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Under Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s leadership, the State Department appears to have become a tool to serve Elon Musk’s business interests.
Rubio has overseen the dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development and the closure of an office that’s been crucial to the fight against foreign disinformation, which is to say: He has taken a sledgehammer to some of the department’s crucial missions worldwide.
Meanwhile, a new report from The Washington Post suggests his State Department has launched a new project of sorts: getting foreign nations — particularly, nations who may want to curry favor with the U.S. amid Trump’s destructive tariff war — to adopt Musk’s Starlink internet service.
The Post obtained an internal State Department memo suggesting that the country of Lesotho, which Trump mocked at this year’s joint address to Congress by saying no one has ever heard of it, was hoping that its recent Starlink deal would lead to tariff relief.
The Post quotes the memo as saying:
As the government of Lesotho negotiates a trade deal with the United States, it hopes that licensing Starlink demonstrates goodwill and intent to welcome U.S. businesses.
The report says Lesotho is one of several countries that have granted Starlink access while trying to navigate Trump’s tariffs. And it details how the administration has pushed for nations to reach such deals amid the tariff talks, though they haven’t demanded it. According to the Post:
A series of internal government messages obtained by The Post reveal how U.S. embassies and the State Department have pushed nations to clear hurdles for U.S. satellite companies, often mentioning Starlink by name. The documents do not show that the Trump team has explicitly demanded favors for Starlink in exchange for lower tariffs. But they do indicate that Secretary of State Marco Rubio has increasingly instructed officials to push for regulatory approvals for Musk’s satellite firm at a moment when the White House is calling for wide-ranging talks on trade.
It’s easy to see how other nations might conclude that reaching agreements to do business with a company run by Musk, the president’s top campaign donor in 2024, might earn them some tariff relief. And for the record, the State Department didn’t even deny that it’s hawking Musk’s service, telling the Post:
Starlink is an American-made product that has been game-changing in helping remote areas around the world gain internet connectivity. Any patriotic American should want to see an American company’s success on the global stage, especially over compromised Chinese competitors.
No acknowledgment there of the obvious conflict of interest in this case.
It would be one thing if Starlink were simply the best internet service available, but I’ve written about the federal government’s previous determinations about Starlink’s shortcomings, so the fact that the State Department seems to have a specific interest in promoting the service to foreign nations feels like a favor to Musk over all else.
Keep in mind: This is all being carried out by the same conservative movement that accused Hunter Biden of unethically using his father’s name to prop up his art business. The same Republican Party that portrayed itself as a defender of free market capitalism as it complained about the Obama administration picking winners and losers in certain industries.
This movement is now led by someone who turned the White House lawn into a showroom to promote Musk’s Tesla company, whose administration is quickly implementing Starlink across federal agencies, and whose State Department is urging foreign countries to adopt the service, as well.
Republicans seem to know how unethical this all is, even if they won’t admit it. Last month, I wrote about Republicans changing House rules to prevent Democrats from forcing votes on whether to investigate various Trump administration scandals — including Musk’s conflicts of interests.
It looks like Republicans would rather turn a blind eye to this obvious issue.