Trump – Musk fallout continues as White House probes SpaceX deals: report

The bitter public feud between Donald Trump and Elon Musk continues to simmer as the White House ordered the Defense Department and NASA to review billions of dollars’ worth of contracts awarded to the Tesla (TSLA) CEO’s SpaceX business, Reuters reported.

Citing four people familiar with the matter, the publication said that the Trump administration has called for the investigation to prepare for possible retaliatory action against Musk and his businesses.

The review is “for political ammunition,” one of the people said. Reuters previously reported that SpaceX is at risk of losing a key role it was expected to play in an ambitious new U.S. missile defense system called “Golden Dome” due to the Trump-Musk public spat.

It is not immediately clear if the White House plans to terminate any of the roughly $22B in federal contracts awarded to SpaceX. SpaceX or Defense Department officials did not respond to requests for comments.

This week, Musk, who also owns neurotechnology firm Neuralink and generative artificial intelligence startup xAI, among others, expressed regret over some of the social media posts directed at Trump, noting, “They went too far.”