Donald Trump is planning to scrap the White House’s National Space Council following pressure from an Elon Musk lobbyist, according to reports.
It signals that Musk, the billionaire owner of rocket company SpaceX and a close ally of Mr Trump, has already started to flex his muscles in the new administration and may seek to take personal control of space policy.
Mat Dunn, SpaceX’s top lobbyist, and Mr Trump’s aides have recently told associates that they see the space council as a “waste of time”, according to Reuters.
Three people familiar with the plans of the Trump administration said it was planning to eliminate the body, which was reinstated by the president during his first term in office after a 24-year absence.
Mr Trump’s team did not contact the space council as it did with Nasa and other agencies regarding transition plans, one source said, adding that its offices near the White House have largely been emptied.
The council’s page on the White House website appears to have been deleted.
The space council was set up in 1989 but abolished four years later, before Mr Trump signed an executive order in 2017 to restore its role reviewing the US government’s space policy.
It was also tasked with advising and developing recommendations for the president, and its members were made up of high-ranking cabinet officials including the vice president and secretaries of state, defence, and homeland security amongst others.
It is credited with taking an instrumental role in the administration’s space strategy, in which Mr Trump created a Space Force branch of the armed services and directed Nasa to send astronauts to the moon.
It could have presented a potential threat and rival power base to Mr Musk’s influence over space policy in the second Trump White House. The SpaceX owner has openly spoken about his aim to land astronauts on Mars.
In his inaugural address shortly after taking the oath of office, Mr Trump said: “We will pursue our manifest destiny into the stars, launching American astronauts to plant the Stars and Stripes on the planet Mars.”
The move may also mark one of the early cuts being made by the department of government efficiency (DOGE), which is expected to be headed by Mr Musk, who has promised trillions of dollars worth of savings.
A source told Politico last week that the space council was expected to be “one of the first and early cuts” in the new Trump White House.
Mr Musk spent around $280 million on Mr Trump’s re-election effort and since polling day has cemented his presence in the Republican’s inner circle.
