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
تازہ ترين خبريں
دستبرداری: XM Group کے ادارے ہماری آن لائن تجارت کی سہولت تک صرف عملدرآمد کی خدمت اور رسائی مہیا کرتے ہیں، کسی شخص کو ویب سائٹ پر یا اس کے ذریعے دستیاب کانٹینٹ کو دیکھنے اور/یا استعمال کرنے کی اجازت دیتا ہے، اس پر تبدیل یا توسیع کا ارادہ نہیں ہے ، اور نہ ہی یہ تبدیل ہوتا ہے یا اس پر وسعت کریں۔ اس طرح کی رسائی اور استعمال ہمیشہ مشروط ہوتا ہے: (i) شرائط و ضوابط؛ (ii) خطرہ انتباہات؛ اور (iii) مکمل دستبرداری۔ لہذا اس طرح کے مواد کو عام معلومات سے زیادہ کے طور پر فراہم کیا جاتا ہے۔ خاص طور پر، براہ کرم آگاہ رہیں کہ ہماری آن لائن تجارت کی سہولت کے مندرجات نہ تو کوئی درخواست ہے، اور نہ ہی فنانشل مارکیٹ میں کوئی لین دین داخل کرنے کی پیش کش ہے۔ کسی بھی فنانشل مارکیٹ میں تجارت میں آپ کے سرمائے کے لئے ایک خاص سطح کا خطرہ ہوتا ہے۔
ہماری آن لائن تجارتی سہولت پر شائع ہونے والے تمام مٹیریل کا مقصد صرف تعلیمی/معلوماتی مقاصد کے لئے ہے، اور اس میں شامل نہیں ہے — اور نہ ہی اسے فنانشل، سرمایہ کاری ٹیکس یا تجارتی مشورے اور سفارشات؛ یا ہماری تجارتی قیمتوں کا ریکارڈ؛ یا کسی بھی فنانشل انسٹرومنٹ میں لین دین کی پیشکش؛ یا اسکے لئے مانگ؛ یا غیر متنازعہ مالی تشہیرات پر مشتمل سمجھا جانا چاہئے۔
کوئی تھرڈ پارٹی کانٹینٹ، نیز XM کے ذریعہ تیار کردہ کانٹینٹ، جیسے: راۓ، خبریں، تحقیق، تجزیہ، قیمتیں اور دیگر معلومات یا اس ویب سائٹ پر مشتمل تھرڈ پارٹی کے سائٹس کے لنکس کو "جیسے ہے" کی بنیاد پر فراہم کیا جاتا ہے، عام مارکیٹ کی تفسیر کے طور پر، اور سرمایہ کاری کے مشورے کو تشکیل نہ دیں۔ اس حد تک کہ کسی بھی کانٹینٹ کو سرمایہ کاری کی تحقیقات کے طور پر سمجھا جاتا ہے، آپ کو نوٹ کرنا اور قبول کرنا ہوگا کہ یہ کانٹینٹ سرمایہ کاری کی تحقیق کی آزادی کو فروغ دینے کے لئے ڈیزائن کردہ قانونی تقاضوں کے مطابق نہیں ہے اور تیار نہیں کیا گیا ہے، اسی طرح، اس پر غور کیا جائے گا بطور متعلقہ قوانین اور ضوابط کے تحت مارکیٹنگ مواصلات۔ براہ کرم یقینی بنائیں کہ آپ غیر آزاد سرمایہ کاری سے متعلق ہماری اطلاع کو پڑھ اور سمجھ چکے ہیں۔ مذکورہ بالا معلومات کے بارے میں تحقیق اور رسک وارننگ ، جس تک رسائی یہاں حاصل کی جا سکتی ہے۔
