Just a day or two before Kamala Harris lost the 2024 election to Donald Trump, MSNBC's Rachel Maddow was on the air calling for Kamala, whom she expected to win instead, to cancel every single one of the federal government's contracts with Elon Musk because of his support for Donald Trump.
In Maddow's eyes, Musk is now a national security threat since he represents Big Business and Trump represents Big Government. Merging the two together is textbook fascism, the merger of the private sector with the public sector.
"If Trump doesn't win, the Defense Department and NASA are going to need a new arrangement for all their rockets," Maddow fumed on her show. "And for all the multibillion-dollar contracts Elon Musk's companies have with the U.S. government."
"The U.S. government is going to have to either, I mean, unwind from all of those contracts, or Elon Musk's companies are going to have to unwind from him. This is an untenable reality in national security terms, now that we know what we know about Elon Musk."
(Related: Remember when MSNBC guest Rick Wilson called for the political donor class to "put a bullet in Donald Trump?")
Musk benefits from massive federal tax incentives, subsidies
On this particular matter, Maddow's concerns may be warranted. Musk has risen in the ranks over the years to become one of the world's most influential businessmen, with much of his business being propped up by government subsidies.
Right now, Musk's companies, including SpaceX and Tesla, have "extensive links with the U.S. government," to even quote the right-leaning, Musk-supporting media.
"SpaceX has secured major contracts with NASA for cargo resupply and crewed missions to the International Space Station," it was reported. "The company also provides satellite launch services to the Department of Defense, and its Starlink system supports military communications."
"Meanwhile, Tesla benefits from federal tax incentives for electric vehicles and works on energy storage projects with the government. All these contracts have a combined worth of around $15 billion."
The question remains, though, as to whether or not Maddow's fears will be justified or if Trump has different plans for his next term than how things seem on the surface. Time will tell.
Keith Olbermann feels as Maddow does, that Musk is a national security threat, and he wants Musk to be arrested and deported, even though Musk is a naturalized U.S. citizen.
Back in September, former Labor Secretary Robert Reich wrote a column for The Guardian urging "global regulators" to arrest Musk unless he agrees to do what the left wants him to do rather than the right.
"Regulators around the world should threaten Musk with arrest if he doesn't stop disseminating lies and hate on X," Reich tweeted at the time.
"Global regulators may be on the way to doing this, as evidenced by the 24 August arrest in France of Pavel Durov, who founded the online communications tool Telegram, which French authorities have found complicit in hate crimes and disinformation."
In the comments, people were somewhat supportive of Maddow's concerns with one of them calling for all revolving-door and other cushy setups between government and private industry to come to an end, Musk included.
"Cancel every revolving-door job between DoD, DHS, CIA, FBI, and the legacy media," this person wrote.
"MSNBC needs to be cancelled," suggested another. "All they do is tell lies."
"What do you call rule by a secret society of criminals which calls itself 'The National Security State?'" asked another. "The Unconstitutional State of America, not a democracy."
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