By Joey Roulette
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Donald Trump’s new administration is likely to do away with the White House’s National Space Council, a cabinet policy panel that lobbyists at Elon Musk’s SpaceX have been pushing to axe, according to three people familiar with the plans.
Trump’s aides and SpaceX’s top lobbyist Mat Dunn in recent months have told associates they see the space council as a “waste of time”, according to the sources, stirring doubts about its fate and whether Vice President JD Vance would have an interest in chairing it as required by law.
Following Trump’s election victory, his team did not contact the space council, chaired by Kamala Harris, as it did with NASA and other agencies over transition plans, one of the sources said. The council’s staff offices near the White House have mostly been emptied, the source said.
Dunn, SpaceX and the heads of former President Joe Biden’s space council did not respond to requests for comment.
The space council’s demise would be an early indication of SpaceX’s influence over space policy under Trump.
Musk, SpaceX’s CEO who spent a quarter of a billion dollars to help Trump back in the White House, has maintained close proximity with the incoming president and united with him on plans to send missions to Mars during his second term.
(Reporting by Joey Roulette; Editing by Joe Brock; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)
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