In picking billionaire Elon Musk to be “our price cutter” for the U.S. authorities, President-elect Donald Trump will not be the primary American president to empower a enterprise tycoon to search for methods to dramatically lower federal rules.
President Ronald Reagan tapped J. Peter Grace to steer a bureaucratic cost-cutting fee in 1982. Nonetheless, the chemical enterprise magnate had fewer conflicts of curiosity than the world’s richest man does right this moment.
Musk’s SpaceX holds billions of {dollars} in NASA contracts. He is CEO of Tesla, an electrical automobile enterprise that advantages from authorities tax incentives and is topic to auto security guidelines. His social media platform X, synthetic intelligence startup xAI, mind implant maker Neuralink and tunnel-building Boring firm all intersect with the federal authorities in numerous methods.
“There’s direct conflicts between his companies and authorities’s curiosity,” stated Ann Skeet, director of management ethics at Santa Clara College’s Markkula Heart. “He’s now ready to try to curry favor for these enterprises.”
Musk can be extra influential, having pumped an estimated $200 million by means of his political motion committee to assist elect Trump, made himself a fixture at Mar-a-Lago for the reason that presidential election and is on common talking phrases with like-minded political world leaders, from Argentina’s President Javier Milei to Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
Trump has stated Musk and former GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy will lead a brand new “Division of Authorities Effectivity,” or DOGE, — a joke identify that references the cryptocurrency Dogecoin and appeals to Musk’s humorousness.
“We lastly have a mandate to delete the mountain of choking rules that don’t serve the higher good,” Musk stated Wednesday on X.
Trump has stated that Musk and Ramaswamy will work from outdoors the federal government to supply the White Home “recommendation and steering” and can companion with the Workplace of Administration and Price range to drive structural reform — a few of which might solely be performed by means of Congress.
“If it’s a fee, it’s outdoors the federal government” and Musk couldn’t have a White Home workplace or official authorities title, stated Richard Painter, a White Home ethics lawyer throughout the George W. Bush administration. “Then, the president takes the recommendation or doesn’t.”
If it have been a real authorities company, nevertheless, Musk would run afoul of federal battle of curiosity legal guidelines except he divested from his companies or recused from authorities issues involving them, Painter stated.
Trump might grant a uncommon waiver exempting Musk from these legal guidelines, a transfer that has been politically unpopular previously, Painter stated.
Tesla, SpaceX and X didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark Wednesday about whether or not Musk would recuse himself. The Trump transition group additionally did not instantly reply to a request for remark.
The company has compelled Tesla to do recollects it didn’t need, and it has opened investigations of Tesla autos, a few of which raised questions on Musk’s claims that Tesla is near deploying autonomous autos with out human drivers. The company is also engaged on rules that cowl car automation.
Auto security advocates are apprehensive {that a} Division of Authorities Effectivity co-chaired by Musk might suggest draconian cuts at NHTSA.
“That could possibly be extremely problematic as a result of that may affect each rule-making from the entire businesses that at present oversee firms that Musk owns,” stated Michael Brooks, govt director of the nonprofit Heart for Auto Security, a watchdog group.
If carried out, Musk’s plan for effectivity at NHTSA might mirror what he did when he took over Twitter — draconian workers cuts, stated Missy Cummings, director of the autonomy and robotics middle at George Mason College and a former security adviser to NHTSA.
“It might simply depart it as a shell of the company that it was,” she stated. “Their entire job can be to place out commercials reminding folks to only put on their seat belts.”
Launching check flights out of South Texas, SpaceX’s mega rocket Starship is how NASA intends to land astronauts on the moon for the primary time in additional than a half-century. NASA has awarded greater than $4 billion to SpaceX for the primary two human moon landings arising later this decade underneath the Artemis program. Musk has been at odds with the Federal Aviation Administration for slowing Starship over what he contends is extreme paperwork.
SpaceX additionally has racked up a number of contracts with NASA over the previous decade for launching provides and astronauts to the Worldwide Area Station. The contracts for crew flights alone from 2020 by means of 2030 complete $5 billion.
Extra lately, in June, NASA awarded an $843 million contract to SpaceX to offer the car for deorbiting the Worldwide Area Station on the finish of its lifetime in early 2031, directing it to a fiery re-entry over the Pacific.
SpaceX additionally has a number of contracts with the Protection Division, some labeled and stated to be price billions. As well as, the Pentagon has bought web providers in Ukraine from SpaceX’s Starlink constellation. The militarized model of Starlink is known as Starshield.
The social media platform X is one other Musk firm that has drawn scrutiny from federal regulators. The Federal Commerce Fee has probed Musk’s dealing with of delicate client information after he took management of the corporate in 2022 however has not introduced enforcement motion. The SEC has an ongoing investigation of Musk’s buy of the social media firm.
Musk has been forceful along with his political beliefs on the platform, altering its guidelines, content material moderation methods and algorithms to evolve along with his world view. After Musk endorsed Trump following an try on the previous president’s life final summer time, the platform has remodeled right into a megaphone for Trump’s marketing campaign, providing an unprecedented degree of free promoting that’s all however inconceivable to calculate the worth of.
Musk’s sturdy curiosity in AI can be more likely to play a job. He is within the strategy of constructing an AI supercomputer in Memphis, Tennessee, for his AI startup xAI.
However environmental teams have raised considerations about air pollution generated by the ability’s fuel generators and its pressure on the native energy grid, prompting consideration from the Environmental Safety Company.
The power is positioned close to predominantly Black neighborhoods which have lengthy handled air pollution and well being dangers from factories and different industrial websites.
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AP reporter Adrian Sainz in Memphis, Tennessee, and AP Aerospace Author Marcia Dunn in Cape Canaveral, Florida, contributed to this report.
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