Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos: How the Trump Administration Hijacked America's Broadband Program
The $42.45 billion BEAD broadband program, originally aimed at building future-proof fiber networks, has been redirected under President Trump to favor satellite internet from Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, leaving many communities with inferior service and no job creation.
The Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program, a $42.45 billion initiative passed as part of President Joe Biden's 2021 infrastructure law, was designed to close the digital divide by deploying high-quality fiber optic networks to underserved areas. However, under the second Trump administration, the program has been drastically overhauled, redirecting billions of taxpayer dollars to satellite internet ventures run by tech billionaires Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, a Trump ally, declared the program "has not connected a single person to the internet" and implemented a restructuring that eliminated affordability and equity requirements, lowered quality standards, and shifted focus from fiber to "technology-neutral" solutions. This allowed $738.8 million to be funneled to Musk's Starlink and $311 million to Bezos' Amazon Leo, despite both companies already receiving substantial subsidies.
The changes have caused widespread delays. States that had submitted proposals under the old guidelines were forced to redo them, with some, like Maine, facing two years of work in two months. Louisiana, the first state to receive BEAD funding under the new rules, saw its fiber allocation drop from over 90% to 78%. In Lake Providence, a low-income community, $6.2 million originally earmarked for fiber was redirected to Starlink, a service already available there. Local organizer Nathanael Wills said the change created no new jobs or infrastructure: "People with Starlink are going to just get mailed a box and many won’t be able to install it."
By the end of 2025, 33 of 56 states and territories had not received grant confirmation, and as of June 2026, fewer than a few hundred homes had been connected—all via fixed wireless, much slower than fiber. States like Virginia have resisted accepting Starlink in place of fiber, but Musk has used his political influence to try to block state plans that don't prioritize his service.
Meanwhile, Bezos' Blue Origin has yet to successfully launch an operational satellite constellation. The program's future remains uncertain amid ongoing delays and controversy.
