By Marisa Taylor
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -An influential conservative suppose tank has requested the Nationwide Aeronautics and Area Administration to reveal what staff are discussing internally about billionaire Elon Musk and former President Donald Trump, in keeping with federal information reviewed by Reuters.
The hassle, involving scores of Freedom of Info requests filed by the Heritage Basis, is a part of that group’s ongoing push to assist Trump weed out uncooperative civil servants if he’s reelected to the White Home in November, certainly one of its executives advised Reuters.
It is usually meant to find out, within the conservative group’s view, whether or not businesses like NASA are thwarting progress for personal firms like SpaceX, Musk’s rocket and satellite tv for pc enterprise. In an interview, Mike Howell, director of the Heritage Basis’s investigative unit, argued that NASA and different regulators impede innovation as a result of they’re distracted by cultural and identification politics.
“Instead of cool things in space,” Howell stated, NASA is “doing all this woke stuff on the ground.”
Specialists in authorities administration stated the requests are a partisan try to establish civil servants who oppose Trump’s acknowledged plan to nominate the enterprise mogul, and frequent critic of regulatory forms, as a authorities effectivity czar. In that place, they added, Musk might assist the previous president reintroduce a plan from his first time period to exchange federal staff deemed ideologically opposite to his administration.
“This is clearly part of the Heritage Foundation’s endeavor to find people who are critical of Trump and Musk and put them on an undesirables list,” stated Kel McClanahan, a Washington lawyer and specialist on federal employment. “To install loyalists, they have to figure out who to get rid of.”
There isn’t any indication that Musk or the Trump marketing campaign have a hand within the Heritage Basis’s quest for NASA information.
Cheryl Warner, a NASA spokesperson, confirmed in an e mail that the company had obtained an “unprecedented amount” of open document requests from the Heritage Basis, together with about 150 requests in a two-day interval.
The company, she stated, responds to all such requests “on a first come, first serve basis.”
“Our team has been working hard to be responsive as quickly as possible, as required by regulation,” Warner added.
Musk didn’t reply to requests for remark.
A spokesperson for Trump’s marketing campaign didn’t reply to Reuters’ questions concerning the data requests, however stated that solely the previous president and his advisers, “NOT any other organization,” characterize his proposals for a second time period.
‘MISTREATING’ MUSK
Since Sept. 3, in keeping with information reviewed by Reuters, the Heritage Basis has filed at the very least 192 open information requests with NASA. The filings embrace requests for worker communications that reference both of the 2 males or Musk firms, together with carmaker Tesla (NASDAQ:) and SpaceX, a enterprise that has earned greater than $11.8 billion in contract work with the house company.
Howell stated he was uncertain what number of responses NASA has provided in response to the filings. The requests, he added, are a part of a broader marketing campaign of greater than 65,000 requests by the Heritage Basis in recent times in search of inside discussions about Trump and problems with import to the group. On Wednesday, ProPublica reported about that effort.
The Heritage Basis, based mostly in Washington, has cheered Musk’s high-profile enterprise actions, together with his 2022 acquisition of X, the social media web site then referred to as Twitter. Howell stated the muse has additionally filed data requests with federal regulation enforcement businesses to find out if they’re “mistreating” Musk. “We want to make sure that the weaponized government is not being pointed at him,” he stated.
A White Home spokesperson didn’t reply to requests for remark.
The Heritage Basis has had shut ties with the previous president since at the very least 2016, when it suggested Trump’s transition group forward of his transfer into the White Home.
Extra lately, it has gained consideration because the supply of “Project 2025,” an initiative seen by political insiders as a playbook for a conservative overhaul of the federal authorities throughout a second Trump time period. Trump has sought to distance his marketing campaign from the undertaking, though he nonetheless touts a few of its proposals.
As a part of Challenge 2025, the muse compiled a roster of hundreds of conservatives Trump might put in to federal positions by reviving an govt order, referred to as “Schedule F,” he launched close to the tip of his presidency. The order, later rescinded by President Joe Biden, would have stripped many civil servants of longstanding job protections.
The information reviewed by Reuters present that “Heritage Foundation,” “Schedule F” and “Project 2025” are additionally among the many phrases included within the NASA communications requests.
Musk has endorsed Trump and is financing a political motion committee supporting Republican causes. The tycoon has grown more and more crucial of federal forms, particularly the businesses that regulate SpaceX and his different companies. On Wednesday, Reuters reported that Musk has been financing one other conservative political group since at the very least 2022.
In current months, Trump has repeatedly stated he’ll appoint Musk to go a authorities effectivity fee. Final month on X, Musk wrote: “I look forward to serving America if the opportunity arises.”
The federal authorities is the nation’s largest employer, with greater than 2 million civilian staff, in keeping with the nonpartisan Partnership for Public Service.
