[CTC] U.S. pushes nations facing tariffs to approve Musk’s Starlink, cables show

Fri May 9 14:30:10 PDT 2025

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2025/05/07/elon-musk-starlink-trump-tariffs/

*U.S. pushes nations facing tariffs to approve Musk’s Starlink, cables show*

By Jeff Stein and Hannah NAtanson

Less than two weeks after President Donald Trump announced 50 percent
tariffs on goods from the tiny African nation of Lesotho, the country’s
communications regulator held a meeting with representatives of Starlink.

The satellite business, owned by billionaire and Trump adviser Elon Musk’s
SpaceX company, had been seeking access to customers in Lesotho. But it was
not until Trump unveiled the tariffs and called for negotiations over trade
deals that leaders of the country of roughly 2 million people awarded
<https://lca.org.ls/public-announcement-licensing-of-the-first-satellite-internet-service-in-lesotho/>
Musk’s
firm the nation’s first-ever satellite internet service license, slated to
last for 10 years.

The decision drew a mention in an internal State Department memo obtained
by The Washington Post, which states: “As the government of Lesotho
negotiates a trade deal with the United States, it hopes that licensing
Starlink demonstrates goodwill and intent to welcome U.S. businesses.”

Lesotho is far from the only country that has decided to assist Musk’s firm
while trying to fend off U.S. tariffs. The company reached distribution
deals with two providers in India in March and has won at least partial
accommodations with Somalia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Bangladesh,
Pakistan and Vietnam, although this is probably not a comprehensive count.

A series of internal government messages obtained by The Post reveal how
U.S. embassies and the State Department have pushed nations to clear
hurdles for U.S. satellite companies, often mentioning Starlink by name.
The documents do not show that the Trump team has explicitly demanded
favors for Starlink in exchange for lower tariffs. But they do indicate
that Secretary of State Marco Rubio has increasingly instructed officials
to push for regulatory approvals for Musk’s satellite firm at a moment when
the White House is calling for wide-ranging talks on trade.

In India, government officials have sped through approvals of Starlink with
the understanding that doing so could help them cement trade deals with the
administration, according to two people familiar with the matter, speaking
on the condition of anonymity to reflect private deliberations.

“It’s not likely to be an explicit element of the trade negotiations with
the U.S., but the Indian side sees this as an important lubricant that
facilitates a deal,” said one of the people briefed on the matter by Indian
leadership.

Asked for comment on the satellite firm, the State Department said in a
statement: “Starlink is an American-made product that has been
game-changing in helping remote areas around the world gain internet
connectivity. Any patriotic American should want to see an American
company’s success on the global stage, especially over compromised Chinese
competitors.”

Musk is a key political ally of Trump’s who spent $277 million backing the
president and other Republicans in last year’s elections, and he’s been
working in the administration overseeing the U.S. DOGE Service, though he
has said he’ll soon step down.

A White House spokesman said the administration would not abide conflicts
of interest.

“The only consideration in the Trump administration’s trade negotiations
with other countries is what’s best for the American people — which
includes American companies succeeding at home and abroad,” spokesman Kush
Desai said in a statement. “President Trump will not tolerate any conflicts
of interest, and every administration official is following ethical
guidelines set by their respective agencies.”

Spokespeople for India, Lesotho and several other countries did not respond
to requests for comment, nor did SpaceX.

A Post opinion column
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2025/04/30/elon-musk-starlink-bangladesh-tariffs/>
last
week also reported on Starlink’s expansion in Lesotho, Bangladesh and other
countries.

Some experts say the move makes strategic sense for the Trump
administration. The United States is engaged in a competition with China
over telecommunications around the world, and Starlink is the biggest
domestic and international player in satellite internet connectivity.

Trump's second presidency

“When Elon’s name is attached to anything, there’s all sorts of feelings.
But if he weren’t the CEO of SpaceX, I don’t think most people would have a
problem with the U.S. government advocating for American companies to get
international market access,” said Evan Swarztrauber, a senior fellow at
the Foundation for American Innovation, a technology policy think tank.

Swarztrauber added: “We want American satellite companies to do well
abroad, especially as our main competition is China. The U.S. has a lead in
space, and we should double down on getting other countries to grant
regulatory approvals for our companies. Otherwise, it will be Chinese
companies that benefit from market access.”

Starlink’s international expansion could unlock multibillion-dollar revenue
streams. Capturing just 1 percent of India’s consumer broadband market
could generate nearly $1 billion annually, with comparable upside in Latin
America and Africa, according to Kimberly Siversen Burke, director of
government affairs at Quilty Space, a space-sector intelligence firm. She
noted these are early estimates based on Quilty Space’s financial model.

The cables obtained by The Post shed new light into how U.S. officials are
encouraging countries worldwide to adopt Starlink.

Such efforts are not entirely new. The Biden administration was pushing
embassies to adopt Starlink and other satellite-based internet services,
the cables show. In early December, an “informational” cable went to
diplomatic posts with then-Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s signature,
touting the benefits of “low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites,” calling them “a
resilient alternative to traditional internet service providers.” At the
time, 50 American overseas posts were using LEO services, the cable stated,
but the State Department planned to expand the technology to more posts
across the globe.

Blinken’s cable explicitly said the department wanted to push additional
options, not just Starlink: State “will increase the number of available
LEO vendors as they become available in the marketplace,” the cable stated.

Under Trump, Rubio has signed at least two cables asking department
staffers worldwide to promote American satellite services — including
Starlink, mentioned by name in both missives — to combat “Russian space
incumbents” and Chinese companies offering the same service. The cables
labeled Russian and Chinese satellite-based internet services a potential
threat to America’s national security.

The cables appeared to go beyond Blinken’s December communication, which
detailed plans for more American posts to adopt satellite-based internet,
by instructing post staffers to persuade the countries where they are to
choose the service.

On March 28, one of the cables shows, an “action request” went out with
Rubio’s signature citing Starlink by name and arguing that “U.S. government
advocacy is essential to maintain and extend their global ‘first-mover’
advantage.’”

A later cable shows the U.S. Embassy staff in Turkey delivering some of
Rubio’s talking points to a top Turkish space official, who the cable says
had expressed interest in purchasing satellite services like those offered
by Starlink and Amazon’s Project Kuiper. (Amazon founder Jeff Bezos owns
The Post.)

Some of the cables came after Trump announced worldwide tariffs of varying
levels on April 2.

One State Department cable, issued in mid-April, said a top Malian official
had met with staff members at the embassy in Bamako and shared his
country’s interest in procuring Starlink. A comment added by embassy
staffers noted that Mali is “in the process of developing a legal framework
and platform to register and identify all Starlink users” and that, once
that’s in place, the Bamako embassy’s “Deal Team” had already “identified”
one Malian company “preparing to set up a Starlink franchise.”

At least two countries have explicitly discussed or moved toward adopting
Musk’s Starlink as a means of avoiding Trump’s tariffs and negotiating a
better trade deal with the United States, the cables show.

The 49 percent tariff rate on goods from Cambodia “came as a shock” to
Cambodian government officials and the country’s private sector because
they had hoped to avoid such measures, according to a cable from the U.S.
Embassy in Phnom Penh on April 4, two days after Trump announced the import
taxes.

The day after Trump’s announcement, the cable shows, leaders of the American
Chamber of Commerce in Cambodia
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/04/06/trump-lesotho-tariffs/> —
a nonprofit made up of U.S. and Cambodian companies, known as AmCham — met
with Ministry of Economy and Finance officials to discuss what the country
could or should do to smooth relations with the Trump administration.

Representatives for AmCham urged “decisive action in offering concessions
to the United States,” the cable reported, which included “recommending
that Cambodia offer duty-free access for U.S. imports (specifically
mentioning Ford vehicles) and expeditiously approve Starlink’s market entry
request.”

An earlier cable from the Phnom Penh embassy, dated March 28, shows
Cambodian government officials were already considering such a strategy
before the import duties were rolled out: “Post has observed the Cambodian
government — likely due to concern over the possibility of U.S. tariffs —
signal its desire to help balance our trade relationship by promoting the
market entry of leading U.S. companies such as Boeing and Starlink,” the
cable stated.

Another cable from April 17 reported that Starlink was pushing for a
license to operate in Djibouti. A comment added by State Department
staffers noted Starlink’s entry into Djibouti would be an opportunity to
open the country’s market and boost “an American company.” Embassy staffers
wrote they would help Starlink as much as they could: “Post will continue
to follow up with Starlink in identifying government officials and
facilitating discussions.”

So far, the U.S. government has not struck any trade deals since the
tariffs were announced.

W. Gyude Moore, a fellow at the Center for Global Development, a
Washington-based think tank, said it appears more African countries are
approving Starlink than were before the Trump administration, although
precise data is difficult to come by.

He said it is difficult for African officials to disentangle U.S.
government demands from Musk’s. For instance, the Trump administration was
exerting new pressure on South Africa just as Starlink stepped up its
attempts to advance in the country.

“If you were a South African government official and this was before you,
it’d be very difficult to separate,” Moore said. He added: “It might be
that there’s nothing formal — that there’s no direct pressure on them — but
people can conclude for themselves that Musk is close to Trump, and if I
stall his business here, it could affect my country. They can see their
life might be a lot easier if seen or perceived as getting along with Elon
Musk.”

*John Hudson and Adam Taylor in Washington and Karishma Mehrotra in New
Delhi contributed to this report.*
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