The Money
REPORTED. The New York Times (Theodore Schleifer, Oct. 12) says Musk's representatives gave it figures, ahead of a federal filing deadline, showing he put more than $276 million into Republican groups from July through September: $158 million to the Senate Leadership Fund, over $76 million to his own America PAC, $20 million to the Congressional Leadership Fund, $10 million to Lone Star Liberty PAC (backing Ken Paxton in Texas), $10 million to the Republican Governors Association and $2 million to the Republican Attorneys General Association. The Times puts his 2025-26 federal giving at about $366 million, against roughly $290 million in the 2024 cycle, and says he also made seven-figure gifts through groups that do not disclose donors. It reports the Senate Leadership Fund began a $149 million pro-Paxton ad campaign in late August, after his money arrived. View Dashboard →
DOCUMENTED. The Old Goat queried the Federal Election Commission's itemized receipts for Musk on Oct. 15. The newest posted entries are four America PAC items dated June 30 (second quarter). The third-quarter reports were not yet in the database. The Old Goat will check again and update this page when they post.
SOURCE: PAUL KRUGMAN. Krugman wrote on Oct. 13 that a Times analysis found 300 billionaires accounted for 19 percent of all reported federal campaign contributions in the 2024 election, and that the rise in U.S. wealth concentration since 1979 came mostly from the top 0.01 percent. His conclusion is that a society with a class of ultra-wealthy oligarchs is "well on its way to becoming a full-blown oligarchy." The Old Goat takes Krugman's research as the source and agrees with the conclusion; the reading below is the Old Goat's own.
The Contracts and the Panel
REPORTED. Reuters, in a story carried by Defense News on May 26, reported that SpaceX raised the Pentagon's connection fee for Starlink service on LUCAS one-way attack drones from about $5,000 to $25,000. The $25,000 is a monthly fee, not a per-terminal price; Pentagon officials objected that it was built for aircraft, but the Pentagon agreed to pay it, almost doubling the cost of each drone, which had run about $30,000. SpaceX did not comment.
REPORTED. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced Project Meridian in late September or early October, a panel with 120 days to report on the future of warfare, led by Musk with Palmer Luckey and Newt Gingrich under the Pentagon's chief technology officer, Emil Michael. Accounts differ on the day of the announcement; the Old Goat found no Pentagon release.
The Switch
REPORTED. The Times reported Oct. 14 that Ukraine's military lost some access to Starshield, the military version of Starlink that the Pentagon pays for, without warning. Ukrainian defense officials said SpaceX had restricted use on devices moving faster than 100 miles per hour, and that missions were disrupted, including drones and interceptors used against Russian Shahed drones. Musk wrote on X: "Any limits on speed or usage are decided by the US military and ultimately POTUS," per Fox News. Ukrainian Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov said connectivity up to 160 km/h was being restored and urged that the cap be removed entirely. Two U.S. officials told reporters the decision was not a high-level policy call, per the Philadelphia Inquirer's account. Senator Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) asked SpaceX to clarify. The Times notes Starlink does not operate in Russia, so the cap does not touch the refinery dispute.
REPORTED, with a caution the Old Goat owes the reader: speed limits on Starlink terminals in Ukraine are not new. In January and February 2026 SpaceX imposed a speed cap and a registration whitelist aimed at Russian drones using the service. This new restriction is on the military-grade network Ukraine relies on. Whether it is a technical measure, a contract matter or a policy decision is not established.
What the Old Goat Thinks It Means
This part is opinion, labeled as opinion. The same man is the largest known donor of the midterms, a Pentagon supplier that set its own price for drone connectivity during a war, a co-leader of a Pentagon panel on how future wars are fought, and the owner of the network that decides what speed a Ukrainian drone may fly. In the same week the president eased sanctions on Russian diesel, said Ukraine needs "a new president," and pressed Kyiv to stop striking Russian refineries, which the Old Goat has written about. It is the Old Goat's INFERENCE that the pattern matters even if no one ordered anything: a private company that holds a wartime chokepoint is a lever that can be pulled by a customer, a government or its owner, and Musk's own sentence says the lever sits with the president. If that is right, the cap is a government decision and the public should be told which official made it. If it is wrong, one man's company set a limit on an American ally's defense and let the government take the blame.
It is also the Old Goat's INFERENCE, following the Times' own reporting that a Democratic Congress could open investigations into DOGE and Musk's companies, that his money buys more than votes. It buys a Congress that does not look. The Times does not say that this is why he gave; it says the business risk is part of the picture.
Counter-evidence, plainly: Musk is allowed to give money; the Times describes him as less involved this cycle than in 2024; earlier speed limits had a stated military purpose; connectivity is being partly restored; two U.S. officials say it was not a policy decision; and no source reviewed links a donation to a contract, a price or a cap.
When one company holds the switch, someone is always asking who flipped it.
The Old Goat will watch the FEC for the Q3 filings, for who in the government owns the Starshield limit, for any Senate or House letter to the Pentagon or SpaceX, for the Project Meridian report in about 120 days, and for any change to the LUCAS connectivity price.