Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk on Thursday reiterated that Donald Trump‘s election as President in the upcoming November elections will be integral to achieving his dreams of taking people to Mars.
What Happened: “Trump or doom. This is the fork in the road of destiny,” Musk wrote on social media platform X on the heels of building tension between the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and his rocket manufacturing company SpaceX regarding delays in receiving regulatory approvals on the next test flight of its Starship launch vehicle.
“America is being smothered by ever larger mountains of irrational regulations from ever more new agencies that serve no purpose apart from the aggrandizement of bureaucrats,” Musk wrote while adding that concerns for increased government regulations are one of his reasons for not wanting Democratic Presidential candidate Kamala Harris to win.
“This is my absolute showstopper for why Kamala and the giant government machine that is her legion of puppetmasters cannot win,” Musk wrote. “Humanity, and life as we know it, are doomed to extinction without significant regulatory reform.”
Why It Matters: Musk has previously said that a Harris administration would allow for an increase in regulations while Trump would allow for a ‘government efficiency commission’ aimed at deregulation. Deregulation, Musk believes, is the key to achieving advancements including high-speed rail between cities.
"That’s (accumulation of regulations) like the hardening of the arteries. Or a way to think of it is being tied down by a million little strings like Gulliver. You can’t move. And it’s not like any one of those strings is the issue, it’s that you’ve got a million of them," Musk said about the commission in a podcast with Lex Fridman in August.
Musk officially endorsed Trump in July. The former president, during his campaign, said that he would appoint Musk to head a Government Efficiency Commission if he wins.
Earlier this month, SpaceX pinned regulatory red tape as the cause for delays in the development of its ambitious Starship launch vehicle whose fifth flight test is now expected in late November. Starship has been ready for its fifth flight test since the first week of August but has been put off owing to “frivolous” and “patently absurd” licensing issues, the company said in a blog post. Musk even called for the resignation of FAA administrator Mike Whitner early on Thursday.
SpaceX’s Starship is key to Musk’s vision of taking humans to Earth’s neighboring planet Mars. The vehicle, however, is currently in the development phase.
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