By installing the tech billionaires Elon Musk and Palmer Luckey to advisory roles in a Pentagon project about the future of warfare, the defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, bestowed extraordinary influence on two of Maga’s most significant campaign donors – and both men own companies that benefit from federal defense contracting.
The new project, which Hegseth dubbed “Project Meridian” in an event in Quantico, Virginia, on Wednesday, will be led by Pentagon official Emil Michael, a former Uber executive. As the Guardian has reported, Michael made millions in profits off non-public Musk company AI stock while in federal office – and while guiding the Department of Defense’s artificial intelligence efforts.
Along with Luckey and Musk, Project Meridian will also include the Trump loyalist and former speaker of the House Newt Gingrich.
Musk was one of the chief financiers of Trump’s 2024 victory, spending over a quarter of a billion dollars in the run-up to the election. Recent campaign records show he is still a major force in the coming midterms. His America Pac spent $3.4m attacking the Democratic candidate Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan’s Senate race, for example. In the hotly contested Texas Senate race, America Pac spent $6.4m to oppose Democrat James Talarico and $1m to support the Trump-endorsed Ken Paxton.
Musk’s SpaceX has been a crucial contractor for US space programs since 2018, and in the second Trump administration his company has emerged as key player in Trump’s pet Golden Dome ballistic missile defense project, a phenomenally expensive effort that could cost as much as $1.2tn.
Musk dwarfs Luckey in resources and fame, but Luckey has achieved immense celebrity in the defense contracting and world. Initially a young celebrity in the tech world for inventing a virtual reality headset, Luckey later founded Anduril, a defense contracting company that has already won significant federal contracts.
Luckey has also become of the most important “bundlers” for Republican candidates on the west coast, as the Guardian reported in August. One of the sources called him the “godfather of Republican fundraising on the west coast”. Invitations to political fundraisers obtained by the Guardian show Luckey hosted and co-hosted events for candidates from Trump himself to Ken Calvert, Rick Scott, Mehmet Oz, Ted Cruz and others. The most recent event was on 22 August, where he and his wife co-hosted a $50,000-a-head effort to “Keep the Senate”, and listing guests John Thune of South Dakota, Mike Rogers of Michigan, Dan Sullivan of Alaska and Jon Husted of Ohio.
It is not necessarily a mystery what Musk and Luckey think about warfare’s future.
The 34-year-old Palmer, whose company is backed by Joshua Kushner’s equity fund, has acquired manufacturers of underwater drones, UAVs, and space technology, has been already been voluble about his philosophy on warfare. Earlier this year, for example, he said he thought warfare in the second half of this century would involve “subterranean” conflict, with vehicles that can “move through he crust of the earth the same way that submarines move through the water”.
He has claimed that his company has “working prototypes of subterranean systems”.
“Bringing major industry players into these types of positions at the Pentagon is not something new, but what feels different now is the substantial financial support these two have, and continue to, deliver for the Republican party,” said Brendan Glavin of Open Secrets, a non-partisan group that tracks campaign spending.
The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
