Musk's Conflict Of Interest Heading DOD Project

 

Failed Defense Secretary and testosterone pusher Whiskey Pete Hegseth announced yesterday in a speech that looked more like an evangelical revival that South Afrikaner fascist and megalomaniac Elon Musk would be one of a team of three to review future Pentagon weapons systems and technologies of the future.  Joining the South Afrikan white supremacist is far-right loudmouth and failed Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich and tech bro MAGAt Palmer Luckey, brother-in-law of the despicable Matt Gaetz and a virtual reality entrepreneur.  From CNBC:

"The initiative, dubbed Project Meridian, will spend 120 days looking years and decades ahead at how warfare could change and what capabilities the U.S. military will need to maintain a technological edge.

'Project Meridian, the future of warfare, is not about developing new strategies or new policies,' Hegseth said. Instead, he said, its purpose is to 'identify the domains that we must conquer, and capabilities we must master.' [snip]

None of the three co-leads has served in the U.S. military. Musk moved to Canada as a teenager in part, he has said, to avoid compulsory military service in South Africa.

The role puts Musk and Luckey in prime position to help identify the military’s future technology needs while their companies compete for billions in DOD business.

Musk’s SpaceX holds a plethora of Pentagon contracts. In May, the Space Force awarded the company a $4.16 billion contract to build satellites designed to track and target airborne threats, just days after awarding SpaceX another $2.29 billion contract for a military satellite communications network.

Luckey’s Anduril develops autonomous weapons and other military technology. The Marine Corps awarded the company a contract worth up to $642 million in 2025 for counter-drone systems." (our emphasis)

The role of Musk and Luckey in this project reeks of conflict of interest with their Pentagon contracts, and would provide them with advance knowledge of the Pentagon's future plans for weapons development.  Moreover, through this project, they would have the ability to steer technology to be used by the Pentagon toward their business interests.  Gingrich is likely there to be the bloviator for the initiative, accustomed as he is to right-wing media and political figures, but he's also likely to find a way to wet his beak along with the others.

For Musk, at least, this is the reverse of his disastrous DOGE foray into viciously cutting Federal programs, many of which had a role in regulating his businesses, and some for just his white supremacist reasons.  Here, he'll be in a position to feather his own large nest with more Federal funding.  The next Congress should put a halt to the three's participation in this project in the next session by whatever means available.

(photo: Luckey, Gingrich and Musk. What could go wrong? DOD X)