunar Entrance spaceport station, which will be put in orbit around the moon to support future check outs.
Possibly the most amazing is an agreement to securely ruin the International Spaceport station when it is deserted a long time after 2030. The business is constructing a souped-up variation of its Dragon team pill, which will utilize its effective engine to press the station into a decreasing orbit that will eventually trigger it to burn up in Earth’s environment.
And while $14.6 billion may look like a great payday, that’s absolutely nothing to the optimum payment that SpaceX might get in future if NASA selects to work out all choices in every agreement: a massive $56.4 billion.
Deceptive DoD satellite launchesThe bulk of the rest of SpaceX’s agreements are with the Department of Defense, which has actually assured $5.6 billion and used an optimal future payment of $32.8 billion.
Possibly typically provided their military nature, these agreements’ descriptions are rather more unclear. The majority of them include satellite launches, consisting of for the nation’s deceptive National Reconnaissance Workplace.
Undoubtedly, reports show that SpaceX is under agreement to construct numerous spy satellites with an unnamed U.S. intelligence firm.
Other payments associate with SpaceX’s subsidiary Starlink, which offers mobile web services to remote areas from a constellation of more than 7,000 satellites in low Earth orbit.
Here we discover an example of Musk’s fondness for corny acronyms: a U.S. Flying force agreement for a “fundamental arrangement for gadgets and Starlink membership”, or BADASS for brief.
On top of numerous research study grants, SpaceX likewise has agreements with other U.S. firms, though these are greatly smaller sized. The business is owed $1.4 million by the Department of Commerce, for example, and $578,875 by the Department of Veterans Affairs.
The majority of the agreements cover Starlink services, consisting of for ocean research study ships far from port, employees fixing a bridge in Yellowstone National forest, and U.S. Geological Study authorities in Anchorage, Alaska.
Starlink was likewise assured around $2.3 million in federal government support by USAID– a company Musk has actually called “wicked” and “a criminal company” that requires to “pass away”– obviously as part of a facilities program in Macedonia.
Tesla raises the rearTesla, the electrical lorry business that Musk likewise runs, has actually made far less from federal government agreements and awards. USASpending.gov lists just $4.5 million, mainly for solar energy generation or the purchase of federal government cars.
Nevertheless, the company has actually benefited substantially from other sort of taxpayer assistance in the past. In 2010, when it had actually offered less than 2,000 cars and trucks, it got a $465 million low-interest loan from the Department of Energy to assist it establish brand-new electrical cars.
Tesla has actually likewise taken advantage of a minimum of an approximated $3.4 billion in tax credits provided to its clients in order to purchase its cars and trucks, enabling the business to offer more cars at greater costs than otherwise would have been possible.
Notoriously, it has actually made much of its earnings– $10.7 billion, by one current quote– from offering emissions credits to other, more contaminating carmakers. These aren’t spent for by taxpayers, however they are mandated by federal government policies.
According to reports, a $400 million agreement for “armored electrical cars” remains in the works– however after the story broke, its phrasing was modified to prevent particularly discussing Tesla.
What does SpaceX state?
To be clear, Musk’s business– SpaceX and Tesla have actually been requested remark for this story– are offering genuine services to the U.S. federal government, and those services cost cash.
When 4 astronauts were stranded on the International Spaceport station following issues with Boeing’s competing Starliner pill in 2024, SpaceX was contracted to bring them back. For a time, it was the only U.S. entity efficient in transporting humans to and from the ISS.
” We made that,” stated SpaceX’s primary operations officer Gwynne Shotwell in November 2024, in recommendation to SpaceX’s close relationship with NASA. “We bid it, we were the most affordable cost, finest bidder, we won and we carry out. It’s not a bad thing to serve the U.S. federal government with fantastic ability and items.”
However that does not exempt Musk from dispute of interest laws, particularly considered that a few of the firms he is targeting remain in the middle of examining his business.
Musk has actually likewise been exceptionally broad in his meaning of “waste, scams, and abuse”, frequently totally misrepresenting the programs he highlights on social networks.
For instance, he has actually assaulted media business such as Politico for offering membership services to federal government firms– not unlike SpaceX– and wrongly declared that a DoD agreement with Reuters to assist withstand cyberattacks was an agreement to trick the U.S. public.
However do not stress. According to the White Home, it’s Musk himself who’ll choose whether his own organization transactions trigger a dispute of interest.