Summary
Elon Musk, co-leading Trump’s “Department of Government Efficiency,” could influence U.S. broadband funding to benefit Starlink, his satellite internet company.
The Biden administration’s $42.45 billion BEAD program prioritizes fiber optics for rural broadband, but Starlink has been excluded for failing to meet performance standards.
Musk has criticized the program as wasteful and could push for funding delays or reallocation, benefiting Starlink as the only option in underserved areas.
Critics warn this shift favors Musk’s financial interests over reliable fiber infrastructure, raising conflict-of-interest concerns.
This just in, politicians can use their power for self-enrichment.
The people who this might be news to are already so disillusioned.
As an aside, I don’t think the new department will actually do anything, it’ll just find projects with weird goals and claim they can save us all $100 million. Wow, big money. The Pentagon has failed literally every audit with billions unaccounted for with no repercussions, every single year since we even started checking in 2017. This is not “well it’s classified so they can’t tell us”, this is the Pentagon acknowledging they have ~$4 TRILLION in physical assets and about half are unaccounted for.