Elon Musk Battles The Leviathan Of The Administrative State

The world’s wealthiest entrepreneur celebrated another milestone in human exploration on the weekend anniversary of Christopher Columbus’ triumphant arrival in the Americas in 1492. But while the Spanish were supportive of the 15th-century explorer’s Atlantic expedition, Elon Musk has faced a cascade of administrative lawfare aimed at thwarting the latest pioneers of human progress.

On Sunday, SpaceX successfully captured a 250-ton reusable rocket booster for the company’s Starship, which is destined to carry crew and cargo to “the Moon, Mars and beyond.” After jetting an arc over the Gulf of Mexico from the southern coastal tip of Texas, the first-stage booster flew back to the launch pad seven minutes later and landed in the tower.

“[A] Big step towards making life multiplanetary was made today,” Musk wrote on X, the online platform formerly known as Twitter, which the billionaire executive has transformed to save free speech.

The episode marked a triumph of innovation with the successful test of the world’s most powerful rocket, which is designed to be refueled and ready for re-launch within an hour. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has commissioned the vehicle for the first crewed mission back to the moon under the government’s Artemis program.

While Musk possesses the confidence of the federal space program when it comes to propelling the nation into the 21st century, the SpaceX CEO has faced obstacles from far-left bureaucrats who are captured by their resentment over Musk’s political activism.

Last week, the California Coastal Commission voted in a 6-4 decision to hamstring Musk’s space ambitions by rejecting SpaceX’s request to increase the number of launches from the Vandenberg Space Force Base. Commissioners cited Musk’s political commentary as the reason for denying the company permission to ramp up activity.

“Elon Musk is hopping about the country, spewing and tweeting political falsehoods and attacking FEMA while claiming his desire to help the hurricane victims with free Starlink access to the internet,” said Democrat Commissioner Gretchen Newsom at a meeting in San Diego.

Musk, who spoke at former President Donald Trump’s most recent rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, shared Federalist reporting earlier this month when amplifying a post from Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, about the Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA) spending millions on illegal immigrants. FEMA allocated nearly $364 million in the 2023 fiscal year and $650 million for the 2024 fiscal year to the “Shelter and Services Program” to “provide humanitarian services to noncitizen migrants following their release from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS),” according to the agency’s own website.

“The Biden-Harris administration took more than a billion tax dollars that had been allocated to FEMA for disaster relief and used it to house illegal aliens,” Jordan wrote in an Oct. 3 post, which Musk reposted. Jordan’s post included a link to The Federalist.

Before West Coast bureaucrats interrupted Musk’s plans for accelerated launches, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) interfered with the SpaceX CEO’s ability to offer Starlink internet services, a move that had devastating consequences in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Helene.

“In 2020, the Federal Communications Commission awarded Musk’s Starlink an $885.5 million award to help get broadband access to 642,000 rural homes and businesses in 35 states,” reported Federalist Editor-in-Chief Mollie Hemingway. “The FCC suddenly canceled that grant in 2022, a few months before Joe Biden suggested that the federal government find ways to go after Musk, a former Democrat who began criticizing some of the Democrat Party’s support of censorship of and lawfare against political opponents.”

“After a challenge from SpaceX, the FCC reaffirmed its decision to cancel the award in 2023,” Hemingway added, just before Hurricane Helene would unleash “Biblical devastation” across southern Appalachia with 40 trillion gallons of rain.

Residents of the hardest-hit areas in the rural south eventually went weeks without substantive support from federal officials, and some communities were left entirely isolated with no power, washed-out roads, and destroyed cell towers.

“Had the FCC not illegally revoked the SpaceX Starlink award, it would probably have saved lives in North Carolina,” Musk wrote on X earlier this month. “Lawfare costs lives.”

“Other agencies also joined Democrats’ anti-Musk efforts,” Hemingway reported this month, noting the myriad investigations from the Department of Justice (DOJ), Federal Trade Commission (FTC), National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and the Fish and Wildlife Service.

“Your last name should not determine how the government treats you, and very clearly that’s what is happening here,” FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr said.

Musk, on the other hand, has remained defiant in spite of the incumbent administration’s hostile persecution of the South African native, and he threatened to sue the California Coastal Commission over the state’s politicized denial of more launches last week.

Tristan Justice is the western correspondent for The Federalist and the author of Social Justice Redux, a conservative newsletter on culture, health, and wellness. He has also written for The Washington Examiner and The Daily Signal. His work has also been featured in Real Clear Politics and Fox News. Tristan graduated from George Washington University where he majored in political science and minored in journalism. Follow him on Twitter at @JusticeTristan or contact him at [email protected]. Sign up for Tristan’s email newsletter here.