Elon Musk's Starlink brings internet – and politics – to storm-ravaged areas

Starlink, SpaceX's satellite internet service, is on track to become a vital lifeline in parts of the southern Appalachians devastated by Hurricane Helene.

The Biden administration has announced that it plans to deploy dozens of ground-based Starlink devices that connect to satellites to provide internet service to remote areas. And the company said about 500 Starlink kits are being deployed by individuals and organizations to support recovery efforts. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said the company was waiving costs in affected areas.

The connectivity comes as many communities remain cut off from phone and internet systems.

But with this connectivity has come a less welcome element: politics.

Former President Donald Trump said Monday that he spoke directly with Musk, one of his most ardent and well-known supporters, about using Starlink in affected areas. This was quickly responded to by a Biden administration spokesperson, who noted that the Federal Emergency Management Agency already has Starlink supplies.

The brief exchange comes at a time when the federal government's response has come under some scrutiny and questions have arisen about its preparedness and deployment of FEMA resources in advance of the storm. President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris visited the region on Wednesday.

Although Musk hasn't directly linked Starlink to any criticisms of the recovery effort, he seemed comfortable associating the Internet satellite service with Trump by pointing to the need for additional Starlink terminals in North Carolina.

“Since the Hurricane Helene disaster, SpaceX has sent as many Starlink terminals as possible to help areas in need,” Musk wrote on X on Tuesday. “Today @realDonaldTrump alerted me to more people using Starlink internet North Carolina need. We will send them terminals immediately.”

It's not the first time Musk has appeared to politicize access to Starlink in a way that critics say undermines the Biden administration's goals.

Last year, the Ukrainian government, which relied heavily on Starlink to defend itself against the Russian invasion, criticized Musk after learning that he had reportedly tried to restrict Starlink access for its armed forces. Musk gave his version of events in a series of posts on X.

“The Starlink regions in question have not been activated. SpaceX has not disabled anything,” Musk said in a response to A thread on X about Ukraine's claims made in a book about the conflict.

“There was an urgent request from government authorities to activate Starlink as far as Sevastopol,” he added, referring to Crimea’s largest city, which is home to Russia’s Black Sea Fleet.

“The apparent intent was to sink the majority of the anchored Russian fleet,” Musk said. “If I had agreed to their request, SpaceX would have been explicitly involved in a major act of war and escalation of conflict.”

Previously, Musk had asked the US government to take over the financing of Ukraine's use of the network, suggesting that SpaceX would suffer a huge financial loss from this deployment. In the end, the Pentagon agreed to purchase terminals from Musk for use in Ukraine.

Musk has also been accused of undermining the ability of Taiwan and U.S. forces stationed there to access versions of the service.

In February, Musk received a letter from the Chinese Communist Party's House of Representatives special committee asking why U.S. troops stationed in Taiwan did not have access to StarShield, which experts describe as a militarized version of Starlink. Musk responded that he was in full compliance with his Pentagon contract, and SpaceX rejected the House claim.

According to a CNN report, SpaceX subsequently insisted on a majority stake in a Starlink-based company requested by Taiwan, a proposal the island nation rejected and called inconsistent with its laws. Taiwanese officials also questioned the impact of Musk's trade ties to China, where his electric car company Tesla operates an assembly plant and he is also building a new Gigafactory.

“What if we were relying on Starlink and Musk decided to cut back because of pressure from China because he has the Chinese market at stake?” Yisuo Tzeng, a researcher at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research, said think tank funded by the Taiwan Ministry of Defense, told the Times. “We have to take that into account.”

The years-long momentum in Washington toward privatizing America's space industry has tied Musk's units closely to the U.S. government. NASA recently hired SpaceX to carry two astronauts stranded aboard the International Space Station to a rendezvous currently scheduled for February.

In addition to Starlink and SpaceX, Musk also owns Tesla and X, formerly Twitter – and he has bragged about the power he now wields.

“With Tesla, Starlink and Twitter, I may have more real-time global economic data in one head than anyone else ever,” Musk said Posted on X last year.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com