Comment by kelnos

Sure, and speeding up the ISS deorbit timeline would almost certainly mean a lot more money for SpaceX, at a time when SpaceX's competitors are still very far behind in terms of capability. Musk wants an earlier ISS deorbit because it lines his pockets sooner, and more reliably.

Not only does Musk have a lot of power to get favors granted to him now, but I'm sure he also realizes that there could be significant backlash against him and his companies during a future administration, if his and Trump's actions turn out to be as broadly, bipartisan-ly unpopular as I'm hoping. So not only will he want to extract as much as he can from the government now, he'll want to consolidate and increase his lead over his competitors so a future administration may have no choice but to continue using SpaceX for the bulk of its needs.