During the 2024 Presidential campaign, the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program, meant to bring broadband internet to rural communities across the country, became a cudgel for Donald Trump and Republicans—a symbol of government inefficiency under the Biden administration because of its failure to put a dent in the internet access divide. Once Trump took office, there was a promise to revive the program and make good on the initial promise of getting people online.
You’ll be absolutely shocked to learn that, according to reporting by The Verge, BEAD under Trump’s leadership is still not connecting people, but it is lining the pockets of Trump-friendly billionaires. Notably, the program almost immediately started to shift funding to tech billionaires promising to use satellite internet to reach communities that have previously been underserved by wired internet providers. That includes a $738.8 million contract that went to Elon Musk’s SpaceX and $311 million that was awarded to Jeff Bezos and Amazon Leo.
Investments in Trump are paying dividends
You’ll of course remember that Elon Musk spent about a quarter of a billion dollars trying to get Trump elected, so getting a nearly 3x return on that in a single contract means it was an effective investment. Bezos’ company gave $1 million to Trump’s inauguration fund and spent $40 million to buy the rights to a Melania Trump documentary, so consider that money well spent, too.
The money that went to the tech giants came as the Trump administration shifted the priorities of BEAD from future-proof fiber networks to alternatives that would theoretically get people hooked up faster. But as states tried to access that money, they found it came with new catches.
When Louisiana got its BEAD funding, it came a year later than expected and reportedly came only after the state offered subsidies to Musk’s SpaceX.
Satellite internet push is stalling new fiber networks
The revamped BEAD program also deemed regions once marked for fiber buildout to be ineligible for that connectivity solution, effectively forcing them into the satellite internet option where Musk and Bezos were waiting.
The Verge found that SpaceX got paid via BEAD funds for providing access to these regions despite the fact that its service was already available in those areas and did not represent an expansion of coverage. SpaceX’s Starlink is also not exactly affordable for most low-income customers, so it being available does not necessarily mean people are actually getting connected.
Things are even worse for Amazon Leo and its sizable contract. The Verge notes that Bezos has failed to get a single operational commercial satellite constellation into orbit, and there are currently no active customers getting their internet via Amazon Leo satellites.
In case you were under the impression that the program was running more efficiently now and it’s just the companies it is working with that are falling short, don’t worry—the government is still doing a bad job on its end, too. The Verge found that 33 of the 56 states and territories that applied for funding in 2025 hadn’t even received word if they were getting grants or not, despite the Trump administration’s revamped BEAD program supposedly prioritizing getting money out quickly and with fewer hurdles.
So now, not only is BEAD failing to get people who have previously been left behind by the digital divide connected, but it’s also pouring cash into already subsidized businesses owned by billionaires who could pull the plug at any moment and leave consumers without any long-term infrastructure to address their needs.
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