DOGE’s Ties to the Military-Industrial Complex

In 2022, Musk reportedly began donating tens of millions to a nonprofit called Building America’s Future

By Donald Shaw

A political group funded by Elon Musk that until recently employed one of his partners in the Department of Government Efficiency is deeply tied to a lobbying firm that helps several of the largest Defense contractors secure contracts from the Pentagon and appropriations from Congress.

In 2022, Musk reportedly began donating tens of millions to a nonprofit called Building America’s Future. The group raised more than $53 million that year, a big uptick from the $11 million it raised the year prior, and according to the Wall Street Journal, at least $43 million of that funding was provided by Musk. According to the group’s latest tax filing, it raised $20.9 million in 2023.

During the 2024 election cycle, Building America’s Future set up and funded a network of groups that supported Trump’s election, including the fictitious Project 2028, a group that pretended to be Harris’ version of the controversial Project 2025 document, and Future Coalition PAC, which targeted Arab and Jewish voters in battleground states with contradictory messages on Kamala Harris’ stance on Israel.

Building America’s Future is closely connected to a public affairs firm led by Republican strategist Phil Cox called P2 Public Affairs. Its board members include Katherine Neal, a senior vice president at P2, and it was formerly led by Generra Peck, a partner and president with the company.

P2 principal Katie Miller was working as a senior advisor for Building America’s Future as recently as this past September, though this weekend she was named by President-elect Trump to join the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), alongside Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy. Miller, the spouse of Trump advisor Stephen Miller, was formerly a press secretary for vice president Mike Pence.

While P2 Public Affairs does not disclose the companies it provides its services to, it works closely with its “sister firm” GuidePost Strategies, a lobbying firm that publicly reports its clients in mandatory filings with the House and Senate. “Through work with our sister firm, P2 Public Affairs, GuidePost has the toolkit and experience to run national campaigns to activate voices in support of policy, shape public opinion, and create actions on behalf of your interests,” the company’s website says. GuidePost and P2 Public Affairs share the same office in Washington D.C.

According to lobbying filings, the Cox-led lobbying company works for some of the largest government contractors in the world, companies that could have billions of dollars at stake in DOGE’s decisions on where to make cuts in the federal budget.

GuidePost Strategies lobbies the government on Defense appropriations for three massive Department of Defense contractors: General Dynamics, Honeywell, and General Atomics. According to figures from Defense News, General Dynamics had nearly $34 billion in Defense revenue in 2023, the fourth-highest amount among U.S. companies, while Honeywell had almost $5 billion. Honeywell executives see drone warfare as a growth opportunity, and Musk has highlighted drones as a military solution for the DOGE commission to examine.

The Defense budget is by far the largest discretionary portion of federal spending, and about half of it goes to private contractors. The Defense budget is notorious for wasteful spending through its contractors, who face little oversight and almost no market competition. Just last month, the Pentagon failed its 7th annual audit in a row, for failing to provide auditors with sufficient data.

Defense spending is an area where some Democrats have been hoping to find common ground with Musk and DOGE. Earlier this month, House Armed Services Committee member Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) published an op-ed urging Democrats to work with DOGE on cutting the Defense budget through better contracting. “We should make defense contracting more competitive, helping small and medium-sized businesses to compete for Defense Department projects,” Khanna wrote. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has taken a similar position, writing on X that “Elon Musk is right” to be looking at cutting the Pentagon budget.

Several of GuidePost’s lobbyists have specialized in working on appropriations matters, including principal Ryan Canfield, former legislative director for the then-Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee Hal Rogers, and principal Michael Bain, who was a Democratic staffer of the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee for nearly a decade.

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