Elon Musk Reportedly Has a Huge Conflict of Interest Motivating Him to Gut USAID

Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency has laid waste to USAID, an international development agency that typically spends tens of billions of dollars on aid across the world.

Its demise could result in the death of "thousands, if not hundreds of thousands" of people, as one anonymous USAID official told Politico.

In an excoriating series of tweets, Musk called the agency a "criminal organization" and argued that it was "evil," while furthering harebrained conspiracy theories claiming it was somehow linked to the outbreak of COVID.

Now, it's starting to sound like Musk's seething hatred towards the aid organization can be traced back to at least one conflict of interest at one of his business ventures: according to The Lever, USAID's inspector general was investigating Musk's Starlink partnership with the Ukrainian government around the time DOGE shut down the organization.

Needless to say, it's a charge that perfectly illustrates why Musk is unsuited for the job he's been given. Besides the billionaire's racist and xenophobic ideologies, Musk's singling out of USAID was more than likely self-serving — and has nothing to do with it allegedly being run by "radical left lunatics," as he's said.

Put simply, Musk's own greed could soon kickstart a senseless and entirely preventable humanitarian disaster of epic proportions, with The Lever reporting that USAID's office of inspector general informed Congress in September that it was reviewing "USAID’s oversight of Starlink Satellite Terminals provided to the Ukrainian government, and USAID’s efforts to protect against sexual exploitation and abuse in Ukraine."

USAID's website has also since been scrubbed of any mentions of Musk's ventures, including SpaceX and Starlink after Musk started gutting.

In early 2022, SpaceX delivered tens of thousands of Starlink terminals to Ukrainians on the front lines, greatly enhancing their connectivity. It didn't take long for Musk to get cold feet, arguing that it was "unreasonable" for SpaceX to continue footing their bills.

Musk has also reportedly met with Russian president Vladimir Putin several times during the country's invasion.

According to Walter Isaacson's biography of the mercurial entrepreneur, Musk intentionally hamstrung the Starlink satellite network to thwart a Ukrainian attack on Russia's naval fleet near the Crimean coast.

"How am I in this war?" Musk asked Isaacson. "Starlink was not meant to be involved in wars. It was so people can watch Netflix and chill and get online for school and do good peaceful things, not drone strikes."

In response, Musk admitted that he refused to "agree" to an "emergency request from government authorities to activate Starlink all the way to Sevastopol," which had the "obvious intent being to sink most of the Russian fleet at anchor."

Russian forces have since made use of black market Starlink terminals to power their warfare in Ukraine.

Several years later, Musk's coup in Washington, DC, is already claiming plenty of victims. USAID workers and their families have already been told to uproot their lives, leaving a massive vacuum in the global aid sector.

The organization's dismantling is nothing less than a massive overreach of power, orchestrated by the richest man in the world.

"I don’t even know if crime is the right word for the illegal destruction of USAID," New York Times columnist Jamelle Bouie wrote in a post on Bluesky. "It is an autocratic power grab and a direct attack on the sovereignty of the American people."

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