{"id":170504,"date":"2025-09-20T21:46:17","date_gmt":"2025-09-20T21:46:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/170504\/"},"modified":"2025-09-20T21:46:17","modified_gmt":"2025-09-20T21:46:17","slug":"elon-musks-starlink-internet-service-installed-in-white-house-trump-administration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/170504\/","title":{"rendered":"Elon Musk\u2019s Starlink internet service installed in White House | Trump administration"},"content":{"rendered":"

Elon Musk<\/a>\u2019s Starlink internet service is now available at the White House, the New York Times reported<\/a>, exacerbating conflict of interest concerns that are growing with each day the world\u2019s richest person spends at the heart of government.<\/p>\n

Karoline Leavitt, Donald Trump<\/a>\u2019s White House press secretary, said the installation was done to \u201cimprove wifi connectivity on the complex\u201d.<\/p>\n

But it prompted a security alert when a Musk employee accessed the roof of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, next door to the White House.<\/p>\n

The Musk employee, Christopher Stanley, also works for the so-called \u201cdepartment of government efficiency\u201d, or Doge, through which the world\u2019s richest person is overseeing aggressive cuts to federal staffing and budgets at Trump\u2019s behest.<\/p>\n

According to the Times, Stanley\u2019s work was approved by the Secret Service but no time had been agreed upon. On the Eisenhower roof, Stanley tripped an alarm \u2013 prompting a uniformed officer to rush to the scene.<\/p>\n

A Trump administration<\/a> spokesperson said the White House \u201cwas aware of Doge\u2019s intentions to improve internet access on the campus\u201d and \u201cdid not consider this matter a security incident or security breach\u201d.<\/p>\n

A Secret Service spokesperson said it \u201ccollaborates closely\u201d with Musk and his team.<\/p>\n

The Times also cited unnamed White House officials as saying the Starlink installation was a \u201cdonation\u201d vetted by the White House counsel.<\/p>\n

Nonetheless, that has done little to quell concern about Musk\u2019s close alliance with the president.<\/p>\n

On Monday, prominent Democrats including the Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren demanded<\/a> an investigation of possible criminal corruption involving Starlink, citing \u201cthe Federal Aviation Administration\u2019s decision to cancel a $2.4bn contract with Verizon to upgrade air traffic control communications, and to pay \u2026 Musk\u2019s Starlink to help manage US airspace\u201d.<\/p>\n

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The SpaceX and Tesla billionaire denies conflicts of interest. Trump has said if conflicts are found, they will be addressed.<\/p>\n

Starlink, the Times said, is typically used by the US government \u201cto provide internet access in emergency situations and remote locations\u201d. Jake Williams of Hunter Strategy, a cybersecurity company, told the paper it was \u201csuper rare\u201d for Starlink to be used on existing government infrastructure.<\/p>\n

The network has already been installed<\/a> at the General Services Administration. A Secret Service spokesperson said: \u201cOnly apps that meet GSA\u2019s security and privacy standards are allowed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Williams said: \u201cIt introduces another attack point. Why introduce that risk?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Elon Musk\u2019s Starlink internet service is now available at the White House, the New York Times reported, exacerbating…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":170505,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[174,74],"class_list":{"0":"post-170504","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-internet","8":"tag-internet","9":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170504","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=170504"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170504\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/170505"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=170504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=170504"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=170504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}