Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk — by far the wealthiest person on the planet with a net worth in excess of nearly $380 billion — is now benefiting from new government contracts while simultaneously terminating other contracts.
That's according to policy analyst Will Stancil, who obtained a filing purportedly from a federal grant database showing that SpaceX was awarded a $38.8 million contract from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) this week. That contract is for "research and development in the physical, engineering and life sciences," and NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center is listed as the contracting office on file.
"Just got a tip from a guy at the FAA," Stancil tweeted. "You'll never believe who is still getting new government contracts while all the contracts at the Department of Education and USAID and other agencies are being nuked from orbit."
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The apparent new contract for SpaceX comes on the heels of a recent ABC News report delving into how Musk's multiple businesses have received billions of dollars in federal contracts even as representatives of his "Department of Government Efficiency," or DOGE (which is not yet an official federal agency authorized by Congress) are terminating contracts throughout multiple agencies. Over the course of former President Joe Biden's administration alone, SpaceX accumulated roughly $3.7 billion worth of federal contracts between fiscal years 2021 and 2024.
At the same time, Musk's team has claimed credit for terminating roughly $1 billion in federal contracts since President Donald Trump gave him carte blanche to make steep cuts to federal spending. This includes approximately $270 million from cutting off more than 100 contracts just in the last week, according to DOGE's official social media account.
During his Tuesday press conference in the Oval Office (with Trump sitting silently at the Resolute Desk), a reporter asked Musk if him being tasked with looking into terminating contracts awarded by the Department of Defense — whose recipients include many of Musk's business competitors — constitutes a conflict of interest. Musk responded by saying: "I'm not filing the contract. It's the people at SpaceX."
"And I'd like to say, if you see any contract where it was awarded to SpaceX and it wasn't by far the best value for money for the taxpayer, let me know," Musk added.
Mobile, Alabama-based reporter Brady Petree summed up the exchange by tweeting: "'I'm not filing the contract. It's the people at SpaceX.' — the CEO of SpaceX." Daily Kos writer Emily C. Singer called it "infuriating" to watch "the richest man in the world steal from all of us while taking in billions in federal funding." And former Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reporter Tom Haudricourt opined that Musk's response was a "bulls--- answer," as SpaceX is "HIS company."
"He’s such an evil little conflicted liar, not even the South African accent makes it go down smoother," New York University law professor Michael Kasdan tweeted.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt maintained that Musk himself would be the judge of whether any of the federal contracts awarded to his companies would create a conflict of interest. She insisted that Musk "has abided by all applicable laws."
"If Elon Musk comes across a conflict of interest with the contracts and the funding that DOGE is overseeing, then Elon will excuse himself from those contracts," she said.