Why would Musk do this? It seems notable that one of Musk’s heroes is the current president of Argentina, Javier Milei, who has been credited with taking a “chainsaw” to the nation’s government. Milei, an avowed “free market,” “anti-woke” libertarian, took office in December of 2023, and has instituted what he calls an “austerity” budget, characterized by economic “shock treatment.” This strategy has involved making deep cuts to government spending on social welfare programs, devaluing the peso, and cutting thousands of government jobs, all in the hope of some vague libertarian glowup in the near to far future.
Trump overspends because he doesn’t know the value of money. Elon wants money and the government has the most of it. Starlink is a government funding machine that soaks up all the space budget. But NASA has been bearing the brunt of budget cuts each year since they retired the STS shuttle, so Elon wants that defense budget via the NRO. Trump founded the Space Corps and believes in the vague idea of “space is future” that Elon pumps out and will overspend trying to make that happen. Elon’s plan is to directly receive government money.
Trump is so dumb as to not understand details, easily persuaded, and has unlimited money that Elon sees him as the best way to get space seed money.