Conservative think tank targeting NASA employees' communications about Musk, Trump
By Marisa Taylor
WASHINGTON, Oct 4 (Reuters) -An influential conservative think tank has asked the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to disclose what employees are discussing internally about billionaire Elon Musk and former President Donald Trump, according to federal records reviewed by Reuters.
The effort, involving scores of Freedom of Information requests filed by the Heritage Foundation, is part of that organization's ongoing push to help Trump weed out uncooperative civil servants if he is reelected to the White House in November, one of its executives told Reuters.
It is also meant to determine, in the conservative group's view, whether agencies like NASA are thwarting progress for private companies like SpaceX, Musk's rocket and satellite venture. In an interview, Mike Howell, director of the Heritage Foundation's investigative unit, argued that NASA and other regulators obstruct innovation because they are distracted by cultural and identity politics.
"Instead of cool things in space," Howell said, NASA is "doing all this woke stuff on the ground."
Specialists in government administration said the requests are a partisan attempt to identify civil servants who oppose Trump's stated plan to appoint the business mogul, and frequent critic of regulatory bureaucracy, as a 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 deemed ideologically contrary to his administration.
"This is clearly part of the Heritage Foundation's endeavor to find people who are critical of Trump and Musk and put them on an undesirables list," said Kel McClanahan, a Washington lawyer and specialist on federal employment. "To install loyalists, they have to figure out who to get rid of."
There's no indication that Musk or the Trump campaign have a hand in the Heritage Foundation's quest for NASA records.
Neither NASA nor Musk responded to requests for comment. A spokesperson for Trump's campaign didn't respond to Reuters' questions about the information requests, but said that only the former president and his advisors, "NOT any other organization," represent his proposals for a second term.
"MISTREATING" MUSK
Since Sept 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 companies, including carmaker Tesla and SpaceX, a business that has earned more than $11.8 billion in contract work with the space agency.
Howell said he's unsure how many responses NASA has supplied in response to the filings. The requests, he added, are part of a broader campaign of more than 65,000 requests by the Heritage Foundation in recent years seeking internal discussions about Trump and issues of import to the group. On Wednesday, ProPublica reported about that effort.
The Heritage Foundation, based in Washington, has cheered 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 filed information requests with federal law enforcement agencies to determine if they are "mistreating" Musk. "We want to make sure that the weaponized government is not being pointed at him," he said.
A White House spokesperson didn't respond to requests for comment.
The Heritage Foundation has had close ties with the former president since at least 2016, when it advised Trump's transition team ahead of his move into the White House.
More recently, it has gained attention as the source of "Project 2025," an initiative seen by political insiders as a playbook for a conservative overhaul of the federal government during a second Trump term. Trump has sought to distance his campaign from the project, although he still touts some of its proposals.
As part of Project 2025, the foundation compiled a roster of thousands of conservatives Trump could put into federal positions by reviving an executive order, known as "Schedule F," he introduced near the end of his presidency. The order, later rescinded by President Joe Biden, would have stripped many civil servants of longstanding job protections.
The records reviewed by Reuters show that "Heritage Foundation," "Schedule F" and "Project 2025" are also among the terms included in the NASA communications requests.
Musk has endorsed Trump and is financing a political action committee supporting Republican causes. The tycoon has grown increasingly critical of federal bureaucracy, especially the agencies that regulate SpaceX and his other businesses. On Wednesday, Reuters reported that Musk has been financing 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 America if the opportunity arises."
The federal government is the country's largest employer, with more than 2 million federal civilian employees, according to the nonpartisan Partnership for Public Service.
Editing by Paulo Prada
Laatste nieuws
Disclaimer: De entiteiten van de XM Group bieden diensten en toegang tot ons online handelsplatform op basis van uitsluitend-uitvoering, waardoor een persoon de beschikbare content op of via de website kan bekijken en/of gebruiken, zonder dat dit is bedoeld voor wijziging of uitbreiding. Dergelijk(e) toegang en gebruik vallen onder: (i) de algemene voorwaarden; (ii) risicowaarschuwingen; en de (iii) volledige disclaimer. Dergelijke content wordt daarom alleen aangeboden als algemene informatie. Wees u er daarnaast vooral van bewust dat de inhoud op ons online handelsplatform geen verzoek of aanbieding omvat om transacties op de financiële markten uit te voeren. Het beleggen op welke financiële markt dan ook vormt een aanzienlijk risico voor uw vermogen.
Alle materialen die op ons online handelsplatform worden gepubliceerd zijn bedoeld voor educatieve/informatieve doeleinden en omvatten geen – en moeten niet worden beschouwd als het bevatten van – financieel, vermogensbelastings- of handelsadvies en aanbevelingen, of een overzicht van onze handelsprijzen, of een aanbod of aanvraag van een transactie in financiële instrumenten of ongevraagde financiële promoties voor u.
Alle content van derden, alsmede content die is voorbereid door XM, zoals opinies, nieuws, onderzoeken, analyses, prijzen en andere informatie of koppelingen naar externe websites op deze website worden aangeboden op een 'zoals-ze-zijn'-basis, als algemene marktcommentaren, en vormen geen beleggingsadvies. Voor zover dat content wordt beschouwd als beleggingsonderzoek, moet u zich ervan bewust zijn en accepteren dat de content niet bedoeld was en niet is voorbereid in overeenstemming met de wettelijke vereisten die zijn opgesteld om de onafhankelijkheid van beleggingsonderzoek te bevorderen en als zodanig onder de geldende wetgeving en richtlijnen moet worden beschouwd als marketingcommunicatie. Zorg ervoor dat u onze Mededeling over niet-onafhankelijk beleggingsonderzoek en risicowaarschuwing in verband met de voorgaande informatie doorneemt en begrijpt; die kunt u hier lezen.
