White Home evaluations SpaceX contracts as Trump-Musk feud simmers, Reuters sources say

The White Home earlier this month directed the Protection Division and NASA to collect particulars on billions of {dollars} in SpaceX contracts following the general public blowout between President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk, 4 folks aware of the order informed Reuters.

Sparking an ongoing evaluate, the administration ordered the businesses to scrutinize Musk’s contracts to prepared attainable retaliation towards the businessman and his firms, these folks stated. As Reuters reported on Thursday, Pentagon officers are concurrently contemplating whether or not to scale back the position that SpaceX, Musk’s area and satellite tv for pc firm, could win in an formidable new U.S. missile protection system.

Reuters could not decide whether or not the White Home intends to cancel any of the roughly $22 billion in federal contracts SpaceX now has. However the evaluate reveals the administration is following via on a menace by Trump throughout his spat with Musk final week to presumably terminate enterprise and subsidies for Musk ventures. “We’ll check out all the things,” the president stated, talking to reporters aboard Air Power One on June 6.

In an e-mail to Reuters, a White Home spokesperson did not reply questions on Musk’s enterprise, saying the “Trump administration is dedicated to a rigorous evaluate course of for all bids and contracts.” In a separate assertion, a spokesperson at NASA stated the company “will proceed to work with our business companions to make sure the president’s goals in area are met.”

Neither SpaceX nor officers on the Protection Division responded to requests for remark.

The folks aware of the order stated the contract scrutiny is meant to present the administration the flexibility to maneuver quick if Trump decides to behave towards Musk, who till just lately was a senior advisor to the president and the top of the cost-cutting Division of Authorities Effectivity, or DOGE. The evaluate is “for political ammunition,” one of many folks stated.

Whether or not the U.S. authorities may legally, or virtually, cancel present contracts is unclear. However the chance underscores considerations amongst governance consultants that politics and private pique may improperly affect issues affecting authorities coffers, nationwide safety and the general public curiosity.

“There’s an irony right here that Musk’s contracts might be below the identical kind of subjective political scrutiny that he and his DOGE group have placed on 1000’s of different contracts,” stated Scott Amey, a contracting skilled and basic counsel on the Venture on Authorities Oversight, a watchdog group based mostly in Washington. “Any choice should not be based mostly on the egos of two males however on one of the best pursuits of the general public and nationwide safety.”

Musk’s SpaceX lately has grow to be an important associate of the U.S. authorities in a lot of its aerospace and protection work – launching satellites and different area cargo and probably managing an important aspect of the “Golden Dome” missile defend deliberate by Trump.

Though Musk in current days has sought to stroll again a few of his critiques of the president – reminiscent of calling for Trump’s impeachment final week and linking him to a convicted intercourse offender – his outbursts nonetheless highlighted the federal government’s reliance on SpaceX.

Earlier than reversing course, Musk threatened to decommission the corporate’s Dragon spacecraft. The spacecraft, as a part of a roughly $5 billion contract with NASA, is the one U.S. vessel at present able to carrying astronauts to and from the Worldwide Area Station.

SpaceX can also be constructing a community of lots of of spy satellites below a labeled contract with the Nationwide Reconnaissance Workplace, a U.S. intelligence company. The contract was a pivotal transaction for SpaceX, deepening its ties with U.S. protection and intelligence companies.