The space entrepreneur Elon Musk is unlikely to receive government security clearances if he so applied, even as his SpaceX launch company blasts military and spy agency payloads into orbit, according to a report on Monday.
The billionaire, a close ally of Donald Trump, who is set to join the incoming administration as an efficiency expert and recently became the first person to exceed $400bn in self-made personal wealth, is reported by the Wall Street Journal to have been advised by SpaceX lawyers not to seek highest-level security clearances owing to personal drug use and contacts with foreign nationals.
Musk currently holds a “top-secret” clearance that took years to obtain after he discussed use of marijuana on a 2018 podcast with Joe Rogan, according to the outlet. But that may not be enough to have access to information about US government payloads in his rockets.
Typically, candidates undergoing federal security screenings by the department of defense may not receive clearance if the agency expresses concerns about drug or alcohol use, criminal conduct, psychological conditions, sexual behavior or allegiance to the US.
Yeah, this means nothing.
Did people already forget that Trump just basically stole a small library worth of classified documents after his first term, lied about giving them all back, got raided by the FBI?
That Trump was just having meeting with fucking whoever and showing off various classified documents?
Trump can and will give Elon anything he feels like giving him, he has less than 0 care for any concept of security classes.
Oh right, did people forget that's all legal now too?
Trump's defense: Uh giving Elon the nuclear launch codes had to do with my official duties as President.
Bombed out, radiation soaked ruins of fallout ghoul supreme court: Yep, checks out.
... The only thing constraining Trump's ability to just do shit like that in his first term was that most of his staff and other government officers/liasons did eventually turn out to have limits, they were not all pure sycophants.
Now THEY ARE.