Mike Whitaker, the former head of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), resigned on Inauguration Day 2025 after public intimidation by Elon Musk on X/Twitter1. Musk’s pressure campaign began not long after Whitaker alleged that the firm launched rockets without the proper federal licenses, for which the FAA fined SpaceX $633,0092. Hundreds of commercial flights across the globe have been forced to delay and redirect3 over the past few years because of last-minute changes to SpaceX’s launch schedule, and due to space debris from previous launches falling back to earth. Most recently, their “Starship” rocket exploded in the skies above the Caribbean Sea on January 16th, 2025, with reports of public property damage from falling debris in Turks and Caicos4.
Its contentious relationship with FAA aside, SpaceX is a firm that collects billions in federal funds 5 (our money) each year while its leader skirts federal regulations and intimidates federal workers (our authority). This is seemingly based on vague and outlandish promises of colonizing Mars by a man who somehow now leads an initiative on government efficiency. The reality is that SpaceX could vanish tomorrow and few Americans would ever notice. The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)’s low approval ratings6 suggest that, under two weeks into Trump’s term, many would rejoice were it to disappear. On the other hand, we are already seeing that people across race, gender, ability and ideological spectra are going to sorely miss the federal agencies and programs Trump, Musk, Vance, Thiel, et al are targeting: the FAA, FCC, FTC, FEMA, CDC, the Department of Education, Social Security, Medicare, on and on, which provide services and protections to massive portions of the American public. As it continues to cripple federal agencies, DOGE will become increasingly unpopular as Americans start losing access to government services we never gave much thought. The goal of ‘deregulation’ has been to allow would-be robber barons and oligarchs to collect as much public money as possible while destroying public institutions under the guise of ‘efficiency’.
Blaming Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
Early reports show that the air traffic control tower at Reagan National was understaffed7 when an Army helicopter collided with American Airlines flight 5342, the first such mid-air crash in sixteen years. In an attempt to misdirect the press and public from asking obvious questions about staffing levels and his own role in demoralizing, distracting, and dismantling an entire agency committed to safe air travel mere days before the incident, the president turned to the old Southern Strategy playbook that got him elected. He stoked division and deflected blame toward differently abled folks, nonwhite folks, women, queer & trans folks, and immigrants.
“DEI” is the current catch-all dog whistle on the right; the surest and easiest way they have to distract from the execution of their politics of grievance, personal enrichment, and political retaliation. The right-wing’s decades-long narrative trajectory from “welfare queen” to “DEI hire” says it all—for the people at the very top, its not really about whether black women or members of any other historically marginalized group have jobs. The current administration leverages racism and sexism to sow chaos and stoke division so they can loot the treasury and make their power durable.
“We Will Coup Whoever We Want”
This is what deregulation and the dismantling of public institutions looks like in practice—they socialize the risks and harms (e.g. falling space trash), while privatizing the rewards. They find agencies that protect non-billionaires bothersome, and have scammed tens of millions of poor and middle class voters into believing that the government is incapable of doing anything useful for them. They win mostly by tricking people into acting against their interests, purging and suppressing votes8, and demoralizing the opposition. They are acting quickly and decisively because they know they have limited time unless they take total control now; our institutions failed to hold them accountable the last time they attempted a coup, and gave them years to prepare another.
We are in an era where billionaires can openly buy elections and threaten to oust politicians9 that stand in the way of their whims and priorities. And if you’re wondering why people with net worths in the of hundreds of billions of dollars don’t just go away and enjoy their wealth, it’s because the goal is domination and the consolidation of power. They have long passed the threshold where increases in net worth can improve an individual’s quality of life. What they really they want is to widen the gap between their wealth (and power) and everyone else’s. The point is to create a class of individuals beyond the law. Musk’s Nazi salute during Trump’s inauguration, performed twice on national television, was a sign of support to far right extremists across the globe. But more than that, it was apparently a celebration that he personally can do anything he wants without oversight or consequence. Musk is following through on a boast made in 2020, after a Twitter user suggested that a U.S.-backed coup against Bolivian president Evo Morales Ayma was related to his desire to access the country’s lithium reserves for use in Tesla batteries: “We will coup whoever we want! Deal with it.”10
Media coverage related to the public, horrific loss of life on AA flight 5342 may be what ultimately saves the necessary regulatory functions of the FAA in the weeks to come. In the meantime, a whole host of equally necessary institutions remain besieged by a twice-impeached, convicted felon president and his various fiscal sponsors.
References
- @elonmusk. “He needs to resign.” Twitter, September 25, 2024. https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1838978117072805999?lang=en. Accessed February 3, 2025. ↩︎
- Nazarra, Miranda. “SpaceX rebukes FAA chief’s safety criticism”. The Hill, September 25, 2024. https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/4898579-spacex-faa-safety-violations/. Accessed February 3, 2025. ↩︎
- Rogelberg, Sasha. “Elon Musk’s SpaceX is still causing flight delays years after a single rocket launch disrupted 563 planes.” Fortune, January 15, 2025. https://fortune.com/2025/01/15/elon-musk-spacex-rocket-debris-causing-flight-delays/#. Accessed February 3, 2025. ↩︎
- Sheets, Michael and Leslie Joseph.”SpaceX’s Starship explodes in flight test, forcing airlines to divert” CNBC, January 17th, 2025. https://www.cnbc.com/2025/01/17/faa-grounds-spacex-starship-reports-property-damage-in-caribbean.html. Accessed February 3, 2025. ↩︎
- Root, Al. “How Elon Musk Gets Money From the Federal Government”. Barron’s, November 11, 2024. https://www.barrons.com/articles/elon-musk-companies-money-federal-government-0683b7d9. Accessed February 3, 2025. ↩︎
- McDonagh, Shannon. “Poll: Americans Skeptical of Musk Leading Trump’s Efficiency Drive”. Newsweek, January 24, 2025. https://www.newsweek.com/poll-elon-musk-trump-doge-efficiency-support-2020326. Accessed February 3, 2025. ↩︎
- Moench, Mallory. “Air traffic control staffing ‘not normal’ during DC crash”. BBC News, February 2, 2025. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cq5gyx09pj8o. Accessed February 3, 2025. ↩︎
- Palast, Greg. “Trump Lost. Vote Suppression Won. Here are the numbers.” The Hartman Report, January 24, 2025. https://www.gregpalast.com/trump-lost-vote-suppression-won/. Accessed February 3, 2025. ↩︎
- Sykes, Charlie. “GOP faces test with Elon Musk’s threat to fund primary challengers for Trump detractors” MSNBC, December 13, 2024. https://www.msnbc.com/top-stories/latest/trump-elon-musk-primary-republican-ethics-rcna184139. Accessed February 3, 2025. ↩︎
- Prashad, Vijay and Alejandro Bejarano. “‘We Will Coup Whoever We Want’: Elon Musk and the Overthrow of Democracy in Bolivia”. CounterPunch, July 29, 2020. https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/07/29/we-will-coup-whoever-we-want-elon-musk-and-the-overthrow-of-democracy-in-bolivia/. Accessed February 3, 2025. ↩︎