The Trump administration reportedly initiated a review of federal contracts held by SpaceX earlier this summer, but quickly discovered that most of them were too essential to cut, according to a new report from The Wall Street Journal.
The review was triggered shortly after President Trump publicly suggested terminating federal agreements with Elon Musk’s companies amid a growing feud between the two. On June 5, Trump posted on Truth Social that the “easiest way to save federal dollars” would be to cancel Musk’s government contracts.
Just days later, the General Services Administration (GSA) began coordinating with several federal agencies — including the Department of Defense and NASA — to gather detailed “scorecards” of all of their current SpaceX contracts and planned transactions, including their dollar value and whether a rival could do the same job for less, the report said.
However, officials reportedly determined that most of the contracts were critical to the missions of the Pentagon and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). SpaceX remains the U.S. government’s cheapest and foremost launch provider, responsible for everything from national-security payloads to ferrying astronauts to the International Space Station.
“We earned that,” SpaceX President and COO Gwynne Shotwell said about the company’s multibillion-dollar government contracts late last year. “We bid it, we were the lowest price, best bidder, we won and we execute. It’s not a bad thing to serve the U.S. government with great capability and products.”
SpaceX’s Falcon rockets and Crew Dragon spacecraft remain key infrastructure for the U.S. space program, especially as the company ramps up Starlink and Starshield services for government and defense clients. In April, SpaceX secured a $5.9 billion deal for 28 national security launches, and just last month, it delivered a new GPS satellite for the Space Force.
The Trump administration has had its sights set on Musk’s sprawling empire ever since the billionaire and the U.S. President publicly clashed over Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill” legislation. The fallout led to threats of scrapping space and clean-energy contracts, and even bolstered anti-dumping tariffs on key battery materials like Chinese graphite — duties that alone could tack on nearly $200 per electric vehicle invoice.
Adding to Tesla’s headwinds, the $7,500 federal EV tax credit is slated to vanish on September 30, further squeezing consumer demand while rivals like GM and Hyundai remain aggressively priced and bathed in political goodwill.
While some of SpaceX’s contracts may still face scrutiny, officials reportedly acknowledged that alternatives remain limited — further cementing the company’s influence in both civilian and defense space sectors.
