Using the power of the US taxpayer for Elon Musk's sake, the US State Department demands that Starlink be given access to markets across Africa if those nations want to receive aid.
Seems like Elon is getting his money's worth out of Donald "Two Dolls, Five Pencils" Trump and the rest of the Republicans he bought. Forcing Starlink into new markets and skipping whatever regulator processes those nations have is a perk you must buy a lot of government to achieve. What better sales force could have?
In recent months, senior State Department officials in both Washington and Gambia have coordinated with Starlink executives to coax, lobby and browbeat at least seven Gambian government ministers to help Musk, records and interviews show. One of those Cabinet officials told ProPublica his government is under "maximum pressure" to yield.
In mid-March, Cromer escalated the campaign by writing to Gambia's president with an "important request." That day, a contentious D.C. meeting between Musk employees and Jabbi had ended in an impasse. She urged the president to circumvent Jabbi and "facilitate the necessary approvals for Starlink to commence operations," according to a copy of the letter obtained by ProPublica. Jabbi told confidantes he felt the ambassador was trying to get him fired.
The saga in Gambia is the starkest known example of the Trump administration wielding the U.S. government's foreign policy apparatus to advance the business interests of Musk, a top Trump adviser and the world's richest man.
ProPublica
via TechDirt
Previously:
• Inside the profitable world of shill Yelp reviews
• Head MPAA shill reduced to outright lies in bid to make the case for SOPA
• Bilious Alka-Seltzer shill, 1942
