Elon Musk’s influence on President Donald Trump’s budget blueprint is anything but subtle.
Foreign aid programs that Musk has assailed, like those at the U.S. Agency for International Development, would see massive reductions in funding. A pro-democracy group he has attacked would lose its allocations. NASA’s budget for a manned Mars mission, as Musk has long advocated for, would see a billion-dollar boost, and the agency would scrap its government-funded moon rocket for private options like the one Musk’s SpaceX is developing. And federal spending on health care and education would see steep cuts.
The budget proposal — a wish list that won’t be enacted without Congress’ go-ahead — would be one of the largest cuts to federal spending since the 1980s, with $163 billion in reductions.