Evan Feinman, who had been steering the $42.5 billion broadband initiative, didn’t mince words, warning that the plan to fund Starlink for rural broadband is a blatant sellout. 

In a 1,100-word tirade, Feinman fumed: "Stranding all or part of rural America with worse internet so that we can make the world’s richest man even richer is yet another in a long line of betrayals by Washington."

His remarks come as Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick vows to rip up the programme’s existing framework, which was initially designed to favour high-speed fibre over SpaceX’s satellite offerings. 

The Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) programme, born out of the 2021 infrastructure law, was already a political football, with the cocaine nose jobs of Wall Street grumbling about the Biden administration’s slow rollout.

Now, under new management, the project could be turned into a goldmine for Starlink despite its technology being "inferior," according to Feinman.

He urged policymakers to push back, insisting rural communities shouldn’t be stuck with “slower speeds at higher costs” just because Trump’s lot fancy doing Musk a favour. 

Feinman isn’t particularly fussed about the Trump administration tossing out the climate, labour, and affordability requirements baked into the programme, calling them "political messaging fluff" from the previous regime.

What he does care about, though, is states keeping their flexibility to secure the best broadband solutions. The broadband rollout in Louisiana, Delaware, and Nevada has already ground to a halt under this uncertainty, with no timeline in sight for the new plans. 

Meanwhile, with Arielle Roth’s confirmation as NTIA head still twisting in the Senate’s wind, the entire broadband expansion plan is teetering on the brink.

If Trump’s crew push ahead with their Starlink bonanza, it’ll be another triumph for Musk’s wallet—and another raw deal for the people who just want decent internet speeds.