SpaceX: Conservative think tank targeting NASA employee communications about Elon Musk and Donald Trump

An influential conservative think tank has called on the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to reveal what employees are discussing internally about the billionaire. Elon Musk and former president donald trumpaccording to federal records reviewed by Reuters.

The effort, which involves dozens of Freedom of Information requests filed by the Heritage FoundationIt is part of that organization’s ongoing effort to help Trump weed out uncooperative public officials if he is re-elected to the White House in November, one of its executives told Reuters.

It also aims to determine, in the opinion of the conservative group, whether agencies such as POT are frustrating the progress of private companies like SpaceXMusk’s rocket and satellite company. In an interview, Mike Howell, director of the Heritage Foundation’s research unit, argued that NASA and other regulators obstruct innovation because they are distracted by cultural and identity politics.

“Instead of cool stuff in space,” Howell said, NASA is “doing all this woke stuff on Earth.”

Government management specialists said the requests are a partisan attempt to identify public officials who oppose Trump’s stated plan to name the business magnate, and frequent critic of regulatory bureaucracy, as government efficiency czar. In that position, they added, Musk could help the former president reintroduce a plan from his first term to replace federal employees considered ideologically opposed to his administration.

“This is clearly part of the Heritage Foundation’s effort to find people critical of Trump and Musk and put them on a list of undesirables,” said Kel McClanahan, a Washington attorney and federal employment specialist. “To install loyalists, they have to decide who to get rid of.”

There is no indication that Musk or the Trump campaign had anything to do with the Heritage Foundation’s search for NASA records. NASA spokeswoman Cheryl Warner confirmed in an email that the agency had received an “unprecedented number” of open records requests from the Heritage Foundation, including about 150 requests in a two-day period.

The agency, he said, responds to all such requests “on a first-come, first-served basis.”

“Our team has been working hard to respond as quickly as possible, as required by regulation,” Warner added.

Musk did not respond to requests for comment.

A spokesperson for Trump’s campaign did not respond to Reuters’ questions about the requests for information, but said that only the former president and his advisers, “NOT any other organization,” represent his proposals for a second term.

MUSK ‘MALTREATING’

Since September 3, according to records reviewed by Reuters, the Heritage Foundation has filed at least 192 open records requests with NASA. The filings include requests for employee communications that reference either of the two men or Musk’s companies, including automaker Tesla and SpaceX, a company that has earned more than $11.8 billion in contract work with the company. space agency. Howell said he was not sure how many answers NASA has provided in response to the filings. The requests, he added, are part of a broader campaign of more than 65,000 requests made by the Heritage Foundation in recent years seeking internal discussions about Trump and issues of importance to the group. On Wednesday, ProPublica reported on that effort. The Washington-based Heritage Foundation has applauded Musk’s high-profile business activities, including his 2022 acquisition of X, the social media site then known as Twitter. Howell said the foundation has also submitted information requests to federal law enforcement agencies to determine whether they are “mistreating” Musk. “We want to make sure that the armed government does not target him,” he said.

A White House spokesperson did not respond to requests for comment.

The Heritage Foundation has had close ties to the former president since at least 2016, when it advised Trump’s transition team before he arrived at the White House. More recently, he has gained attention as the source of “Project 2025,” an initiative seen by political experts as a manual for a conservative overhaul of the federal government during a second Trump term. Trump has tried to distance his campaign from the project, although he still promotes some of his proposals. As part of Project 2025, the foundation compiled a list of thousands of conservatives Trump could place in federal jobs by reviving an executive order, known as “Schedule F,” that he introduced near the end of his presidency. The order, later revoked by President Joe Biden, would have stripped many public officials of long-standing job protections.

Records reviewed by Reuters show that “Heritage Foundation,” “Schedule F” and “Project 2025” are also among the terms included in NASA communication requests.

Musk has endorsed Trump and is funding a political action committee that supports Republican causes. The tycoon has become increasingly critical of federal bureaucracy, especially the agencies that regulate SpaceX and his other businesses. On Wednesday, Reuters reported that Musk has been funding another conservative political group since at least 2022.

In recent months, Trump has repeatedly said he will appoint Musk to head a government efficiency commission. Last month on X, Musk wrote: “I look forward to serving the United States if the opportunity arises.”

The federal government is the country’s largest employer, with more than 2 million civilian employees, according to the nonpartisan Partnership for Public Service.