SebastianBlue
President, International Julian Alvarez Fan Club
- Joined
- 25 Jul 2009
- Messages
- 57,736
I never said that the US was not currently somewhat dependent on SpaceX (by the by, the way he secured those NASA payload contracts is currently under review), but that doesn’t conflict with SpaceX’s huge dependence on US government funding, both contract guarantees and subsidies. There’s more spending on low earth orbit satellite delivery being proposed, as well, and Trump could see that increase substantially.I’m not so sure that’s true and that it’s far more symbiotic than that!
Tesla is the lowest cost EV manufacturer in the USA. Trump is not interest in theEV subsidies and Musk likes that, as it makes the new slate of US EVs much more expensive. Throw in Trump’s China tariffs and the prohibition on Chinese EVs in the U.S., and you NOW have Musk’s wet dream: No higher quality/lower priced Chinese competition and U.S. manufacturers whose new union contracts and new EV infrastructure costs are years behind Tesla!
Now, throw in SpaceX, the de facto “new-NASA” payload rocket producer, which theUS seem incapable of living without, and Musk has theYS over the barrel.
His rocket return concept was considered pie-in-the-sky technology…until he did it numerous times, both inland and floating docks out in the ocean!!!
No, I think Musk knows EXACTLY what he’s doing and is far more libertarian in his personal views, but non-union, protectionist in his professional views…and that squares with Trump far more than Harris today.
And I actually class the likely massive tariffs Trump will impose on Chinese imports as subsidies for Musk (that go beyond just Tesla). That is because they almost always effectively are for whichever industry is being protected (at the price of consumers). I would also add that Trump could make things much, much easier on Tesla from a regulatory standpoint, including dropping quite a few high profile safety, quality, and harassment investigations currently ongoing.
My post was also intentionally short. I could put on my trained economist hat and go in to a pretty extensive deep dive in to how dependent Tesla and SpaceX were and are on government funding of various types, as well as a laundry list of illegal activity and practices he has used to keep both afloat over the years (and have done so in other discussions on here) but I thought I would spare everyone another diatribe.
I would just encourage anyone that is interested in the many reasons why Musk has decided to back Trump to read this excellent write up on the subject: