Because, as one of Donald Trump’s senior advisors and funders, and we are told a key member of any future Trump administration, with deep ties to the military and intelligence communities, and a top secret clearance, of course he is.
Privatize the Space program they said. It’ll be more efficient, they said.
Is there anyone on the Trump team who is not talking regularly to Putin?
Attn: Merrick Garland
Elon Musk, the world’s richest man and a linchpin of U.S. space efforts, has been in regular contact with Russian President Vladimir Putin since late 2022.
The discussions, confirmed by several current and former U.S., European and Russian officials, touch on personal topics, business and geopolitical tensions.
At one point, Putin asked the billionaire to avoid activating his Starlink satellite internet service over Taiwan as a favor to Chinese leader Xi Jinping, said two people briefed on the request.
Musk has emerged this year as a crucial supporter of Donald Trump’s election campaign, and could find a role in a Trump administration should he win. While the U.S. and its allies have isolated Putin in recent years, Musk’s dialogue could signal re-engagement with the Russian leader, and reinforce Trump’s expressed desire to cut a deal over major fault lines such as the war in Ukraine.
At the same time, the contacts also raise potential national-security concerns among some in the current administration, given Putin’s role as one of America’s chief adversaries.
Musk has forged deep business ties with U.S. military and intelligence agencies, giving him unique visibility into some of America’s most sensitive space programs. SpaceX, which operates the Starlink service, won a $1.8 billion classified contract in 2021 and is the primary rocket launcher for the Pentagon and NASA. Musk has a security clearance that allows him access to certain classified information.
Knowledge of Musk’s Kremlin contacts appears to be a closely held secret in government. Several White House officials said they weren’t aware of them. The topic is highly sensitive, given Musk’s increasing involvement in the Trump campaign and the approaching U.S. presidential election, less than two weeks away.
Musk didn’t respond to requests for comment. The billionaire has called criticism from some quarters that he has become an apologist for Putin “absurd” and has said his companies “have done more to undermine Russia than anything.”
During his campaign swing through Pennsylvania last week, Musk talked about the importance of government transparency and noted his own access to government secrets. “I do have a top-secret clearance, but, I’d have to say, like most of the stuff that I’m aware of…the reason they keep it top secret is because it’s so boring.”
A Pentagon spokesman said: “We do not comment on any individual’s security clearance, review or status, or about personnel security policy matters in the context of reports about any individual’s actions.”
One person aware of the conversations said the government faces a dilemma because it is so dependent on the billionaire’s technologies. SpaceX launches vital national security satellites into orbit and is the company NASA relies on to transport astronauts to and from the International Space Station.
“They don’t love it,” the person said, referring to the Musk-Putin contacts. The person, however, said no alerts have been raised by the administration over possible security breaches by Musk.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the only communication the Kremlin has had with Musk was over one telephone call in which he and Putin discussed “space as well as current and future technologies.”
UPDATE:
Court documents released last week by the US District Court for the Northern District of California shed light on shareholders and investors involved with Elon Musk’s X Holdings Corp, disclosing who helped to finance his $44 billion (€40 billion) acquisition of the platform formerly known as Twitter in 2022.
The filing, obtained by the Washington Post, lists around 100 entities and individuals, including prominent Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, but also individuals that reportedly have links to Russian oligarchs.
Lawyers for the nonprofit Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press filed a motion in July asking the court to unseal the records, on behalf of independent technology journalist Jacob Silverman.
On his website, Silverman wrote that, “I believe that people have a right to know who owns a company with such a prominent role in shaping public discourse, both in the United States and around the world.”
One of firms listed is 8VC, a venture capitalist company co-founded by Joe Lonsdale, co-founder of intelligence contractor and data analysis platform Palantir.
8VC has invested in US defense projects with Lonsdale arguing that China’s growing influence is behind his firm’s move to back military startups.
Speaking at an event in March, Lonsdale said China is “building really advanced things that they’re starting to compete with the US.”
“That became a very scary realization to us about 10 years ago so we went hard into defense,” he said.
On the fund’s website, Denis Aven and Jack Moshkovich pop up in the staff section — the sons of sanctioned Russian oligarchs Petr Aven and Vadim Moshkovich. The former is co-founder of Alfa-Bank, Russia’s largest private bank, and LetterOne Holdings investment company. He’s been sanctioned as part of the measures imposed on Russian individuals in the wake of Russia’s war against Ukraine.
Don’t wake him up! He needs his sleep.
“the reason they keep it top secret is because it’s so boring.”
No words.
Is this what ketamine does to people?
While I am no longer a fan of Musk (IMHO, he went over to the dark side when he became political), there is no law in the west which declares that a citizen is not able to communicate with Putin, or anyone else. Something similar arose more than 40 years ago when Carl Sagan visited Andrei Sakharov in Gorky Park. At the time, many people were asking stupid questions like “Is Sagan an commie?” why forgetting that this was just a private conversation by two scientists irrespective of their governments. Sun Tzu is credited with the phrase “Keep your friends close; keep your enemies closer.” and I think this makes perfect sense in the nuclear age.
The problem is that Musk is a bit more than a ‘citizen’. He’s directly in charge of several industries with a major influence on geopolitics (SpaceX, X, and Starlink chiefly) and he has a personal and large influence with a U.S. Presidential candidate. He initially supported Ukraine after the Russian invasion, then he walked backed that support verbally (although he still allows Starlink to operate in Ukraine).
https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2024-10-26/heres-a-look-at-elon-musks-reported-contact-with-russian-president-putin-and-why-it-matters
“Last year, Musk mocked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s request for aid and said in February that Ukraine couldn’t win the war.”
Mightn’t talks with Putin have influenced Musk?
With Starlink, Musk could alter the tide of both Ukraine AND Taiwan:
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/what-to-know-about-elon-musks-reported-phone-calls-with-putin-and-why-it-matters
“Musk’s remarks about China have been friendly and he’s largely toed Beijing’s political lines. He has suggested Taiwan cede some control to Beijing by becoming a special administrative region.”
There is no law that says Musk can’t contact Putin, yes. Is there still at least some reason to be concerned in the West if/that he is doing so? Let’s say Harris wins in November. Could it be assumed with certainty that Musk would support her Administration and international policies (and therefore U.S. interests) in all cases? Or might Musk be tempted to side with the Russians on occasion? Perhaps, allow Starlink for Russian troops while claiming publicly he hasn’t done so? (Already possibly the case.)
We don’t know with certainty what he will do, he has largely unprecedented private influence over global matters, and Musk hasn’t exactly been assuring lately that he would be supportive of U.S policy under all circumstances.
“Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the only communication the Kremlin has had with Musk was over one telephone call in which he and Putin discussed “space as well as current and future technologies.”
If only the Putin regime didn’t lie about everything, all the time.