Ongoing talks ‘appeared to move forward’ after meeting, according to reports. A deal that would see Elon Musk’s SpaceX take over secure communications for the Italian government is reportedly back on track and nearing final approval after Italy’s prime minister met with Donald Trump this weekend.
![[Elon Musk is seen with Trump, JD Vance and Speaker of the House Mike Johnson at the Army-Navy football game]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2025/01/05/21/GettyImages-2189976824.jpg)
Bloomberg reports that the burgeoning agreement “appeared to move forward” after right-wing prime minister Giorgia Meloni met with Donald Trump on Saturday at Mar-a-Lago, where the incoming president continues to hold court ahead of his inauguration.
It wasn’t immediately clear if Elon Musk was in attendance for the meeting, but the SpaceX CEO has been like a shadow to the president-elect since November. The agreement is still not final, but could see Musk win a lucrative contract with a foreign government with the aid of his new political ally just a few months after Musk bankrolled a multi-state effort to defeat Kamala Harris and other Democratic candidates. Musk is also set to have Trump’s ear in the White House thanks to his position running the Department of Government Efficiency, which is likely to be an advisory council supposedly focused on cost-cutting in the federal government.
In reality, it means that Musk and his associated companies will likely continue to have near-limitless access to the president of the United States and the network of foreign and domestic contacts resulting from the second merger of the presidency and Trumpworld. In September, he tweeted his approval of new changes to the Italian telecommunications sector — long controlled by the Italian government — which a blogger wrote was “paving the way for Starlink as an Italian backup system.”.
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