Elon Musk’s Starlink Donates Internet Service to White House, Approved by Ethics Counsel

Starlink, Elon Musk's low-Earth orbit satellite service, now provides WiFi services to the White House.

Musk's business interests and government work are under scrutiny.

Three top Democratic senators have called for a conflict of interest investigation into Musk’s involvement with a potential contract between Starlink and the Federal Aviation Administration.

Elon Musk’s Starlink has donated satellite internet service to the White House, marking an unusual donated technological upgrade for the U.S. government.

The move comes as three top Democrats call for a potential conflict of interest investigation with a separate potential contract between Starlink and the Federal Aviation Administration.

The White House Receives Starlink

White House officials said Starlink had “donated” the service to the campus and that it had been vetted by the government lawyer overseeing ethical issues, the New York Times reported .

Starlink terminals are usually placed on physical structures and receive signals from SpaceX satellites operating in low-Earth orbit.

However, the White House setup is being routed through a White House data center miles away from the campus, connected through existing fiber cables.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the Starlink donation will “improve Wi-Fi connectivity on the complex.”

Some officials told the New York Times that some areas of the White House could not get cellular service.

DOGE and Starlink

Elon Musk's unpaid advisory role at the White House, where he holds the title of “special government employee,” has come under scrutiny due to potential conflicts between his business ventures and government responsibilities.

Starlink was recently deployed within the General Services Administration, an agency central to his vision of downsizing government operations with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), according to the New York Times.

Starlink is typically used for emergency response and remote connectivity.

Former chief information officer Clare Martorana told the publication that people usually cannot donate technology to the government.

Martorana claimed that all technology would usually have to be signed off by the White House’s chief information officer and the chief information officer at the General Services Administration to ensure its proper security.

Conflict of Interest Claims

On March 2, Rolling Stone reported that officials at the Federal Aviation Administration had verbally instructed staff to start finding money for a Starlink deal.

In February, SpaceX engineer Ted Malaska reportedly instructed employees at the FFA headquarters to “immediately start work on a program to deploy thousands of the company’s Starlink satellite terminals to support the national airspace system.”

According to Bloomberg, the engineer warned FAA workers that they risked losing their jobs if they did anything to block the work.

This has prompted three top Democratic senators to demand a criminal conflict-of-interest investigation into Musk’s involvement with a potential FAA and Starlink deal.

A letter, viewed by The Guardian and signed by Elizabeth Warren, Richard Blumenthal, and Chris Van Hollenaccording, calls for an investigation to determine whether Musk "has participated in any particular matter in which he has a financial interest, which would violate the criminal conflict-of-interest statute."

"We ask that the Department of Transportation’s Office of Inspector General and the Department of Justice investigate the scope of Mr Musk’s activities at the FAA," the letter reads.