Trump hands Musk another major blow via NASA

Donald Trump’s latest major u-turn seems to be enacting Elon Musk’s ‘worst nightmare’, when the SpaceX CEO’s dreams are pushed back in favor of a $10,000,000,000 investment.

Apart from electric cars, artificial intelligence, and social media attention, it’s safe to say that Elon Musk’s biggest goal is to get astronauts on Mars and pave the way for human colonization of the red planet.

It has been something that he has been working towards for over 10 years with his private space agency SpaceX, and NASA has simultaneously been gearing towards similar expeditions too with active ongoing experiments.

One of the biggest reasons why Musk was initially so enthused by US President Donald Trump’s appointment earlier this year was his clear and active support for Mars missions – and the billionaire made his glee known at the inauguration.

Yet, the new ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ looks likely to put a major dent in Musk’s dreams although thanks to a clear u-turn from the Trump administration, granting $10 billion to a program that Musk considers his ‘worst nightmare’.

What has Trump given $10,000,000,000 to?

According to the Daily Mail, Trump has awarded $10 billion to NASA’s Artemis program as part of the Big Beautiful Bill, which reignites efforts to send astronauts back to the Moon for the first time in over half a century, and eventually establish a permanent US presence by the end of the decade.

What is remarkable about this decision is how close it is to previous NASA cuts, which targeted the Space Launch System (SLS) that will be used for the Artemis project.

It’s unclear quite why the Trump administration has had such a dramatic change of heart, but you can’t help but wonder if the public fallout with Elon Musk might have been a main motivating factor.

Why does Elon Musk not want the Artemis program?

Musk’s disapproval of NASA’s Artemis program is divided into two primary reasons. The first involves the aforementioned Space Launch System and the second revolves around the priorities of space exploration.

NASA’s SLS directly opposes what SpaceX has targeted when it comes to rocket launches, because Musk’s company prioritises reusable apparatus for crewed missions, whereas the SLS is single-use.

This not just costs far more, limiting the resources that can go to other key areas of NASA’s budget, but it limits Musk’s influence within the space world, taking away a key potential opportunity for SpaceX in the long term.

Most importantly though, the Artemis program signals a deprioritization of Mars when it comes to future space missions, as the Moon would take immediate priority.

This pushes back Musk’s life-long goal into the periphery, especially when it comes to colonization, and based on current targets it’s difficult to imagine any progress being made towards Mars within this decade.

Late last year, Musk himself described Artemis as “extremely inefficient” and a “jobs-maximizing program, not a results maximizing program,” adding further that “the Moon is a distraction” in the ultimate goal of reaching Mars.