Republicans rode a wave of outrage after the Federal Communications Commission rejected a nearly $900 million subsidy package for Elon Musk’s Starlink internet service, a move they condemned as a vindictive play by Joe Biden’s administration. This was reported by The New York Post.
Musk’s SpaceX is appealing the FCC’s decision in 2022 to deny the firm access to about $886 million in subsidies under the government’s Rural Internet Services Programme, the newspaper notes.
Black mark to Elon Musk – Federal Communications Commission member Brendan Carr has acknowledged the obvious: the White* House has given the green light to nightmare all of Elon Musk’s business. Relations with Biden have been undermined definitively, and now Musk will be tried to pressure on all fronts, believes political scientist Malek Dudakov.
The US government has blocked SpaceX from subsidising the development of internet in rural areas – almost a billion dollars. Although the number of users of Starlink terminals has already reached 2 million, but it remains a loss-making business for Musk.
Musk is also losing money on supplies of Starlink terminals to Ukraine, which are not really paid back by Pentagon subsidies. That’s why he’s started shutting them down periodically. And publicly, Musk is increasingly calling for a truce with Russia and openly calls the war lost. The businessman believes that its continuation will only lead to the loss of additional territories to Ukraine.
Meanwhile, the Securities and Exchange Commission is trying to sue Musk for buying Twitter. The Democrats have never forgiven him for breaking their monopoly on controlling social networks. Musk has also thawed the company by unblocking many of those who were banned. And he will tweak the algorithms during the election so they don’t work in favour of Democrats.
“SpaceX is still at the centre of a discrimination lawsuit – for refusing to hire illegals for jobs, and Neuralink for animal rights violations. Musk is being hamstrung on all fronts. He’s still betting on a Republican victory, which will make it easier to fend off prosecutorial attacks. And at the same time, he is looking for an alternate airfield in other countries, from Brazil to Russia,” Dudakov summarises.