Trump and Musk have a lot to lose to each other

In the crackling quarrel between Trump and Musk, the latter could not let it be put to the table on Thursday evening. « Immediately » he would « Dragon, » a space vehicle from his company SpaceX, take out.

NASA depends on the Dragon to transport astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS). At the moment there are some American astronauts – you can imagine that some eyebrows went up in the space station. (Later in the evening, Musk withdrew this threat after an X user Musk and Trump had advised to ‘cool off’.  » Good advice ‘, said Musk.)

How far are Trump and Musk, after the spectacular implosion of their alliance, willing to go when harming the other? Since Thursday evening, this question has been above the NASA space program, but just as well about the enormous business empire of Musk. Both can be great damage due to the fight.

The two may have come apart furiously, there are countless tires between the US government and the companies of Musk. Just like Musk, Trump could not let it threaten with a break in this area. Canceling all contracts with Musks companies would « be the easiest way to save money », a clear sneer to Musks obsession with the US government deficit – with which the whole riot had just started.

Musks companies could cost this billions. Exactly how much is at stake is hard to say, but it is certain that space company SpaceX For many billions in government contracts has. This is mainly about similarities with NASA space agency: that is ultra-dependent from SpaceX rockets, which has a dominant position in the American space industry and is deeply interwoven with NASA.

The Ministry of Defense also needs SpaceX to get satellites the space. In April it concluded a deal of $ 5.9 billion for this. And to name just an example: some embassies are dependent on the SpaceX satellite network Starlink for their internet connection.

The close ties between SpaceX and the US government are already going back to 2006, when the virtually unknown company had a first contract for goods transport to the International Space Station, thus The New York Times.

SpaceX is now a billion -dollar company. It officially does not announce any figures and does not have to do that, because it is in the hands of Musk itself. He said only a few days ago that he expected that sales would come to 15 billion dollars this year. In addition, he seemed to assume the current deals with the US government.

Not to the moon

If it really comes to a break, that would have serious consequences for the American space ambitions. At the moment, NASA does not have another reliable way to travel to and from the ISS. Plans to get people to the moon again are also highly dependent on SpaceX.

Less attaches are the ties with Tesla, the car company where Musk himself has just over 10 percent of the shares and that he is a top man. In recent years, this has received just over $ 350,000 in government contracts.

Nevertheless, Tesla can suffer a lot of damage due to the fight, something that investors also anticipated the enormous price fall on Thursday evening. Musk needs the help of the government in all sorts of ways with plans he himself has with Tesla. For example, he wants smoother legislation for self -driving cars, to be able to expand Tesla into a major player in this area. His contacts with Trump could help with this, was generally the expectation.

Tesla is also highly dependent on purchase grants that help customers buy electric cars. It also earns a lot of money from selling a kind of emission credits on other car brands that are less clean. Trump has previously threatened to abolish this system, so that this source of income for Tesla would disappear.

Tesla also has countless examinations and lawsuits on his pants from various federal agencies. Among other things, investigations into various accidents with Tesla’s ‘Autopilot’ are ongoing. For some analysts it was expected that some of these issues might disappear from the agenda because of Musks good ties with the White House.

Personally, the two may be apart, financially it is not nearly the case – and both have a lot to lose. Or rather: Has Musk has already lost a lot. Due to Tesla’s price fall, he himself lost more than $ 20 billion, estimated Forbes.

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