The White House said Elon Musk’s Starlink donated its services to the government. Trump paid him $1.2M

The Trump administration quietly paid Elon Musk's SpaceX nearly $1.2 million in government contracts, despite previously characterizing the services as a “gift,” according to a report. SpaceX was handed four contracts from March 2025 to June this year for Starlink services provided to the White House Communications Agency, a military unit responsible for managing secure comms for the president and executive officials, The Washington Post reports.The contracts amount to nearly $1.2 million, but in March last year, White House officials said that Starlink “donated” the service, per a New York Times report that has resurfaced.“The gift had been vetted by the lawyer overseeing ethics issues in the White House Counsel’s Office,” the Times report stated, citing a White House official. Three of the payments totalling $502,000 were reported last week by the legal advocacy group Democracy Defenders Fund. A fourth contract worth $686,000 was identified by the Post. The Trump administration quietly paid Elon Musk's SpaceX nearly $1.2 million in government contracts, despite previously characterizing the services as a ‘gift,’ according to a report (Reuters)“I’m very concerned,” Virginia Canter, chief counsel at the Democracy Defenders Fund, told the Post. “We worry about pay-to-play access and these kinds of transactional arrangements. When someone is given this access and subsequently given these government contracts, you have to wonder if these government contracts are in the best interest of the taxpayer.”Starlink beams broadband internet to millions of customers in the U.S. using thousands of satellites in low-Earth orbit. There were security concerns about the installation of Starlink’s services at the White House at the time.Then-White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the work was to “improve Wi-Fi connectivity on the complex” at the time.The Independent has contacted the White House and the Pentagon, which paid for the services, and SpaceX for comment. In its damning report, Democracy Defenders Fund alleged that in the 17 months since Musk publicly split with President Donald Trump, he has seen his net worth more than double, and his companies have netted at least $10 billion in new government contracts.The revelation about the SpaceX contracts comes as Musk suffered a humiliating defeat in the midterms after he poured $500 million into Republican midterm campaigns to no avail. “Data centers in space looking pretty appealing right now,” Musk reacted on his X platform. “Guess my election-interfering space lasers didn’t work this time.”