ICYMI: AP: Trump appointees have ties to companies that stand to benefit from privatizing weather forecasts

Washington, D.C. – New reporting from the AP shows how Donald Trump’s cabinet officials and top appointees have ties to individuals and companies that would benefit from privatizing weather alerts. Since Trump took office, he’s decimated funding for the National Weather Service and NOAA, putting life–saving weather alerts at risk as extreme weather events like the flooding in Texas have become more frequent and more deadly. 

AP: Trump appointees have ties to companies that stand to benefit from privatizing weather forecasts

As commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick oversees the U.S. government’s vast efforts to monitor and predict the weather.

The billionaire also ran a financial firm, which he recently left in the control of his adult sons, that stands to benefit if President Donald Trump’s administration follows through on a decade-long Republican effort to privatize government weather forecasting.

Deadly weekend flooding in central Texas has drawn a spotlight to budget cuts and staff reductions at the National Weather Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, two agencies housed within the Commerce Department that provide the public with free climate and weather data that can be crucial during natural disasters.

What’s drawn less attention is how the downsizing appears to be part of an effort to privatize the work of such agencies. In several instances, the companies poised to step into the void have deep ties to people tapped by Trump to run weather-related agencies.

Privatization would diminish a central role the federal government has played in weather forecasting since the 1800s, which experts say poses a particular harm for those facing financial strain who may not be able to afford commercial weather data.

The effort also reveals the difficulty that uber wealthy members of Trump’s Cabinet have in freeing themselves from conflicts, even if they have met the letter of federal ethics law.

“It’s the most insidious aspect of this: Are we really talking about making weather products available only to those who can afford it?” said Rick Spinrad, who served as NOAA administrator under President Joe Biden, a Democrat. “Basically turning the weather service into a subscription streaming service? As a taxpayer, I don’t want to be in the position of saying, ‘I get a better weather forecast because I’m willing to pay for it.’”

The White House referred requests for comment to the Commerce Department, which said in a statement that Lutnick has “fully complied with the terms of his ethics agreement with respect to divesture and recusals and will continue to do so.”

Trump nominees have ties to weather-related industries

Privatizing weather agencies has long been an aim of Republicans. During Trump’s first presidency, he signed a bill that utilized more private weather data. And Project 2025, a proposed blueprint for Trump’s second presidency that was co-authored by his budget director, calls for the NOAA to be broken up and for the weather service to “fully commercialize its forecasting operations.”

Lutnick is not the only one Trump nominated for a key post with close relationships to companies involved in the gathering of vital weather data.

Trump’s pick to lead the NOAA, Neil Jacobs, was chief atmospheric scientist for Panasonic Weather Solutions and has been a vocal proponent of privatization. The president’s nominee for another top NOAA post, Taylor Jordan, is a lobbyist with a roster of weather-related clients.

“If confirmed, Dr. Jacobs and Mr. Jordan will follow the law and rely on the advice of the Department’s ethics counsel in addressing matters involving former clients,” the Commerce Department said in its statement. 

Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, who spent more than $250 million to help elect Trump, owns a controlling interest in SpaceX and its satellite subsidiary Starlink. Both are regulated by the NOAA’s Office of Space Commerce, which lost about one-third of its staff in February layoffs facilitated by the Department of Government Efficiency, which Musk helped create.

SpaceX also stands to gain through a new generation of private and federally funded weather satellites that would be carried into orbit on its rockets.

Though Musk has now departed Washington and had a very public falling out with Trump, the DOGE staffers he hired and the cuts he pushed for have largely remained in place.

Emails seeking comment sent to a lawyer who has represented Musk, as well as to media contacts at his companies X and SpaceX, received no response.

While Musk is focusing on his companies, others with potential conflicts remain immersed in government work.