White House condemns Musk, but government is addicted to him – Times of India

WASHINGTON: The White House denounced Elon Musk on Friday for “abhorrent promotion of antisemitic and racist hate,” for his endorsement of what an administration spokesperson called a “hideous lie” about Jews.All of which might make one think the Biden administration was going to try to pull back from doing business with the world’s richest person. Except that, in recent weeks, the US government has become more dependent on him than ever, agreeing to as much as $1.2 billion worth of SpaceX launches next year to put crucial Pentagon assets, including spy and command-and-control satellites, into space.And in September, the Pentagon agreed to pay millions of dollars for Starshield, a new, secure communications system Musk’s company has set up for the nation’s defence and intelligence systems, relying on the same clusters of Starlink satellites that have proved vital to Ukraine’s military during the war with Russia.In private, administration officials say the Starlink satellites are critical to deterring China because they are far more resistant to Chinese efforts to disable them than the Pentagon’s own communications satellites.These are only the latest examples of why the federal government has no viable way to break up with Musk, at least as long as the US decides it is going to continue space exploration and deter its biggest superpower rivals. It may denounce him and declare that all Americans should reject his views. But it needs him, or at least his rockets and his satellites, more than ever. And the White House and Pentagon both know that.Rarely has the US government so depended on the technology provided by a single, if petulant, technologist with views that it has so publicly declared repugnant. And yet, officials say they have no choice – and will not for a while. Because there are, right now, few viable alternatives.This level of dominance has already brought expressions of concern from some members of Congress and investigators at the Senate Armed Services Committee.”Serious national security liability issues have been exposed,” Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., said in September. “Neither Elon Musk, nor any private citizen,” he said, “can have the last word when it comes to US national security.”