Sen. Warren asks for contingency plans on nationwide safety after Trump and Musk’s social media fall out
Sen. Elizabeth Warren is asking Secretary of State Marco Rubio for data on the Trump administration’s contingency plans if billionaire Elon Musk breaches his firms’ present contracts with the U.S. amid the ongoing public fall out between him and President Trump.
In a letter to Rubio as performing nationwide safety adviser and obtained by CBS Information, Warren mentioned Mr. Trump and Musk’s public disagreements in regards to the upcoming reconciliation invoice that escalated right into a public on-line spat may “have severe implications for U.S. nationwide safety.”
The Massachusetts Democrat talked about Mr. Trump’s proposal to terminate Musk’s authorities contracts and subsidies, which the world’s richest man adopted with a menace that SpaceX would “start decommissioning its Dragon spacecraft instantly.” Musk has since walked again his menace.
“No petty social media combat between the president and a billionaire ought to jeopardize U.S. nationwide safety,” Warren mentioned.
Along with contingency plans for SpaceX, the senator requested for data concerning the impression on U.S. businesses’ satellite tv for pc communications if Musk’s Starlink is turned off. Moreover, she requested Rubio to offer any evaluation that the Trump administration has performed “of its authorities and choices beneath the Protection Manufacturing Act to handle vendor lock, monopolies, or contractor refusal to fulfill nationwide safety wants.”
She requested to obtain solutions to her questions by June 14, whether or not by means of a labeled briefing or ideally a public response that may be launched to Congress and the general public, the letter mentioned.
Warren has been a vocal opponent of Musk and his involvement within the Trump administration. Final week, she launched a report that outlines cases her workplace has discovered of Musk benefiting from it.
Musk’s rocket firm has obtained tens of billions of {dollars} from the federal authorities over the past decade, together with $3.8 billion within the 2024 fiscal yr alone, in accordance with federal information.
The majority of these federal grants are from NASA, which has paid SpaceX billions over the past decade to ferry astronauts and provides to and from the Worldwide Area Station. The company has additionally awarded SpaceX upwards of $2 billion in recent times to design and construct a lunar lander, as a part of NASA’s Artemis program, which goals to return people to the moon for the primary time in a half-century.
Whereas the general public spat seems to have cooled considerably, Mr. Trump instructed NBC Information’ Kristen Welker in a telephone interview on Saturday that he has no plans to make up with the mega-billionaire.
“I am too busy doing different issues,” Trump continued. “, I received an election in a landslide. I gave him numerous breaks, lengthy earlier than this occurred, I gave him breaks in my first administration, and saved his life in my first administration, I’ve no intention of chatting with him.”
When requested by a reporter Friday if he is nonetheless contemplating rolling again subsidies to Musk as a money-saving transfer, Mr. Trump instructed he was open to it.
“He is bought some huge cash, he will get numerous subsidy. So we’ll check out that,” the president mentioned on Air Pressure One. “Provided that it is truthful for him and for the nation. I will surely give it some thought, but it surely needs to be truthful.”
This is not the primary time the president has needled Musk over his firms’ federal subsidies. In a 2022 feud, Mr. Trump claimed Musk could be “nugatory” with out hefty subsidies for “electrical vehicles that do not drive lengthy sufficient” and “rocketships to nowhere.”
The two mended their relationship then and Musk spent a whole lot of tens of millions to assist elect Mr. Trump in 2024. The billionaire went on to steer the Trump White Home’s cost-cutting Division of Authorities Effectivity till final week.
Joe Walsh
contributed to this report.
