Robert Reich wants a future Democrat administration to literally steal SpaceX and Starlink from Elon Musk.

The former labor secretary under Bill Clinton laid out his scheme on The Coffee Klatch podcast with host Heather Lofthouse, and he made zero effort to soften it. "We've got to defund Musk," Reich told The Coffee Klatch. "When I say defund Musk, you know, 75% of his wealth is dependent on taxpayers who are buying Starlink systems for the Department of Defense."

Then he got to the real goal. "Defund Musk. I mean this," he continued. "If we have a Democratic administration — and the Democrats ought to be starting this, not just with oversight hearings, but also laying the groundwork for nationalizing Starlink and SpaceX. Nationalize it."

Lofthouse didn't push back, so Reich kept going. "It should be a public corporation," he insisted. "We should not ever have that kind of power in one person's hands, one private person's hands."

That’s a former cabinet secretary who wants Washington to seize two of the most successful companies in America from the man who built them.

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Let’s be honest about the situation. The Pentagon buys Starlink because it works. The U.S. government pays SpaceX to deploy satellites because SpaceX can, while NASA cannot. How exactly does paying for a product give the customer a claim to the company that makes it?

Reich's real motive soon came through.

He branded Musk "Exhibit A in terms of the billionaire takeover of America" and claimed he "represents the power of oligarchy in America over democracy." He wasn't finished. "He is the equivalent of the robber barons of the first Gilded Age, but he's even worse, even bigger, even more corrupt in terms of trying to bribe his way into politics," Reich added. Turning to the Lone Star State, he said, "Musk is trying to buy the senator from Texas. Why should we allow this, seriously?"

Lofthouse then read Musk's posts on X aimed at Democrats, including "Live by the sword, die by the sword" and "Anyone who picks a fight with me, you're going down."

"It's not a fight. It is accountability," she said. "I mean, holding him accountable is what people are talking about. And so he's getting ahead of it, threatening, threatening, threatening, threatening—with his money, with his power, with his reach."

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Reich then told listeners exactly what Democrats have planned. "Well, he knows that if the Democrats take over the House and possibly the Senate, one of the things they are going to be doing is focusing on Elon Musk," he explained. "I mean, he's really going to be targeted, and he knows it." He predicted Musk would answer with lawsuits. When Lofthouse brought up Musk's role in ending USAID, Reich got theatrical. "People are dying, Heather. People are dying," he said. He blamed the cuts for Ebola, child hunger, maternal health, tuberculosis, and malaria, called Musk a "terrible, terrible human being," and clarified, "I'm talking about Putin and Musk and Trump."

Ironically, last year, he called Trump a fascist dictator over his opposition to Nippon Steel's acquisition of U.S. Steel and the government's stake in Intel.

"Donald Trump has put himself in the position of dictator of the United States," Reich said. Later, he complained, "There's no free market. There's not even a, there's, but again, it's not even socialism. It's not communism. It is fascist capitalism."

Now, let’s look at what Trump actually did. With U.S. Steel, his administration secured American control over key decisions affecting steel production, jobs, investment, and national security. Sounds good, right? As for Intel, the government acquired a minority stake and left day-to-day management and ordinary corporate governance with Intel.

Reich called that fascism.

Now he wants the government to take Musk's companies from him outright.

Musk responded on X the same day. "Stealing companies is a serious crime," he wrote. "Prison for Reich."

Did you notice who escaped Reich's nationalization fantasy? Blue Origin is a private space company owned by a billionaire, yet Reich proposed no takeover there or anywhere else in the private space exploration industry. SpaceX and Starlink also aren’t the only companies that get a significant portion of business from the U.S. government, either. For example, Lockheed Martin, a major U.S. military contractor, gets 72% of its revenue from the U.S. government. Booz Allen Hamilton, an intelligence, cybersecurity, defense, and government consulting firm, relies on the government for 98% of its revenue. Reich’s plan targets one company because it targets one man, a man whose politics Reich despises. Using the power of the state to strip a political enemy of his property sounds fascist to me.