How Trump Saved Elon: The USAID Starlink Probe Cover Up

Trump’s gutting of USAID came amid USAID IG’s investigation involving Musk’s company

Donald Trump’s dramatic and vile dismantling of USAID came as USAID’s inspector general was conducting an investigation involving Musk’s company, Starlink. In three steps, Trump’s administration killed the investigation that was sure to embarrass Elon’s company.

As a good friend once told me, there are no coincidences in politics.

Back in September, United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Inspector General Paul K. Martin testified before the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Oversight and Accountability. The name of the hearing was “Foreign Policy, Interrupted: How Fraud, Waste, and Abuse Blunt America’s Impact Abroad.”

In his testimony, IG Martin announced he had launched an investigation involving Starlink satellite terminals in Ukraine. Starlink is owned by Elon Musk through his aerospace company, SpaceX.

“We are examining… USAID’s oversight of Starlink Satellite Terminals provided to the Ukrainian government… When completed, we look forward to sharing the findings of these reports with the subcommittee.”

—USAID Inspector General Paul K. Martin, Sept 26, 2024

Martin testified to the committee, “In addition to another ongoing audit on direct budget support, we are examining USAID’s Energy Security Project, USAID’s oversight of Starlink Satellite Terminals provided to the Ukrainian government, and USAID’s efforts to protect against sexual exploitation and abuse in Ukraine. When completed, we look forward to sharing the findings of these reports with the subcommittee.”

But the investigation involving Musk’s company is effectively dead, and whatever damning information the investigation would have revealed to the public about Starlink has been covered up for good.

Here’s how Trump helped save Elon Musk’s company from a potentially embarrassing investigation by USAID’s inspector general.

Step 1: Trump fires the inspectors general.

Late in the night on January 24, Trump fired 17 independent watchdog inspectors general. ABC News notes that the IG firings were a recommendation of Project 2025. The Trump Administration made the move in secret on a late Friday night and did not release a list of the 17 IGs it had fired. Trump was required to provide Congress 30 days notice before firing the IGs. He did not do that. Trump was required to replace the IGs with watchdogs previously confirmed by the Senate. He did not do that.

Step 2: Trump puts USAID under loyalist control.

Trump then made his secretary of state, Marco Rubio, acting administrator of USAID. “As an interim step… President Donald J. Trump appointed Secretary Marco Rubio as Acting Administrator” of USAID, the department said in a statement. Rubio quickly delegated USAID operations to his deputy who previously worked at USAID. His plan? Destroy USAID from the inside. CNN reported Rubio “delegated authority to Pete Marocco, a Trump appointee who served at USAID in the president’s first term and has been accused by aid groups and officials of intentionally dismantling the organization.” Marocco had authored the State Department’s directive that froze almost all foreign aid.

“With regards to the USAID stuff, I went over it with (the president) in detail and he agreed that we should shut it down.” –Elon Musk, Monday on X

Step 3: USAID, under Trump loyalists’ control, dismantles.

CBS News reports today that all but 294 of USAID’s 14,000 employees will be fired tomorrow. “Nearly all staff for… USAID will be placed on leave Friday night, the agency announced on its website Tuesday night. Earlier in the day, all overseas missions for USAID had been ordered to shut down, and all staff recalled by Friday, multiple sources confirmed to CBS News.”

Less than five months after the USAID IG announced an investigation involving Musk’s company, the IGs are gone, USAID is all but gone, and Musk is running the country. What was Musk so desperate to cover up that 13,700 Americans were fired and food was taken from starving people across the world??

We may never know.