It Turns Out Trump Can't Do Anything Without Elon Musk, Here's the Proof

Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia - In August 2025, the Starlink satellite network owned by SpaceX, which belongs to Elon Musk, experienced a disruption.

Millions of users were affected by the issue, including drone operations to bolster US military options in the conflict with China.

The problem was identified during the US Navy’s test of unmanned vessels last August. Dozens of those vessels were tossed about off the coast of California.

Additionally, communications were disrupted, halting operations for nearly an hour, as cited from Reuters on Saturday (18/4/2026).

A Reuters report citing internal US Navy documents stated that this failed test has occurred several times. It left operators unable to connect with the autonomous vessels.

The Pentagon did not respond to questions about the test and SpaceX’s cooperation with the US Navy. Pentagon chief information officer Kirsten Davies only said that they are trying various robust and resilient systems.

“The Department utilises a number of robust and resilient systems for wide-area networks,” she said.

So far, SpaceX still monopolises space launches and provides satellite communications. For example, cooperation with the US Space Force uses SpaceX rockets for GPS launches, diverting from Boeing’s Vulcan rocket which made an error.

This incident highlights the high dependence of the Donald Trump administration, particularly in military matters, on Elon Musk’s SpaceX. This dependence could become a problem for the Pentagon, namely lacking access to constellations for low orbit.

“If there is no Starlink, the US government has no access to a global low-Earth orbit communications constellation,” said Clayton Swope, deputy director of the Aerospace Security Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Democratic lawmakers have warned about the risks of this dependence. Reuters also refers to this dependence issue with the Department of Defense’s boycott of AI startup Anthropic.

Starlink also faced problems in meeting connectivity for drones. A Navy safety report mentioned that the cause of this issue was the high data usage required to control multiple systems.