By Marisa Taylor
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – An influential conservative think tank has asked the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to reveal what employees discuss internally about billionaire Elon Musk and former President Donald Trump, according to federal data reviewed by Reuters.
The effort, which has included dozens of Freedom of Information requests filed by the Heritage Foundation, is part of that organization’s ongoing effort to help Trump root out uncooperative officials if he is re-elected to the White House in November, one of the officials said. the executives told Reuters.
It is also intended, according to the conservative group, to determine whether agencies like NASA are working against the progress of private companies like SpaceX, Musk’s rocket and satellite venture. In an interview, Mike Howell, director of the Heritage Foundation’s research unit, argued that NASA and other regulators hinder innovation because they are distracted by culture and identity politics.
“Instead of doing cool stuff in space,” Howell said, NASA is “doing all this woke stuff on the ground.”
Public administration specialists said the requests are a partisan effort to identify officials who oppose Trump’s plan to appoint the business mogul, and frequent critics of the regulatory bureaucracy, as a government efficiency czar. In that position, they added, Musk could help the former president reintroduce a plan from his first term to replace federal employees who are ideologically at odds with his administration.
“This is clearly part of the Heritage Foundation’s effort to find people critical of Trump and Musk and put them on an undesirable list,” said Kel McClanahan, a Washington attorney and specialist on the area of federal employment. “To install loyalists, they have to figure out who to get rid of.”
There is no indication that Musk or the Trump campaign had a hand in the Heritage Foundation’s search for NASA data.
Neither NASA nor Musk responded to requests for comment. A spokesman for Trump’s campaign did not respond to Reuters’ questions about the information requests, but said only the former president and his advisers, “NOT any other organization,” represent his proposals for a second term.
“Abusive” musk
The Heritage Foundation has submitted at least 192 open data requests to NASA since September 3, according to data reviewed by Reuters. The files include requests for employee communications referencing either of the two men or Musk companies, including automaker Tesla and SpaceX, a company that has earned more than $11.8 billion in contract work with the space agency.
Howell said he’s not sure how many responses NASA has made in response to the filings. The requests, he added, are part of a broader campaign of more than 65,000 requests from the Heritage Foundation in recent years focused on internal discussions about Trump and issues of interest to the group. On Wednesday, ProPublica reported on that effort.
The Heritage Foundation, based in Washington, has applauded Musk’s high-profile business ventures, including his 2022 acquisition of X, the social media site then known as Twitter. Howell said the foundation has also filed information requests with federal law enforcement agencies to determine whether they are “mistreating” Musk. “We want to make sure that the government’s armed forces are not directed at him,” he said.
A White House spokesperson did not respond to requests for comment.
The Heritage Foundation has had close ties with the former president since at least 2016, when it advised Trump’s transition team ahead of his move to the White House.
More recently, it has gained attention as the source of “Project 2025,” an initiative seen by political insiders as a playbook for a conservative overhaul of the federal government during a second Trump term. Trump has tried to distance his campaign from the project, though he still touts some of its proposals.
As part of Project 2025, the foundation has compiled a list of thousands of conservatives that Trump could put in federal positions by reviving an executive order known as “Schedule F” that he introduced toward the end of his presidency. The order, later rescinded by President Joe Biden, would have stripped many civil servants of their long-standing job protections.
The data reviewed by Reuters shows that “Heritage Foundation,” “Schedule F” and “Project 2025” are also among the terms included in the NASA communications requests.
Musk has supported Trump and funds a political action committee that supports Republican causes. The magnate has become increasingly critical of the federal bureaucracy, especially the agencies that regulate SpaceX and its other companies. On Wednesday, Reuters reported that Musk has been funding another conservative political group since at least 2022.
In recent months, Trump has repeatedly said he will appoint Musk to head a government efficiency commission. Last month, Musk wrote on X: “I look forward to serving America when the opportunity arises.”
According to the nonpartisan Partnership for Public Service, the federal government is the nation’s largest employer, with more than two million federal civilian employees.
(Editing by Paulo Prada)
