Trump Administration Turbocharges Musk’s Space Ambitions
Reporter Austin Ahlman warns that the Trump administration is aggressively advancing Elon Musk’s Starlink monopoly over global communications, urging regulators to counterbalance his growing dominance.
Since taking power, the Trump administration has moved aggressively to entrench Elon Musk’s monopoly over low earth orbit communication. An alarming report in the Washington Post indicates the Trump administration is escalating that effort even further by using Trump’s threats to impose enormous tariffs to push foreign nations to adopt Musk’s satellite internet company Starlink.
Investors have taken notice of the administration’s maneuvering. Despite the broad chaos unleashed by Trump’s trade war, the stock price of SpaceX, of which Starlink is a subsidiary, has surged 80% since election day. Those gains also reflect other regulatory moves that are set to sharply raise the amount of direct federal funding Starlink receives, expand its ability to partner with cellular communications providers, and greatly increase the number of satellites the company can maintain in limited low earth orbit space. Those actions stand to greatly expand Musk’s already pervasive influence over U.S. and international information systems. (Musk also owns the social media platform X.)
Last week, the Federal Communications Commission also took a step toward boosting Musk’s monopoly by opening a proposed rulemaking process. The action came in response to a petition by Starlink seeking to relax limitations on signal frequencies, potentially bolstering the speed and reach of Starlink’s current fleet of satellites—by far the largest network in the world. The petition was opposed by most of Starlink’s potential global competitors.
The new rulemaking process follows recent comments by FCC Chair Brendan Carr, who told the Financial Times in April that U.S. and European competitors to Starlink are not progressing quickly enough. Carr also said other nations need to choose between U.S.- and Starlink-dominated system or a Chinese alternative.
In March, the Department of Commerce signaled its intention to reverse course and award Starlink as much as half of the over $40 billion set aside by former President Biden’s bipartisan infrastructure bill to increase rural broadband access. Opting for subsidized satellite delivery in underserved areas over expansions of fiber optic networks will greatly tilt the playing field toward the former delivery method for years to come.
Earlier in March, the FCC boosted Starlink’s ability to partner with cellular communications providers by significantly increasing the power limit on connections between Starlink satellites and cellular devices. As cellular providers move to eliminate coverage dead zones altogether by further integrating with satellite networks, Musk’s Starlink monopoly stands to give him considerable leverage over legacy cellular services.
Looming behind these recent changes is a second, even more radical, Starlink proposal. Another open petition seeks to increase the number of satellites Starlink is allowed to maintain in low earth orbit over four-fold, from around 7,000 today to nearly 30,000 over the next few years. If Starlink does manage to launch that many satellites, it is unclear whether another entrant could ever create a competitive network, given hard restraints on the number of objects in low earth orbit. As with the recent proposal to increase Starlink’s connection strength, the move is opposed by most of Starlink’s potential competitors in the U.S. and Europe.
In particular, Amazon’s Project Kuiper stands to lose significantly. Last month, the corporation partnered with United Launch Alliance to launch its first fully functional set of satellites into low earth orbit as part of plans to build a network of over 3,000 in the coming years. Notably, the Musk rival had previously indicated an interest in broadening partnerships in Europe.
The Biden administration took a more restrained yet broadly hands-off approach to regulating low earth orbit satellite markets. Biden’s Department of Commerce demurred on giving Starlink access to the same rural broadband funds the Trump administration appears ready to funnel its way. And according to a source familiar with the failed acquisition talks, the Biden Department of Defense maneuvered to block Blue Origin from acquiring United Launch Alliance last year, a move that would have merged SpaceX’s only two domestic heavy launch competitors. But then-FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel declined to use the Commission’s broad authority to investigate Starlink’s growing monopoly, though she did decline to rubber stamp its requests as Carr is now doing.
The Trump administration’s aggressive advocacy for Starlink illustrates the need for more urgency from lawmakers and regulators wary of Musk’s growing power over the world’s communications networks. The European Commission and individual European governments must promote alternative players in the market, including by continuing to scale up their own low earth orbit capacities. They should also exercise tighter oversight of Starlink’s operations and partnerships on the continent. In the U.S., meanwhile, Congress should begin fundamentally rethinking its stance toward Musk’s space empire, potentially by breaking up SpaceX and Starlink or pursuing a regulatory framework that treats satellites in low earth orbit as the essential public infrastructure they are.
This article was featured in The Corner Newsletter: May 9th, 2025
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