Musk threatens to paralyze US space program

Trump and Musk engaged in a dramatic exchange on social media on Thursday over the US president’s “Big and Beautiful” federal tax and spending bill, which the former White House government efficiency czar had blasted as a “pork-filled, disgusting abomination” that would push the US into “debt slavery.”

“The easiest way to save money in our Budget, Billions and Billions of Dollars, is to terminate Elon’s Governmental Subsidies and Contracts,” Trump stated on Truth Social, arguing that the only reason the Tesla CEO “went CRAZY” about the legislation was because it would cut tax credits for purchasers of his electric vehicles.

“In light of the President’s statement about cancellation of my government contracts, @SpaceX will begin decommissioning its Dragon spacecraft immediately,” Musk responded in a post on X just minutes later.

Hours later, the billionaire appeared to walk back the threat, after one X user urged Musk to “cool off and take a step back for a couple days,” noting that both he and Trump were “better than this.”

“Good advice. Ok, we won’t decommission Dragon,” Musk replied in a follow-up post. However, unlike his original statement, the reversal was not visible on his public timeline.

It remains unclear whether Musk seriously intended to halt operations of the spacecraft, a move that would significantly disrupt the US space program.

SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule is the only US spacecraft currently certified and capable of sending American astronauts to space. NASA has relied on it to deliver cargo and crew to the International Space Station since 2020, following a long hiatus after the retirement of the Space Shuttle program in 2011.

Boeing’s competing Starliner project suffered years of delays and technical malfunctions. Its first crewed flight last June – originally scheduled for 2017 – ended with two NASA astronauts stranded aboard the ISS, after the spacecraft was deemed unsafe for return. Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams safely returned to Earth only in March, aboard SpaceX’s Crew Dragon, after Trump urged Musk to help rescue the duo, while criticizing his predecessor Joe Biden for leaving them “stranded.”

Earlier this year, NASA and the Russian space agency Roscosmos extended their seat-sharing agreement, which allows Americans to travel to the ISS aboard Soyuz spacecraft, through 2027.

SpaceX has secured more than $20 billion in contracts from NASA, the US Air Force, and other government agencies since 2008, making it one of the country’s largest federal contractors. Trump has yet to clarify whether the US government will cancel any contracts with Musk and his companies.