Cards Against Humanity—a self-described “party game for horrible people”—is suing Elon Musk’s SpaceX to the tune of $15 million dollars, claiming that the company trespassed on and “completely fucked” up their parcel of land on the US-Mexico border.
Back in 2017, after then-president Donald Trump had run and won, in part, on promising to “build a great great wall on our southern border” and “have Mexico pay for that wall,” Cards Against Humanity decided to throw a wrench into his proposed plan. They pooled funds, $15 dollars per person, according to the company’s lawsuit, from 150,000 subscribers to buy land on the border to prevent Trump from building on it. Fast forward, and the company is now alleging that SpaceX has been using their property to house building materials for a nearby project.
“Elon Musk’s SpaceX was building some space thing nearby, and he figured he could just dump his shit all over our gorgeous plot of land without asking,” the Cards Against Humanity team wrote. “After we caught him, SpaceX gave us a 12-hour ultimatum to accept a lowball offer for less than half our land’s value. We said, ‘Go fuck yourself, Elon Musk. We’ll see you in court.’”
At the time, the company sent out certificates to those who donated to the cause which confirmed the individual helped Cards Against Humanity purchase 0.000667% of this area of land. “This document further certifies that any attempt by the U.S. Government to build a wall on this land will be resisted to the full extent of the law,” it reads.
The land in question sits on a plot in Cameron County, Texas—a coastal area on the southern tip of the state. SpaceX, Musk’s private spaceflight company that has sent satellites and people to space, has been operating in Texas for over two decades. The company’s dealings in the state have increased since then—as has Musk’s political influence. In the past decade, Elon Musk and businesses connected to SpaceX have contributed more than $500,000 to the campaigns of two dozen elected officials from the region since 2014, according to a Reuters’ special report published on Friday.
Since 2017, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX has contributed seven times as much to Republican campaigns and political committees than to Democratic ones, according to a HuffPost review of Federal Election Commission data.
Musk has also contributed increasingly large sums to The National Republican Congressional Committee and the pro-Donald Trump America PAC. He’s been bankrolling the latter. (At one point, Musk reportedly claimed he would be donating $45 million dollars a month to elect Trump. Later, he called the reporting on his promised contributions “not true.”)
In July, Musk officially endorsed Trump and has been a vocal supporter of the former president, interviewing him for hours on X and calling him “the path to prosperity.”
The “Lone Star State has become a preferred base of operations for Musk,” the Reuters’ report reads. SpaceX has reportedly created 2,100 direct jobs and economically transformed the southern towns.
“After a Delaware court rejected billions in compensation awarded to him by the board of Tesla, Musk this year moved the electric carmaker’s corporate registry to Texas. In July, he said the headquarters of X, his social media platform, and SpaceX would soon follow,” Reuters’ Marisa Taylor reported.
“Whatever the impact, the relationship between SpaceX and the area’s political class is mutually beneficial,” she continued. “The company’s bonds with local officials have allowed Starbase to grow fast and permitted local authorities to tout a type of economic progress that has long evaded the area, known broadly as the Rio Grande Valley.”