Source: Washington Monthly
by Kainoa Lowman
“n the run-up to SpaceX’s historic initial public offering on June 12, commentators worried about who would get hurt. Their top concern was for everyday retirement savers …. But these are speculative victims, losers only if SpaceX stock plummets. There’s another group, however, that has definitely suffered real harm on the road to Musk’s becoming a trillionaire: Americans in the nation’s most rural communities. For decades, they have lived without the high-speed broadband service that the rest of us take for granted. This ‘digital divide’ was set to close thanks to a federal program created by President Joe Biden’s administration. But at Musk’s urging, Donald Trump’s administration sabotaged the effort, changing the rules to funnel money toward Starlink, SpaceX’s satellite internet subsidiary, while diverting billions of dollars from higher-quality competitors.” [editor’s note: So far as I can tell, Starlink is head and shoulders above other rural competitors, on both cost and quality. I have to suspect Lowman’s real problem with Starlink is that it doesn’t use tax money to subsidize digging ditches – TLK] (06/22/26)
https://washingtonmonthly.com/2026/06/22/trump-rural-broadband-musk-starlink-spacex/