Elon Musk's Mother "Furious" After Starlink Loses US Government Subsidy

After the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) declined to give Starlink nearly $900 million in subsidies, Elon Musk's mother accused US President Joe Biden of hating her son's attempts to "make this world a better place". Taking to X (formerly Twitter), Maye Musk said that it was inexplicable how the FCC determined the billionaire's company had "failed to demonstrate that it could deliver the promised service". "Have you any idea how furious I am?" she wrote in response to a tweet by FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr, who accused his agency of joining a "growing list of federal agencies engaging in the regulatory harassment of Elon Musk."

"I am the mother of @elonmusk His goal is to make this world a better place. @POTUS wants to stop him. Have you any idea how furious I am? People in other countries are proud of Elon and do not understand the US President's motive. Please tell me how I should answer them," Maye Musk posted on X. 

I am the mother of @elonmusk His goal is to make this world a better place. @POTUS wants to stop him. Have you any idea how furious I am? People in other countries are proud of Elon and do not understand the US President's motive. Please tell me how I should answer them. https://t.co/lPGcMvW5kz

— Maye Musk (@mayemusk) December 13, 2023

In his post, Mr Carr argued that the US President unjustly targeted Mr Musk when he "gave federal agencies the green light to go after" him following his purchase of Twitter for $44 billion in October. "President Biden stood at a White House podium & stated that Elon Musk 'is worth being looked at.' When asked 'How?' President Biden responded 'There's a lot of ways.' There certainly are. The DOJ, FAA, FTC, NLRB, SDNY, & FWS have all taken action. The FCC now joins them," Mr Carr posted on X.

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In a separate tweet, Elon Musk also reiterated Mr Carr and his mother's claims. He wrote that the White House was "changing the rules to prevent SpaceX from competing". "Doesn't make sense. Starlink is the only company actually solving rural broadband at scale! They should arguably dissolve the program and return funds to taxpayers, but definitely not send it those who aren't getting the job done," Mr Musk wrote. 

"What actually happened is that the companies that lobbied for this massive earmark (not us) thought they would win, but instead were outperformed by Starlink, so now they're changing the rules to prevent SpaceX from competing," he added.

Notably, according to Newsweek, SpaceX challenged the 2022 ruling, however, the commission didn't stray from its decision when it ruled again on Tuesday. The FCC explained that it felt Starlink had failed to meet basic program requirements and couldn't deliver on its promised services because of financial and technical deficiencies.