An analyst says that a MAGA power struggle has ensued over President Donald Trump's pick and Elon Musk — and now "loyalties are being tested."
Musk, the richest man in the world who has previously called himself "first buddy," criticized Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, Trump's pick for interim administrator of National Aeronautics and Space Administration, writes Salon's Sophia Tesfaye. The move reveals how "the team he assembled has been besieged by a series of internal disputes. Now another MAGA power struggle has spilled into public view, laying bare the movement’s dissonance about power and progress."
"Musk, who had a rather messy departure from his official government role in May, is once again making waves with a social media broadside against another Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy," Tesfaye writes. "With Trump’s man is under attack by the MAGA movement’s favorite billionaire, loyalties are being tested."
At the center of the friction is Musk's Spacex 2021 $2.9 billion contract for the Human Landing System (HLS) technology and NASA's decision last year to delay further moon missions.
"The agency’s current plan requires SpaceX’s Starship to be refueled in space, a feat that has never been accomplished. The company has tested Starship 11 times," Tesfaye writes. "'SpaceX had the contract for Artemis III,' Duffy said. 'The problem is they’re behind. They push their timelines out, and we’re in a race against China. The president and I want to get to the Moon in this president’s term.'"
SpaceX and Blue Origin reportedly have until this Wednesday to ramp up the project. But the timing — with midterms coming — adds an additional challenge as the Republican Party tries to maintain its control in Congress.
"Trump loyalists in the White House are picking Musk’s side in this duel, blaming Duffy for biting the multi-billion-dollar hand that bankrolls MAGA," Tesfaye writes.
It's further created in-fighting among MAGA and “those closest to the president appear to be livid,” according to NOTUS.
“Duffy picking a fight with Elon doesn’t sit well with a lot of people because Elon is going to be a pretty big factor in the midterms,” a senior White House official told the Washington Free Beacon.