May 9, 2025
REPORT: Trump Admin Coerces Trade Partners To Buy Starlink
The U.S. is reportedly pushing nations facing tariffs to approve Elon Musk’s Starlink.
- 9 minutes
But if there is a conflict of interest
when it comes to you yourself.
For instance, you've received billions
of dollars in federal contracts
when it comes to the Pentagon,
for instance, which the president,
I know has directed you to look into.
Are you policing yourself in that?
And you can see, am I doing something
that benefits one of my companies or not?
[00:00:17]
It's totally obvious.
I fully expect to be scrutinized
and get, you know,
a daily proctology exam, basically.
I just camp out there.
So it's not like I think
I can get away with something.
Okay, well,
he's not gonna get away with it.
I mean, he might get the money,
but we're gonna do that scrutinizing that
[00:00:35]
proctological exam a little bit because.
Yeah.
No, he's trying to get money.
They're giving him more money.
And in this case, it's not even, like,
directly the US government.
I mean, sure, they've showered Elon
Musk recently and throughout the years
with billions and billions of dollars.
Many of his businesses
might not have made it if not for it.
[00:00:50]
But no, now they're trying
to strong arm other countries
into giving Elon Musk money.
So let's talk about this.
This is reporting
from the Washington Post.
And we've got the country of Lesotho
that had been hit on Liberation Day
by 50% reciprocal tariffs.
[00:01:07]
So some countries can withstand
this for the short term, the long term for
smaller countries with smaller economies,
it's significantly harder
and it makes them a little bit desperate.
And we have that in this case.
And so here is an internal State
Department memo
obtained by the Washington Post says,
[00:01:22]
as the government of Lesotho negotiates
a trade deal with the United States, it
hopes that licensing Starlink demonstrates
goodwill and intent to welcome U.S.
Businesses.
If you just wanted a sign that they're
going to purchase more stuff from America,
[00:01:38]
then it could be whatever, right?
It could be phones, it could be Nikes,
it could be I don't know
where those things are made.
Probably not in America, actually.
We don't produce a lot,
but it could be something.
Only Starlink.
That's the only thing we'll do.
This country needs to to send money
to Elon Musk as a proof
[00:01:56]
that they're willing to play ball.
I mean, this is direct mob behavior,
but the mob boss that's benefiting
in this case is Elon.
Is Elon Musk okay.
And we see it. Yeah.
No it's transparent transparently corrupt.
And so they actually did by the way
do this in the end.
[00:02:14]
Lesotho gave Starlink a internet
service license that will last ten years.
And they're not the only one
by the way, that's doing that.
The company reached distribution deals
with two providers in India in March
and has won at least
partial accommodations with Somalia,
[00:02:29]
the Democratic Republic of Congo,
Bangladesh, Pakistan and Vietnam.
Although this is probably
not a comprehensive count
because, weirdly, he's not being
that transparent about all of this.
And so there is just money coming
in so many different forms
and flooding Elon Musk's coffers,
not only money, but also deregulation.
[00:02:49]
They killed those research projects
into atmospheric pollution
that theoretically could have produced
regulations that would have hurt Elon Musk
and other billionaires like Jeff Bezos.
So the regulations are being manipulated,
the law is being flouted,
and money is being directed to Elon Musk,
[00:03:05]
which is a great return
on the investment he made in buying
- Donald Trump in the last election.
- The Musk thing is corruption on parade.
I almost don't know where to start,
so I'll just start with kind
of the last thing that you mentioned.
Obviously, he closed down
and dismantled federal agencies
[00:03:20]
that were doing what John's talking
about finding and investigating SpaceX
and his companies that were running
afoul of a lot of regulations,
particularly environmental regulations.
That's just one thing.
Then the second thing, he's muddying
himself in all of these different ways.
[00:03:36]
Before you even get to this example,
they are imposing Starlink
on many communities that were going
to get broadband in other ways.
In fact, in the Biden infrastructure
package,
there's all this money to get a lot of
rural communities that are really dark.
[00:03:52]
They're unable to get broadband
to get them broadband service.
But now, as a result of Doge,
seeing that those companies that those,
those programs were wasteful,
they are pulling back on those funds and
what lo and behold, Starlink will be the
way that many of these rural communities
in America get broadband access.
[00:04:11]
And then finally to this story,
you see the shakedown that's going on.
I mean, it is a shakedown.
The tariffs forced these countries
to come to Trump and beg for mercy.
What can we give you? So we'll.
How about this give Elon Musk
all of this business in our country
[00:04:30]
as an act of goodwill,
to show you that we are happy to have U.S.
Businesses here.
It's patronage. It's pay to play.
He set up a system of patronage.
So, country by country,
village by village, tariff by tariff.
[00:04:46]
They will come to him on bended knee
and have to make a deal.
And in this case, they can enrich
themselves massively through doing it.
Yeah. 100%.
And again like to the right
wingers watching like imagine
if George Soros had this right.
Like can you imagine?
But this is, this is what you get
when your god emperor
[00:05:04]
is owned by the richest man in the world.
It's not actually a good thing
when this much corruption, is happening.
To give you an idea, by the way,
of how significant some of this is,
because you might think, well,
some of these very small countries,
how much money could this possibly be?
Capturing. This is graphic five.
Capturing just 1% of India's consumer
broadband market could generate nearly $1
[00:05:24]
billion annually, with comparable upside
in Latin America and Africa.
And obviously, the goal is not
to capture 1%. So we could be talking
about billions upon billions of dollars
going to Starlink,
not because these countries
genuinely want it,
but because of economic pressure being
provided by the guy who he's the donor of.
[00:05:44]
And so that's amazing.
By the way, and you rightly pointed
out that they're they killed
that section of the infrastructure plan
providing the rural broadband.
Trump called it racist.
I don't I don't even know
what the argument.
I know that, like, his knee jerk thing
is to just scream, die.
[00:06:02]
Like, I don't think like white people
in Appalachia
getting rural broadband is racist.
But regardless, so here's the thing.
Maybe this is crazy,
maybe I'm a radical or whatever,
But so Starlink is apparently now just
intimately involved in our government.
[00:06:17]
When we need to solve problems
with rural broadband, we use Starlink.
I guess we have to we can't do
the normal way, and it's a part
of our like tariffs and all that.
So if it's going to be a part of our
government, then why don't we just make it
a part of our government?
Why doesn't the government
nationalize Starlink?
[00:06:33]
I mean, for national security reasons,
if nothing else.
I mean, look at all the stuff
that's happened with Ukraine about them
giving access and then taking it away
and hurting the war effort when American
policy is to assist the Ukrainian defense,
Elon Musk having that sort of control over
the ability of one of our allies to defend
[00:06:49]
themselves is obviously unacceptable,
not to mention concerns over
the possibility that it could be hacked
and with the close ties that it has to the
government in all these different areas,
we should take it, you know,
we'll give them a little bit of money.
I mean, we already have.
We've already done a down payment
on this if we wanted to nationalize it.
[00:07:05]
At this point.
It's a totally cogent argument
that you're making.
And you could even say,
I'll tell you what, it is a negotiation.
We as the US government will not
take total control of your company.
We'll just take partial control.
It'll just take the leverage
away from you.
[00:07:20]
So you don't have the bad look
of a private citizen
being able to turn on and off the lights
over an entire part of the world.
So, yeah,
we don't nationalize it completely.
It's sort of partially nationalized.
It's sort of a shared profit system.
But I mean, or shared control system.
I actually think
there's a really good argument.
[00:07:37]
Obviously, it's not going to happen,
in the same way that partially
nationalizing oil companies and all of
these other things that sort of reap all
the benefits of exploiting American,
resources,
they never have to pay back in any way.
And we as the people never get
ownership in any of this stuff.
[00:07:53]
But I love that plan
that John's just come up with.
- I mean.
- I think, I think we should look into it.
And I know that, like the normal way
that you do that, like if a Democratic
president came in is that you'd have like
you'd have hearings and you'd have this
big process and judges would weigh in.
But the issue is that I actually
saw a dude from Columbia.
[00:08:11]
So I feel like we've been invaded.
So I don't think that due process
is really a thing anymore.
So I think we might have to expedite
the nationalizing of Starlink.
Anyway, see how this is not how
you're supposed to run a government.
Utterly corrupt, illegal,
unconstitutional acts every single day.
You're driving me crazy.
[00:08:27]
But the sickness
isn't fundamentally in me.
It's in our country. It's in our society.
Any final thoughts to close out the hour?
John, I love it. It's great seeing you.
I agree, I think this is a you know,
it's a five alarm fire.
You can only handle so many things.
It is a bit overwhelming, but it's good
that we take it, you know, fire by fire.
[00:08:46]
I mean, there is a quality of it all
being overwhelming, but I do think that,
you can chip away at it.
And I think the more our voice is heard,
I do think it matters.
I even think it matters to Trump
when, as you suggested, his polling
numbers begin to sag, at some point,
[00:09:03]
he begins to rethink,
as he's doing with the tariffs, policies
and strategies moving forward, hopefully.
Yeah, again, I don't know
if he's watching,
but some Congress people apparently are.
Every time you ring the bell below,
an angel gets its wings.
Totally not true.
But it does keep you updated
on our live shows.
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