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
නවතම පුවත්
වියාචනය: XM Group සමාගම් ක්රියාත්මක කිරීම පමණක් වන සේවා සපයන අතර වෙබ් අඩවියේ හෝ වෙබ් අඩවිය හරහා ලබා ගත හැකි අන්තර්ගතය බැලීමට සහ/හෝ භාවිත කිරීමට පුද්ගලයෙකුට ඉඩ සලසමින් අපගේ මාර්ගගත වෙළඳ පහසුකම වෙත ප්රවේශය ලබා දෙන අතර වෙනස් කිරීමට හෝ පුළුල් කිරීමට අදහස් නොකරයි. එවැනි ප්රවේශය සහ භාවිතය සෑම විටම (i) නියමයන් සහ කොන්දේසි, (ii) අවදානම් අනතුරු ඇඟවීම් සහ (iii) සම්පූර්ණ වියාචනයට යටත් වේ. එබැවින් එවැනි අන්තර්ගතයක් සාමාන්ය තොරතුරුවලට වඩා වැඩි යමක් සපයා නොමැත. විශේෂයෙන්ම, අපගේ මාර්ගගත වෙළඳ පහසුකමේ අන්තර්ගතය පෙළඹවීමක් හෝ මූල්ය වෙළඳපොළවල කිසිදු ගනුදෙනුවක් සිදු කිරීමට ඉදිරිපත් කිරීමක් නොවන බව කරුණාවෙන් සලකන්න. ඕනෑම මූල්ය වෙළඳපොළක වෙළඳාම් කිරීම ඔබේ ප්රාග්ධනයට සැලකිය යුතු අවදානමක් එක් කරයි.
අපගේ මාර්ගගත වෙළඳ පහසුකමේ ප්රකාශිත සියලු කරුණු අධ්යාපනික/තොරතුරුමය අරමුණු සඳහා පමණක් අදහස් කෙරෙන අතර මූල්ය, ආයෝජන බදු හෝ වෙළඳ උපදෙස් සහ නිර්දේශයන්; හෝ අපගේ වෙළඳ මිල පිළිබඳ වාර්තාවක්; හෝ ඕනෑම මූල්ය උපකරණයක ඉදිරිපත් කිරීමක් හෝ ඒ සඳහා පෙළඹවීමක්; හෝ විශේෂ ඉල්ලීමකින් තොරව ඔබ වෙත ලබා දෙන ලද මූල්ය ප්රවර්ධනයන් ලෙස නොසැලකිය යුතුය.
ඕනෑම තෙවන පාර්ශවීය අන්තර්ගතයක් මෙන්ම XM විසින් සකසන ලද අන්තර්ගතය එනම් අදහස්, පුවත්, පර්යේෂණ, විශ්ලේෂණ, මිල ගණන් සහ වෙනත් තොරතුරු හෝ මෙම වෙබ් අඩවියේ අන්තර්ගත තෙවන පාර්ශවීය වෙබ් අඩවි සඳහා සබැඳි සාමාන්ය වෙළඳපොළ විවරණයක් ලෙස "පවතින පරිදි" සපයා ඇති අතර එහි ආයෝජන උපදෙස් ඇතුළත් නොවේ. ඕනෑම අන්තර්ගතයක් ආයෝජන පර්යේෂණයක් ලෙස අර්ථ දක්වා ඇති ප්රමාණයට, ආයෝජන පර්යේෂණයේ ස්වාධීනත්වය ප්රවර්ධනය කිරීමට නිර්මාණය කර ඇති නෛතික අවශ්යතාවලට අනුකූලව අන්තර්ගතය සකසා නොමැති බවත් එලෙස අරමුණු කර නොමැති බවත් ඔබ සලකා පිළිගත යුතු අතර එබැවින් එය අදාළ නීති සහ රෙගුලාසි යටතේ අලෙවිකරණ සන්නිවේදනයක් ලෙස සලකනු ලැබේ. ඉහත සඳහන් තොරතුරු සලකා මෙතනින් ප්රවේශ විය හැකි, ස්වාධීන නොවන ආයෝජන පර්යේෂණ සහ අවදානම් අනතුරු ඇඟවීම පිළිබඳ අපගේ දැනුම්දීම ඔබ කියවා තේරුම් ගෙන ඇති බව සහතික කර ගන්න.
