{"id":901585,"date":"2026-11-01T00:04:13","date_gmt":"2026-11-01T00:04:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/901585\/"},"modified":"2026-11-01T00:04:13","modified_gmt":"2026-11-01T00:04:13","slug":"robert-reich-calls-to-defund-musk-nationalize-spacex-and-starlink","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/901585\/","title":{"rendered":"Robert Reich calls to &#8216;defund Musk,&#8217; nationalize SpaceX and Starlink"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Reich urged Democrats to lay the groundwork for government control of Musk&#8217;s companies during an appearance on the Coffee Klatch podcast, accusing the billionaire of wielding too much political power (Credit: Youtube\/Robert Reich).<\/p>\n<p>Former Clinton Labor Secretary Robert Reich called on Democrats to target billionaire <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxbusiness.com\/category\/elon-musk\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Elon Musk<\/a> if they regain control of Congress in the midterm elections, urging lawmakers to investigate the SpaceX founder and lay the groundwork for nationalizing his companies.<\/p>\n<p>During an Oct. 24 episode of his podcast, &#8220;The Coffee Klatch with Robert Reich,&#8221; the former labor secretary argued that Musk holds too much political and economic power and called for Democrats to take aggressive action against the billionaire.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;When I say defund Musk, you know, 75% of his wealth is dependent on taxpayers who are buying Starlink systems for the Department of Defense,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxbusiness.com\/politics\/musk-warns-democrats-he-retaliate-use-congressional-power-investigate-him\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">ELON MUSK SAYS HE WILL RETALIATE AGAINST DEMOCRATS WHO INVESTIGATE HIM<\/a><\/p>\n<p>     <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/robert-reich-democrats-elon-musk.jpg\" alt=\"Former Clinton Labor Secretary Robert Reich smiles while standing outside near a brick building\"\/> <\/p>\n<p>Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich called for Democrats to target Elon Musk and consider nationalizing SpaceX and Starlink during an episode of his podcast. (TheStewartofNY\/GC Images \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n<p>Reich did not provide evidence supporting his assertion that 75% of Musk&#8217;s wealth depends on taxpayers. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxbusiness.com\/category\/spacex\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">SpaceX<\/a> has secured billions of dollars in federal contracts, including agreements with NASA and the Pentagon.<\/p>\n<p>The former labor secretary also urged Democrats to prepare for a government takeover of SpaceX and its satellite internet business, Starlink, if the party wins back the White House.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;If we have a Democratic administration \u2014 and the Democrats ought to be starting this not just with oversight hearings, but also starting laying the groundwork for nationalizing Starlink and SpaceX,&#8221; he continued. &#8220;It should be a public corporation. We should not ever have that kind of power in one person&#8217;s hands.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Musk fired back at Reich on X on Oct. 25, responding to a video of the former labor secretary&#8217;s remarks shared by conservative commentator Collin Rugg.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxbusiness.com\/politics\/trump-praises-elon-musk-genius-while-defending-him-against-potential-democratic-probes\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">TRUMP PRAISES ELON MUSK AS A &#8216;GENIUS&#8217; WHILE DEFENDING HIM AGAINST POTENTIAL DEMOCRATIC PROBES<\/a><\/p>\n<p>    <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/elon-musk-tesla-spacex-merger-talks-2026.jpg\" alt=\"Elon Musk\"\/> <\/p>\n<p>Elon Musk said Tuesday that a potential merger between Tesla and SpaceX would be &#8220;a good idea,&#8221; revealing that both companies have formed special committees to explore a possible deal. (REUTERS\/Gonzalo Fuentes \/ Reuters)<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Stealing companies is a serious crime. Prison for Reich,&#8221; he wrote.<\/p>\n<p>Reich also predicted that Musk would face increased congressional scrutiny if Democrats win control of the House and potentially the Senate.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;He knows that if the Democrats take over the House and possibly the Senate, one of the things they are going to be doing is focusing on Elon Musk. I mean, he&#8217;s really going to be targeted, and he knows it, and he&#8217;s going to be using his 360 million followers or 260 million followers on X to give him a buttress against that.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Ticker Security Last Change Change % SPCX NO DATA AVAILABLE &#8211; &#8211;<br \/>\n        &#8211;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxbusiness.com\/apps-products\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">GET FOX BUSINESS ON THE GO BY CLICKING HERE<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Reich&#8217;s remarks come as Democrats seek to regain control of Congress in the November <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxbusiness.com\/category\/midterm-elections\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">midterm elections<\/a>, potentially giving the party greater authority to investigate Musk&#8217;s business dealings with the federal government.<\/p>\n<p>While Reich called for Democrats to begin laying the groundwork for nationalizing SpaceX and Starlink, he acknowledged that such a move would depend on the party returning to the White House.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Reich urged Democrats to lay the groundwork for government control of Musk&#8217;s companies during an appearance on the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":901586,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[79,193],"class_list":["post-901585","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-science","tag-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/901585","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=901585"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/901585\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/901586"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=901585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=901585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=901585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}