Latest news with #GovernmentalSubsidiesandContracts
Yahoo
01-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
As his feud with Trump reignites, Musk's business with the government is back in the crosshairs
Elon Musk and President Donald Trump are fighting again. Now Musk's business interests — and the billions in government contracts they enjoy — are once again in the crosshairs. Investors were already punishing Tesla on Tuesday, sending shares in the electric carmaker more than 4% lower in afternoon trading. The stock has experienced a late-spring rally alongside the broader market but remains down some 20% so far this year. The shares have been pummeled by a global backlash to Musk's alliance with Trump on the campaign trail and in the White House, where the multibillionaire led a sweeping program of government cuts Musk acknowledged there had been 'some blowback' to the actions taken by his Department of Government Efficiency project that may have affected Tesla sales. Yet investors remain largely bullish on the company and its efforts to pivot away from mass-market EVs and toward self-driving taxis and robotics, pushing its market valuation back toward $1 trillion. Tesla remains Musk's best-known business, but its fortunes are less directly tied to the government than SpaceX, his rocket-building company. SpaceX's $350 billion valuation largely rests on the many government contracts that fuel it. SpaceX's work for NASA has ramped up in recent years in support of the Artemis mission to return to the moon. Meanwhile, SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft is currently the only active vessel capable of carrying astronauts to and from the International Space Station. SpaceX has also become essential to the Department of Defense's missions taking satellites into orbit and today is responsible for the majority of such missions, according to Ars Technica. SpaceX is privately held, meaning its shares don't trade on the open market. It is thus difficult to get a real-time gauge on how worsening relations could affect the company's fortunes. But the impact could be substantial. Since fiscal year 2000, total revenue for SpaceX and Tesla from federal unclassified contracts sits at $22.5 billion, according to Bloomberg Government data — with most of those going to the former. The Washington Post has put the figure for SpaceX alone at close to $38 billion, with $6.3 billion alone coming in 2024 — the highest annual total to date. The dispute with Trump has also taken a chunk out of Musk's personal net worth. After soaring to an all-time high of nearly half a trillion dollars after Trump's election win, Musk's publicly available wealth tally now sits at $400 billion, though that still makes him the world's wealthiest individual by nearly $150 billion ahead of Oracle founder Larry Ellison, another Trump ally. The Musk-Trump tiff first exploded into public view last month, shortly after Musk formally stepped down from his special government employee role and criticized the massive spending and tax cut bill that Republican senators passed Tuesday. Trump responded at the time by threatening to 'terminate Elon's Governmental Subsidies and Contracts.' Musk, in turn, said he would begin 'decommissioning' the Dragon, only to reverse course hours later after an X user advised him and Trump to 'cool off and take a step back for a couple of days.' Before their initial flare-up subsided, Musk announced he would be reining in his political spending weeks after a candidate he had backed lost a key Wisconsin Supreme Court race. Some analysts believe the current relapse in tensions between the two men will be short-lived given Musk's reliance on the government, and vice-versa. Still, Musk is now discussing launching his own political party to address the U.S.'s fiscal imbalances, which he believes Trump's bill will exacerbate — a contention supported by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. While the South Africa-born executive is ineligible to run for office, any candidate he backed for national office would likely face immediate conflict-of-interest questions. This article was originally published on Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
NBC News
01-07-2025
- Business
- NBC News
As Musk's feud with Trump reignites, his business with the government is back in the crosshairs
Elon Musk and President Donald Trump are fighting again. Now Musk's business interests — and the billions in government contracts they enjoy — are once again in the crosshairs. Investors were already punishing Tesla Tuesday, sending shares in the electric vehicle maker more than 4% lower in afternoon trading. The stock has experienced a late-spring rally alongside the broader market but remains down some 20% so far this year. The shares have been pummeled by a global backlash to Musk's alliance with Trump on the campaign trail and in the White House, where the multibillionaire led a sweeping program of government cuts Musk acknowledged there had been 'some blowback' to the actions taken by his Department of Government Efficiency project that may have affected Tesla sales. Yet investors remain largely bullish on the company and its efforts to pivot away from mass-market EVs and toward self-driving taxis and robotics, pushing its market valuation back toward $1 trillion. Tesla remains Musk's best-known business, but its fortunes are less directly tied to the government than SpaceX, his rocket-building company. SpaceX's $350 billion valuation largely rests on the many government contracts that fuel it. SpaceX's work for NASA has ramped up in recent years in support of the Artemis mission to return to the moon. Meanwhile, SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft is currently the only active vessel capable of carrying astronauts to and from the International Space Station. SpaceX has also become essential to the Department of Defense's missions taking satellites into orbit and today is responsible for the majority of such missions, according to Ars Technica. SpaceX is privately held, meaning its shares don't trade on the open market. It is thus difficult to get a real-time gauge on how worsening relations could affect the company's fortunes. But the impact could be substantial. Since fiscal year 2000, total revenue for SpaceX and Tesla from federal unclassified contracts sits at $22.5 billion, according to Bloomberg Government data — with most of those going to the former. The Washington Post has put the figure for SpaceX alone at close to $38 billion, with $6.3 billion alone coming in 2024 — the highest annual total to date. The dispute with Trump has also taken a chunk out of Musk's personal net worth. After soaring to an all-time high of nearly half a trillion dollars after Trump's election win, Musk's publicly available wealth tally now sits at $400 billion, though that still makes him the world's wealthiest individual by nearly $150 billion ahead of Oracle founder Larry Ellison, another Trump ally. The Musk-Trump tiff first exploded into public view last month, shortly after Musk formally stepped down from his special government employee role, criticizing the massive spending and tax cut bill that Republican senators passed Tuesday. Trump responded at the time by threatening to 'terminate Elon's Governmental Subsidies and Contracts. ' Musk, in turn, said he would begin 'decommissioning' the Dragon, only to reverse course hours later after an X user advised him and Trump to 'cool off and take a step back for a couple of days.' That initial flare-up subsided for a time as Musk announced he would be reining in his political spending, especially after a candidate he had backed lost a key Wisconsin Supreme Court race. Some analysts believe the current relapse in tensions between the two men will be short-lived given Musk's reliance on the government, and vice-versa. Still, Musk is now discussing launching his own political party to address the U.S.'s fiscal imbalances, which he believes Trump's bill will exacerbate — a contention supported by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. While the South Africa-born executive is ineligible to run for office, any candidate he backed for national office would likely face immediate conflict-of-interest questions.
Yahoo
12-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
The Trump-Musk Feud Revealed Two Massive National Security Concerns
The spectacular falling out last week between U.S. President Donald Trump and Elon Musk, the billionaire who became one of his closest aides, put the spotlight on two dangerous developments affecting U.S. national security. The breakup provided Schadenfreude to the two men's critics and delivered entertainment value to social media audiences across the world. But it also revealed crucial vulnerabilities deriving from the ways in which important elements of U.S. military and intelligence operations, among others, have been personalized in both men's hands. While this is particularly alarming for the U.S., its repercussions extend beyond U.S. borders, to U.S. allies and others. When the world's most powerful man and the world's wealthiest entrepreneur started lobbing verbal missiles at each other from the social media platforms they each own, the crossfire included threats with serious geopolitical consequences. It may have looked like a high-profile schoolyard scuffle, but the two people involved are so powerful that the clash was far more consequential. It all started when Musk blasted Trump's massive budget bill currently making its way through Congress. If approved, the legislation would add trillions of dollars to the national debt. That was anathema to Musk, whose ostensible role in the Trump administration was to strengthen the government's finances. He initially vowed to slash $2 trillion in spending, later lowering his sights to $1 trillion. Ultimately the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, cut less than $200 million, and by some estimates it produced more costs than savings. Still, Musk lambasted the budget bill, and when Trump criticized him for that, it unleashed the furies, with Musk going as far as suggesting Trump should be impeached. To get more in-depth news and expert analysis on global affairs from WPR, sign up for our free Daily Review newsletter. Among the many threats the erstwhile allies traded was a warning Trump posted on his Truth Social platform that '[t]he easiest way to save money … is to terminate Elon's Governmental Subsidies and Contracts,' to which Musk responded on his X platform that his SpaceX company 'will begin decommissioning its Dragon spacecraft immediately.' The U.S. depends on the Dragon to send astronauts and supplies to the International Space Station, making it no small threat. Focusing on just these two posts, we can see the danger. First, there's the deeply alarming fact that Trump openly threatened to use the power of the presidency to exact personal revenge. We've seen this many times already since he returned to the presidency less than five months ago, but it's an undemocratic, corrupt practice that may be routine in dictatorships but should be unacceptable in solid democracies. Over the weekend, Trump once again threatened to use the power of his office against Musk, warning of 'very serious consequences' if Musk opted to fund Democratic candidates in next year's midterm congressional elections. In other words, he would use his office for political retribution, another affront against democracy. In addition to canceling contracts, as he suggested on Thursday when the war of words started, Trump could also unleash regulators on Musk's firms. As president, Trump's duty is to make decisions in the national interest. If the contracts made sense before the falling out, they should still make sense after it. But the contracts were actually deeply troubling before, and the dispute and threats highlight just how dangerously dependent the U.S., as well as other countries, have become on companies controlled by a single individual, and a volatile one with a troubling ideology at that. Musk retracted his threats to decommission Dragon, but the mere mention of the possibility alarmed NASA and shocked the space travel community. As mentioned, without Dragon, the U.S. has no way to send its astronauts and supplies to the ISS for now, as an alternative built by Boeing proved unreliable. But the threat to shut down Dragon is minimal compared to other off switches on Musk's console. The Pentagon and the entire U.S. security apparatus have become perilously dependent on Musk's companies. In addition to its contracts for the ISS, SpaceX carries out the overwhelming majority of all satellite launches around the globe, including those of military and intelligence satellites. Then there's the SpaceX subsidiary Starlink and its military version Starshield, both of which have become indispensable communications platforms, and not only for the United States. In 2022, when Russia launched its all-out invasion of Ukraine, Musk provided Starlink equipment to Kyiv, allowing Ukrainian troops to access the internet and communicate with each other and their commanders. A large part of the cost of that arrangement is borne by the Pentagon. The dangers of relying on Musk's company for such a fundamental function in the midst of an active war was already becoming evident when Musk started echoing Russian talking points. Then, a recently published biography of Musk claimed that when the Ukrainians asked for Starlink support in 2022 as part of an operation in Russian-occupied Crimea, Musk refused, saying that attacking the illegally annexed territory was 'going too far.' The revelation raised red flags at the Pentagon, where officials started speaking about the risk represented by Musk's ability to simply deny access to his products in the midst of a conflict. And yet, despite urgent calls by military officials for competitors to provide alternatives, few viable options have emerged. The Boeing space vehicle for taking astronauts to the ISS was a disappointment, and Eutelsat, a Franco-British competitor of Starlink, has launched only 600 satellites compared to Musk's 7,000, which represents the majority of the satellites orbiting Earth. What's more, Eutelsat's user equipment is more cumbersome. This March, while he was still working closely with Trump, Musk posted that 'Ukraine will inevitably lose' the war and noted ominously that Kyiv's 'entire front line would collapse' if he turned Starlink off. That's a not-so-veiled warning about Musk's power to cause havoc not only for Ukraine but for all of Starlink's users, of which the U.S. government is the biggest. The U.S. has a reported $22 billion in federal contracts with SpaceX. Musk already controls the launching of spy satellites as well as much of the communications systems the U.S. uses and would use should it go to war. If Trump launches construction of his promised missile shield, the Golden Dome, Musk would be a major player. This risky dependence on Musk is not the reason Trump has threatened to abuse his presidency against his former friend. That is all about revenge. But the U.S. should do everything in its power to ensure it can carry out its policies and objectives without being at the mercy of any single individual or company, even if that was not something Trump was concerned about before he had a reason to punish Musk. The acrimonious breakup, while entertaining, has also delivered two important warnings. It showed that Trump's use of his office for personal vendettas has become a regular, openly deployed practice in this presidency. And it has provided an urgent reminder that the U.S. and other countries have become dangerously dependent on the unpredictable and untrustworthy Musk. Frida Ghitis is WPR's senior columnist and a contributor to CNN and The Washington Post. Her WPR column appears every Thursday. You can follow her on Twitter and Threads at @fridaghitis. The post The Trump-Musk Feud Revealed Two Massive National Security Concerns appeared first on World Politics Review.
Sky News AU
11-06-2025
- Business
- Sky News AU
Elon Musk walks back ‘some' X posts he regrets about US President Donald Trump following social media feud
Tech giant Elon Musk has walked back 'some' of his tweets towards US President Donald Trump. On Wednesday the billionaire expressed regret on some of his explosive tweets against Mr Trump, as the bromance between the two descended into a chaotic social media feud. 'I regret some of my posts about President @realDonaldTrump last week. They went too far,' Musk said. He did not specify which posts he regretted, however it could have been in relation to the ones he deleted off his feed. Last week the Tesla and SpaceX CEO went on a fiery rant lashing out at Trump's tariffs and his sweeping tax and spending bill. He slammed Mr Trump's tariffs saying they 'will cause a recession in the second half of this year' and called the President's 'big, beautiful bill' a 'disgusting abomination'. While he gave zero evidence, Musk claimed the President appeared in files in relation to disgraced paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein. Last Thursday the tech giant said: '@realDonaldTrump is in the Epstein files. That is the real reason they have not been made public. "Mark this post for the future. The truth will come out." The White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt dismissed his Epstein claims and said it was unfortunate what was said from Musk. "This is an unfortunate episode from Elon, who is unhappy with the One Big Beautiful Bill because it does not include the policies he wanted,' Ms Leavitt said. "The president is focused on passing this historic piece of legislation and making our country great again." At the time of Musk's explosive tweets Mr Trump said he was "very disappointed" in Elon and was not sure if they can mend their relationship. 'Elon and I had a great relationship. I don't know if we will anymore,' the President told reporters at the White House. 'I'm very disappointed in Elon. I've helped Elon a lot.' On the same day Mr Trump took to Truth Social saying he 'went CRAZY!' and threatened to terminate Musk's Governmental Subsidies and Contracts. The statement of regret by Musk comes as observers have noticed another shift in his tone on social media towards Donald Trump and his administration. In a flurry of retweets and replies, the billionaire signalled his support for Mr Trump's approach towards the unfolding riots in Los Angeles. Musk has appeared to upload multiple posts from Truth Social with a recent re-share showing two American flags above a post of Mr Trump talking about how 'a once great American City, Los Angeles, has been invaded and occupied by Illegal Aliens and Criminals'. LA descended into chaos last Friday (local time) after Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers made dozens of arrests across the city over allegations of immigration violations as part of the administration's crackdown. Protesters clashed with police and agents as they attempted to carry out arrests, leading to law enforcement to use flash bangs and pepper spray to quell the crowd. Parts of LA are now locked down after an emergency was declared in a bid to stop the violence and looting from the ongoing immigration protests which have spread to major cities in other parts of the United States.
Yahoo
11-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Musk Expresses ‘Regret' After Trump Feud
Elon Musk looks on during a news conference with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office on May 30, 2025. Credit - Allison Robbert—AFP/Getty Images 'I regret some of my posts about President @realDonaldTrump last week,' Elon Musk posted on his social media platform X early Wednesday. 'They went too far.' Musk and Trump, who were once almost inseparable allies, were engaged in a public and vitriolic war of words last week. But the fierce hostilities between the man with the most money in the world and the man with the mightiest military appear to be cooling. The statement of remorse by Musk, who spent more than $250 million to help elect Trump in 2024, comes as observers have noticed another shift in his tone on social media toward the Administration. In retweets and replies, Musk signaled support for Trump's approach toward the protests in Los Angeles, including sharing multiple of the President's recent posts from Truth Social. He also responded with a heart emoji to a video of Trump telling reporters on Monday that he wished Musk well and that they had a 'good relationship.' It's a sharp contrast to how the two powerful men discussed each other last week, after Musk left his official government role and ramped up his criticisms of Trump's 'One Big Beautiful Bill' massive tax-and-spending legislative package that is stumbling through Congress. 'Elon and I had a great relationship. I don't know if we will anymore,' Trump told reporters at the White House on June 5. 'I'm very disappointed in Elon. I've helped Elon a lot.' On Truth Social, Trump said at the time that Musk 'went CRAZY!' and threatened that the 'easiest way to save money' would be 'to terminate Elon's Governmental Subsidies and Contracts.' In turn, Musk alleged that the Administration was holding back the public release of so-called Epstein Files because Trump is implicated in them, and he endorsed a message that suggested 'Trump should be impeached' and Vance 'should replace him.' Those posts have since been deleted. Contact us at letters@
