US Think Tank Probes NASA Staff Over Trump, Musk Criticism

A prominent US conservative think tank is targeting NASA with requests for internal communications about businessman Elon Musk and former president Donald Trump amidst a campaign to help Trump remove uncooperative civil servants if he is re-elected, Reuters reported.

The Heritage Foundation has filed at least 192 open records requests with NASA since 2 September as part of a broader campaign of more than 65,000 such requests in recent years seeking internal discussions about Trump and issues of import to the group, the report said.

The filings include requests for employee communications that refer to Trump, Musk or Musk companies such as Tesla and SpaceX, the report said.

SpaceX is currently NASA’s prime contractor for orbital spaceflight, a position from which it has earned more than $11.8 billion (£9bn).

Internal communications

NASA confirmed it had received an “unprecedented amount” of open record requests from the Heritage Foundation, including about 150 requests in a two-day period.

Mike Howell, director of the foundation’s investigative unit, said the group is aiming to help Trump weed out uncooperative government employees in the event of his re-election.

The requests are also designed to help the foundation determine whether government bodies such as NASA are impeding private companies such as SpaceX, he said.

Howell said the foundation has also filed information requests with federal law enforcement agencies to determine whether they are “mistreating” Musk.

Musk is a vocal critic of regulators such as the SEC and the FAA that oversee his companies.

He is a highly visible supporter of Trump’s campaign, and Trump has said repeatedly in recent weeks he would appoint Musk as head of a government efficiency commission if re-elected.

Kel McClanahan, a Washington lawyer and federal employment specialist, said the effort was designed to determine who was critical of Trump and Musk and should be placed on an “undesirables list” so that Trump could install “loyalists”.

Political support

There is no indication Trump or Musk themselves were involved in the foundation’s campaign. Trump’s campaign said the former president and his advisers are the only ones who represent his proposals for a second term.

As recently as March, Musk said he would support neither party in the election.

Last week, however, Reuters reported that Musk has been financing a conservative political group since at least 2022, in addition to more recent financing for Trump’s campaign.

Near the end of his first term, Trump introduced an executive order known as “Schedule F” that would have stripped many civil servants of longstanding job protections.

As part of a strategy known as Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation has compiled a list of thousands of conservatives that could be put into federal positions if Schedule F were revived.

The foundation advised Trump’s transition team ahead of his move into the White House after winning the 2016 election.