President-elect Trump has been making some fantastic picks for his cabinet. He has been shaking the ground with many of his selections striking fear into the hearts of crony capitalists from either party. It’s truly exciting to see top notch people getting placed in positions of power. Trump has promised to drain the DC swamp and by most accounts, it looks like he intends to make good on that promise.
That is why his appointment of Elon Musk to an advisory panel is troubling to say the least.
Musk is famous for great speeches and flashy companies. His ventures, Tesla, Solar City, and SpaceX are cutting edge cool, but they don’t work without a constant influx of government cash. According to the Los Angeles Times Musk has built a multi-billion-dollar empire on the backs of taxpayers to the tune of $4.9 Billion in government cash.
So, it’s not surprising that with Trump charging into the White House, Mr. Musk has come to call. It is surprising that Trump appears to have taken the bait by giving Musk a sweet appointment. The shocking part is because Musk was an adamant Hillary supporter actually maxing out his gifts to her and being and outspoken #nevertrump proponent.
Musk is a crony-capitalist of the worst ilk. He plays both side of the aisle and wraps it all up in fanciful oratory about colonizing Mars. American’s literally eat it up. Musk is so popular you would think he was the real Tony Stark. His latest dazzling promise was to send colonists to Mars by 2024 (for $200K a one-way ticket). No guarantees you will make it alive, and no, Musk won’t be joining you on the trip. Have fun being the first Martians.
The lofty interstellar goal of living on Mars is inspired by Star Wars and Star Trek dreams and comes with an out of this world price tag…about $10 billion. Rockets are expensive and Musk has plans to blow up a few more of them as he pretends to be colonizes the red planet. The last rocket that blew, the Falcon 9, cost several hundred million in lost cargo alone. Musk actually blames that on real Martian sabotage, but that’s another story.
Sadly, Trump seems to be cozying up to Musk and entertaining the idea of financing Musk’s project. Musk has been a strong critic of Trump’s immigration plan, coming out strongly against a wall. Musk wants to ease immigration standards rather than strengthen them. Maybe Trump and Musk found common ground by immigrating some of America’s richest folks to Mars, we could start with the Hollywood elite.
Too bad the whole thing is a fool’s errand likely to cost the hard-working people who voted for Trump another $10 billion or more!
We know why Musk needs Trump. It is unclear what Trump gets from his association with Musk in return. Massive amounts of elicit cash flow through government/private entity partnerships as witnessed in all three of Musk’s companies. With NASA poised to make a jump to light speed with the new administration, Musk is angling for his spot in the space missions of the future. He’s proven to be a great salesman.
Hopefully, Trump will see that Musk simply may be selling snake oil dreams of Martian colonies. Being the hard negotiator that Mr. Trump is, I have no doubt that architects are currently drawing up sketches of just what Trump Tower Mars will look like. We will know to worry if we see Don Jr. or Eric Trump put down deposits on tickets to Mars.
Draining the swamp of DC doesn’t include placing one of the biggest cronies in the country in a position of power. If Trump wants to join Musk in his venture to the stars…he should do it with his own cash and leave the government out of it.
Our government can’t even run our airports well…how do you think a spaceport will turn out?
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