Donald Trump's attempt to exact revenge on former advisor Elon Musk by hitting in him the pocketbook has come up short, according a new report from the Wall Street Journal.
Following the tech billionare's departure from being a daily presence in the Trump White House, the relationship between the two men soured to the point where Musk went so far as to post on his social media platform X that the president is in the Jeffrey Epstein files –– which has contributed to the president's latest problems.
As the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday, not long after Musk's departure Trump fired a shot across his bow by using Truth Social to announce that he was contemplating pulling the plug on government contracts with the billionaire's business.
The Journal's Brian Schwartz, Shalini Ramachandran and Micah Maidenberg reported "Just days after President Trump in early June raised the prospect of cutting ties with Musk’s businesses, the Trump administration initiated a review of SpaceX’s contracts with the federal government," adding, "The review was intended to identify potential waste in the multibillion-dollar agreements the company has with the government, the people said."
The report goes on to note that the review revealed that a great many contracts couldn’t be eliminated "because they are critical to the Defense Department and NASA."
The Journal is reporting that spreadsheets labeled as "scorecards" were used to log the value of the contracts and whether Musk's competitors could step in as a replacement.
"Instead of terminating SpaceX contracts after reviewing the data, White House and agency officials, including those at the Pentagon, determined that most of the deals were vital to the missions of the Defense Department and NASA, according to some of the people familiar with the matter. One of the people said some SpaceX contracts could face continued scrutiny," the report notes.
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