Elon Musk Used and then Abused USAID

We're following the money to his personal vendetta...

If there is one thing I’ve learned in my years as a social scientist, it is that people do evolve, but not overnight.

I’m not talking about the Charles Darwin kind of physical evolution. It’s the Pavlovian connection between our brains and our bodies that really fascinates me.¹

All humans do this: We receive an input, process that input, and respond with an output. Then, we naturally assess whether our particular output (read: behavior) was rewarded or whether it needs to be adapted in order to achieve an even better reward.

Rewards come in the form of social affirmations. This can be verbal praise, physical comfort, or financial incentives—they can be any kind of internal or external tingle to our egos that shapes the way we behave both as individuals and as a collective.

My journalism colleagues here at The Injustice Report are going to kindly fire me after my first post for beginning an article so conversational as I drop names of dead scientists. But I do think it’s important to lay this foundation as we look at the story of Elon Musk’s attacks on USAID.

No one wakes up in the morning and points a finger at a random organization and sets out to dismantle its leadership within days. No one takes to social media and chooses to viciously attack humanitarian infrastructure committed to life-saving interventions around the world, calling it a “criminal organization” that should “die.”

These are strong words to be unfounded. So let’s find out why Musk feels this way, shall we?

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Elon Musk Enters Ukraine

Russia attacked Ukraine on February 24, 2022, strategically taking the country offline in order to carry out its military invasion. Russia used a cyberattack that shut down satellite internet in Ukraine (as well as some other parts of Europe), missile strikes on infrastructure, electronic jamming of internet networks, and also forced occupied areas of Ukraine onto Russian-controlled internet.

In a desperate attempt to get the web turned back on, Ukraine reached out to new service providers and found a ready and eager partner in Starlink, Elon Musks’s global satellite internet company run by SpaceX.

Starlink’s arrival in Ukraine broadened the company’s global footprint and secured a critical new market desperate for an internet solution. SpaceX was a welcomed relief for Ukraine’s citizens, but also for its military. This conflict of values would become a central issue for SpaceX as it navigated its direct involvement in a regional war closely watched around the world.

Ukrainian officials never denied that Starlink kept their military online, allowing them to defend themselves against Russian attacks. Ironically, Starlink was offering similar services across the border in Russia, with its military also relying on internet services from Musk’s company.

In 2022, Walter Isaacson was in the process of writing a biography of Musk, shadowing him during a tumultuous year that he began as the richest man in the world and proceeded to lose $200 billion, more than any single person has ever lost in net worth.

Isaacson’s work was published in 2023, and with it emerged damning details of Musk’s private business interests intertwined in geopolitical conflict.

“Starlink is indeed the blood of our entire communication infrastructure now,” said Mykhailo Fedorov, a deputy prime minister of Ukraine to the New York Times in an July 2023 interview.

It appears that as Starlink became a critical asset to Ukraine’s military operations against Russia, Musk began to recognize the risks of being the sole provider of internet infrastructure to a nation in war.

In his book, Isaacson wrote that Musk had personally shared with him, “How am I in this war? Starlink was not meant to be involved in wars. It was so people can watch Netflix and chill and get online for school and do good peaceful things, not drone strikes.”

He wasn’t the only one recognizing the danger of private interests muddying the ethics of active wartime offensives. Musk found himself in meetings with President Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, the chairman of the joint chiefs, General Mark Milley, and the Russian ambassador to the U.S. discussing intercountry concerns.

Meanwhile, Fedorov (above) was communicating with Musk via text message, pleading with him to allow Starlink connectivity for submarine drones off the coast of Crimea.

“I just want you—the person who is changing the world through technology—to know this,” Fedorov told Musk.

Initial reports from Elon Musk suggested that the billionaire had purposely turned off Starlink access at the coast of Ukraine in order to thwart a military operation that planned to take out Russia’s navy. Musk claimed he was genuinely concerned about his product being used to escalate conflict in the region.

Isaacson’s words were retracted after publishing, however, as news of this potential breech in military actions by a private enterprise hit journalism outlets, and Musk suggested that Isaacson had misremembered the events leading to this failed exercise in 2022. According to Musk, the Crimea region was not turned on at all during this time, as SpaceX was attempting to negotiate with the Pentagon to have the U.S. government subsidize internet service for Ukraine.

Still, as these reports surfaced in September of last year, Musk took to X to defend himself, claiming he had no choice to but to reject an emergency request from Ukraine “to activate Starlink all the way to Sevastopol.”

"The obvious intent being to sink most of the Russian fleet at anchor," Musk wrote. "If I had agreed to their request, then SpaceX would be explicitly complicit in a major act of war and conflict escalation."

According to Isaacson, Musk also said, “It would have been like a mini Pearl Harbor and led to a major escalation. We did not want to be a part of that. [Ukraine is] going too far and inviting strategic defeat.”

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Piecing Together the Timeline

It’s difficult to know exactly when and where Starlink was online and when it was disabled at different times during 2022. But one thing is certain: the tech mogul was busy that year.

Here’s a timeline:

• March 22, 2022: Musk announces that he sent thousands of internet satellites to Ukraine, later partnering with USAID.

• October 14, 2022: Musk says SpaceX can’t keep the internet running in Ukraine on its own and asks the Pentagon to pick up the cost.

• October 15, 2022: Musks agrees to continue paying for Starlink internet satellites in Ukraine.

• Undisclosed Date, October 2022: Ukrainian offensive against the Russian navy allegedly thwarted by Starlink transmission inactive in the Crimea region.

• October 27, 2022: Musk finalizes the purchase of Twitter, now X, for $44 billion.

• December 2022: Tesla stocks plummet to worst month ever in company’s history.

Other dates to note:

April 30, 2023:

I shared this screenshot including the X handle so that you can see it is still live and was not altered by me.

June 1, 2023: The Pentagon signed a contract with SpaceX to purchase Starlink satellites for Ukraine, paying the company $23 million USD.

June 2023: Former Defense Department official Gregory C. Allen said, “It has certainly been a long time since we’ve seen a company and an individual like this go pretty openly against U.S. foreign policy in the middle of a war.”

May 14, 2024: USAID’s Inspector General announces an inspection of USAID’s oversight of Starlink terminals provided to Ukraine government.

January 24, 2025: President Trump orders near-total freeze on foreign aid.

January 24, 2025: President Trump dismissed 17 inspectors general from various federal agencies, including the one investigating USAID’s oversight of Starlink terminals.

February 1, 2025: DOGE personnel attempted to access classified information at USAID without proper security clearances, and security officials were placed on leave for attempting to intervene.

February 3, 2025: USAID staff instructed to work remotely to avoid the agency’s headquarters, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio declaring himself the administrator in a move to merge USAID and the State Department.

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The New Pay-to-Play in American Government

It is important to note that the U.S. Government is not the only entity vested in subsidizing Starlink services in Ukraine. The U.K., France, Germany, Poland, Czech Republic, and various NGOs have raised funds or contributed infrastructure to bolster the country’s connectivity since 2022.

It may be also be helpful to view a larger picture of Musk’s net worth in recent years, which was significantly impacted by a $200 billion loss in 2022, no doubt influencing his thinking and decision-making during that year.

Elon Musk’s Net Worth Over the Years

• 2020: $170 billion
  surpasses Mark Zuckerberg, becomes world’s second-richest person

• 2021: $300 billion
  surpassing Jeff Bezos to become the world’s richest person

• 2022: $100 billion
  first time an individual experienced such financial loss

• 2023: $210 billion
  reflects recovery in his business ventures

• 2024: $400 billion+
  first person to achieve this wealth

• 2025: $421 billion
  Only 7 countries in the world have higher annual budgets than Musk’s net worth

Elon Musk has been vocal about his frustration with government bureaucracy, claiming that it slows him down and inhibits the progress of his companies and technology.

For someone who can become laser-focused on a particular issue or technology development, Musk has also been outspoken about his goal to put life on Mars, and sees the red tape of government budgets, congressional approval, and reporting finances an incredible hinderance to his work.

At the same time, the U.S. Government has been his most lucrative client, funding many of his own ideas and initiatives in space. The invention of the Department of Government Efficiency, followed by Trump’s executive order putting Musk in charge of gutting wasteful spending in the government, along with the grip of a single man’s wealth is creating a dangerous precedent of pay-to-play in American politics.

The USAID 2024 Budget was $30.3 billion, about 1% of the total U.S. operating budget. Musk made donations to the Trump Campaign in 2024 totaling at least $290.5 million as reported by the FEC, about 1% of USAID Budget.

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What Can Citizens Do?

We must recognize the massive wealth that encircles Musk’s current role in Washington—a role without precedent and without constitutional authority.

We must also recognize that an overwhelming majority of American voters desire more fiscal prudence within the U.S. government, and over 90% of swing state voters highlighted the federal deficit as a critical campaign issue.

There appears to be such a distaste for “business as usual” at the federal level that voters, especially those who cast a ballot for Trump, are willing to look the other way out of a hunger for a government shakedown.

What these voters may not understand, however, is that many of the programs they rely on every day are funded through government subsidies. Within weeks, they are suddenly waking up to new challenges like missing payments for diabetes medicine, home healthcare, prenatal care, and child development activities.

It is critical that Americans see the current situation in Washington for what it is:

The wealthiest man in the world has purchased his own access to our protected information, occupied the government offices that serve everyday citizens, and coerced compliance to government actions that serve his private business interests.

Here’s what you can do:

1. Call your senators and representatives daily. The 5 Calls app is a great way to easily locate your elected officials and dial their offices directly.
   
   Please note: DO NOT EMAIL OR SEND PAPER MAIL. The staffers in these offices tally PHONE CALLS each day, and voicemails count as a part of the tally.
   
   Here’s a sample script:
   
   Hello, my name is _______ and I am a constituent calling from _______. My address is ____________, and I would like to request my call to be tallied in opposition to Elon Musk and DOGE being given access to the U.S. Treasury’s sensitive information. I am requesting that all congressional acts be halted until order is returned to our constitutional processes for budget and fiduciary oversight retained by Congress at the federal level. Thank you.
   
   And I do mean it. Set your alarms and call every.single.day until order is restored.
   

2. Read up on Citizens United, a 2010 Supreme Court case that ruled in favor of businesses funding political campaigns, allowing corporate interests to greatly disrupt our democratic elections. More on this later, but there’s your homework!
   

3. Brainstorm with me in the comments below! Are you an attorney or someone who knows the law well? What are some ways that citizens as a collective can respond to Musk’s official tasks as an appointed government official with legal action?
   
   In a country where the law is supreme, it’s a slow kind of justice, but what is won in court lasts for generations. I’m eager to hear your thoughts!

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Lauren Pinkston is a researcher with Freedom Business Alliance. She has a PhD from Clemson University and her research pairs human trafficking crises with sustainable business models. She is a specialized consultant for social enterprises, nonprofits, and anti-trafficking initiatives focusing on creative solutions to global and domestic social justice issues. She hosts the "Upwardly Dependent" podcast and writes at her on newsletter, The Mindful Middle. Find out more on her website and follow her on Instagram at @laurenmpinkston.

1. Pavlov was the behavior scientist who studied dogs by ringing a bell every time he fed them. Over time, he could ring a bell and the dogs would begin to salivating, even if there was no food in sight. He proved that external stimuli had physiological impacts on the functioning of our brains and bodies.