Bezos and Musk: It's all about space

On Friday, it was revealed that billionaire owner Jeff Bezos had blocked The Washington Post editorial page from endorsing Kamala Harris in the 2024 election. On Sunday, Elon Musk appeared at Donald Trump's Madison Square Garden festival of hate and racism to declare himself "dark gothic MAGA" while wearing a hat emblazoned with the MAGA logo using a font closely connected to the Nazis.

The reason the #1 and #3 people on the list of the world's wealthiest are making a show of obeisance to Trump in the campaign's closing days is almost certainly the same for both men: It's about rockets.

Everything that happens in space has an impact on Earth. Sometimes that means you get GPS to help you navigate to an obscure address. Or you get all the computer chips, new materials, and medical improvements that spilled into the economy following the Apollo program.

Sometimes you get billionaires fighting to throw away democracy to protect their biggest, most expensive, and most beloved toys.

In 2021, Bezos stepped down from running the company that made him all his money to helm one has so far been all about losses. Industry experts estimate that Bezos has poured around $8 billion into rocket company Blue Origin since its founding in 2000, but it has yet to launch a single craft to orbit.

Instead, it has built a small rocket capable of carrying passengers on short suborbital hops and returning both capsule and booster for reuse. As of October, that New Shepard rocket has made 25 successful landings. Which is ... fine. But the failure of Blue Origin to deploy anything more has long made the company's motto Gradatim Ferociter (Latin for "Step by Step, Ferociously") seem like a joke. They're stuck on the first step.

All that could change in about a month when the massive New Glenn rocket is expected to lift off from Kennedy Space Center for the first time.

After nearly a quarter of a century and a significant slice of Bezos' wealth, Blue Origin is finally ready to provide a booster whose capacity is second only to SpaceX's Starship (and Falcon Heavy under some circumstances). And because Blue Origin intends to recover and reuse the booster, New Glenn might offer something that hasn't been possible for any other launch provider since 2017 when NASA allowed SpaceX to begin using previously flown boosters on government missions — a cost-competitive alternative to SpaceX.

But if Blue Origin is going to stop being a money sink, Bezos needs more than just a good flight from New Glenn. He needs what Musk already has. He needs contracts. Government contracts. NASA contracts. Department of Defense contracts.

Earlier this month, the DOD handed out nine new contracts for launches. This included seven launches for the Space Development Agency and two launches for the National Reconnaissance Office. All nine of those launches went to SpaceX. Blue Origin wasn't even among the final contenders.

What Bezos fears is simple enough: If Trump wins, Musk will be right at his elbow, setting the agenda for what happens in space, changing all the rules to his advantage, telling Trump what to do with NASA and how he can save the nation untold billions if they give everything over to him.

And that's why Bezos stepped in to prevent The Washington Post from publishing an endorsement of Kamala Harris. He doesn't want Trump to see him as the enemy when it comes time for the next round of government launch contracts.

The same day that Bezos shelved the Post's endorsement of Harris, executives at Blue Origin held a meeting with Trump.

Friday’s [Washington Post] announcement did not mention Amazon or Blue Origin. But within hours, high-ranking officials of the latter company briefly met with Trump after a campaign speech in Austin, Texas, as the Republican nominee seeks a second presidency.

Trump met with the Blue Origin chief executive officer, David Limp, and vice-president of government relations, Megan Mitchell, the Associated Press reported.

They didn't go there to better inform him of their technology. They went there to lay this tiny offering on his table. Because the owner of Blue Origin is afraid of Trump and Musk.

What Musk fears is ... not Bezos. Musk just wants to kill the government.

He doesn't want to have to deal with the EEOC suing over racism at his factories. Or the labor board interfering in his efforts to destroy unions. He doesn't want the FAA telling him he can't change his designs or flight plans as he sees fit without waiting out mandatory periods of public comment. He's tired of the FTA looking into crashes by his self-driving cars and the EPA complaining that he's destroying Earth to get to Mars.

Musk has said he can't wait to start a "bonfire of nonsense regulations" and that he plans to cut "two trillion dollars" in government costs once Trump installs him as the new head of government efficiency. It's not hard to guess which regulations, and which agencies, would get sliced away by Musk's ax.

Musk wants all the rules and regulations that protect little things like workers, the public, and the environment to get out of his way so he can do what he likes, where he likes, and when he likes. For him, that kind of freedom is more than worth the $132 million he has invested in Trump so far.

Bezos, having spent 24 years "step by step" part now wants to keep Trump from shuttering his rocket business before it can move on to "ferociously." Musk is signed on to rip apart the government to his own advantage.

One of them is a coward. The other is a collaborator. But when it comes to fighting against an authoritarian government overthrow, there's not much difference.