Tesla CEO’s gamble on Trump is paying off for SpaceX
For Tesla shareholders, Elon Musk’s gamble on President Trump paid off until it didn’t (and then did again), but he’s still had plenty to gain for his other companies, including SpaceX, the parent of satellite company Starlink, the whole while.
The Trump administration has been pressuring a number of African countries to approve Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s Starlink business there, in some cases threatening to cut US aid and garnering unfair advantages, ProPublica reports.
“Helping U.S. businesses has long been part of the State Department’s mission, but former ambassadors said they sought to do this by making the positive case for the benefits of U.S. investment. When seeking deals for U.S. companies, they said they took care to avoid the appearance of conflicts or leaving the impression that punitive measures were on the table.
Ten current and former State Department officials said the recent drive was an alarming departure from standard diplomatic practice — because of both the tactics used and the person who would benefit most from them. ‘I honestly didn’t think we were capable of doing this,’ one official told ProPublica. ‘That is bad on every level.’ Kenneth Fairfax, a retired career diplomat who served as U.S. ambassador to Kazakhstan, said the global push for Musk ‘could lead to the impression that the U.S. is engaging in a form of crony capitalism.’”
In other words, thanks to Musk’s political donations, the administration has been unfairly pushing some of the world’s poorest countries to enrich the world’s richest man.
“If this was done by another country, we absolutely would call this corruption,” Kristofer Harrison, a State Department official during the George W. Bush administration, told ProPublica. “Because it is corruption.”
“Helping U.S. businesses has long been part of the State Department’s mission, but former ambassadors said they sought to do this by making the positive case for the benefits of U.S. investment. When seeking deals for U.S. companies, they said they took care to avoid the appearance of conflicts or leaving the impression that punitive measures were on the table.
Ten current and former State Department officials said the recent drive was an alarming departure from standard diplomatic practice — because of both the tactics used and the person who would benefit most from them. ‘I honestly didn’t think we were capable of doing this,’ one official told ProPublica. ‘That is bad on every level.’ Kenneth Fairfax, a retired career diplomat who served as U.S. ambassador to Kazakhstan, said the global push for Musk ‘could lead to the impression that the U.S. is engaging in a form of crony capitalism.’”
In other words, thanks to Musk’s political donations, the administration has been unfairly pushing some of the world’s poorest countries to enrich the world’s richest man.
“If this was done by another country, we absolutely would call this corruption,” Kristofer Harrison, a State Department official during the George W. Bush administration, told ProPublica. “Because it is corruption.”
