In the days since Hurricane Helene left a swath of destruction across the Southeastern United States, former President Donald J. Trump has praised the tech billionaire Elon Musk for what he has described as Mr. Musk’s personal efforts and extragovernmental largess to bring internet service back to hard-hit rural areas.
The reality is more complicated. While Starlink, the satellite service operated by Mr. Musk’s company SpaceX, has given hundreds of free devices and a window of free internet service to private citizens in areas hit by the storm, the federal government is also providing Starlink services to recovery efforts.
The situation reflects the strange place Mr. Musk occupies in American politics: a multibillionaire whose companies are contracted to provide vital services to the U.S. government; the owner of a wide-reaching social media platform, on which he often rails against the inefficiencies of the federal government; and a vocal, active supporter of Mr. Trump’s presidential campaign.
It also reflects the inevitable politicization of natural disasters on the eve of a close-fought election.
On Monday afternoon, during a visit to Valdosta, Ga. — a city on the state’s southern edge that sustained substantial damage in the storm — Mr. Trump described the lack of internet connection and basic communications infrastructure in North Carolina.
“I just spoke to Elon,” Mr. Trump said. “We want to get Starlink hooked up, because they have no communication whatsoever. Elon will always come through, we know that.” He added, “We are going to try to get Starlink in there as soon as possible.”
At a campaign event in Milwaukee the next day, Mr. Trump again reflected on the damage and the communication blackout in parts of North Carolina and praised Mr. Musk’s speedy response.
When Mr. Trump’s remarks were first reported, Andrew Bates, a White House spokesman, corrected the record. “This is already happening,” Mr. Bates wrote on social media, linking to a news release from the Federal Emergency Management Agency from Saturday, which outlined emergency measures authorized by the Biden administration.
According to the release, 40 Starlink systems were already available for emergency responder communications, and an additional 140 were on the way. Starlink comes in the form of small terminals, about the size of a pizza box, that connect to low-orbit satellites. They have been used in natural disasters in the United States in recent years, a FEMA spokeswoman said; they have also been vital to the Ukrainian military during the Russian invasion.
Representatives for Mr. Musk, Mr. Trump’s campaign and SpaceX did not respond to requests for comment.
Late on Monday night, Mr. Musk wrote on X, the platform he owns, “Since the Hurricane Helene disaster, SpaceX has sent as many Starlink terminals as possible to help areas in need.” He added that earlier in the day, Mr. Trump had “alerted me to additional people who need Starlink Internet in North Carolina.”
“We are sending them terminals right away,” he wrote.
Since then, Mr. Musk has amplified posts, including by Starlink’s official X account, that detail efforts by private individuals and organizations to deliver Starlink systems to the state. On Wednesday, Ivanka Trump posted on social media that she had toured the damage of western North Carolina with a relief group that had also distributed more than 300 free Starlinks. (“Thank you, Elon!”)
The donated devices may come at no cost, but the free internet service is temporary. On the company’s website, Starlink said it would provide 30 days of service for the devices in affected areas, before a standard residential subscription would be charged.
As of Wednesday morning, FEMA had provided 67 Starlink systems to North Carolina, including three to the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians and four “for critical lifeline locations as determined by the state,” according to Jaclyn Rothenberg, a FEMA spokeswoman.
Ms. Rothenberg said the agency was ordering hundreds more Starlink units.
The role of the federal government in the provision of Starlink services has gone unmentioned by Mr. Musk on social media — with one significant exception.
In a post on X Wednesday, Mr. Musk said the Federal Communications Commission had previously “illegally revoked” an award to SpaceX that would have provided Starlink kits that “probably would have saved lives in North Carolina.”
Mr. Musk’s post is misleading, however. The F.C.C. had a two-part approval process for its rural subsidies; while SpaceX won an initial bid, the agency decided in 2022 not to award it upon further review, according to an F.C.C. spokesman.
The agency found that Starlink had trouble meeting basic upload and download speeds and that rural subscribers would have had to pay an upfront fee of $600 for a dish. The F.C.C. also said it had hit roadblocks getting more information from SpaceX.
“In this instance, the agency denied public funds to more than a dozen companies — not just Starlink — who did not meet the program requirements,” the spokesman said. He added that the agency stood by its decision.
The post After Helene, Even Restoring Internet Service Is Political appeared first on New York Times.
