Donald Trump’s efforts to cut ties with Elon Musk and SpaceX might have hit a sudden roadblock.

This was confirmed when a formal review laid down how crucial his contracts are to the US space dominance.

Trump had suggested at the height of his feud with the world’s richest man that the administration could save millions of dollars by terminating government contracts with Musk’s firms.

This would force him to head back home to South Africa. The relationship had specifically combusted over Musk’s criticism of Trump’s big beautiful bill and other personal attacks related to the president’s former relationship with child trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.

Days later, one more senior official mentioned how the Defense Department was ordered to fill out a form that detailed every current SpaceX contract and transaction agreement, as shared by the WSJ.

The official mentioned how the data collected would be shared with the White House to await more instructions. Similar requests were made to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration in an effort to establish whether a competitor could run the same contracts in a more effective manner.

The review from the Defense Department established how most of the deals with SpaceX were vital to the missions of the department and NASA.