The USAF definitely noticed. He technically shouldn't be able to maintain his security clearance after this. It's probably going to amount to nothing, but it's still bad- https://www.theverge.com/2018/9/7/17833208/elon-musk-air-for...
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-tesla-musk-air-force/repo...
The articles floating around are all speculation designed to pull in click/views, which you can immediately tell since none of them cited a source and even worse, mentioned having a source.
The Verge has recently turned mostly into a clickbaity outlet. I stopped visiting the site after I watched the Tesla Q2 2018 conference and them immediately releasing a video with a sensational headline claiming many things like "Elon almost lost his job", “Tesla is in trouble” which contradict the facts and were not representative of the event at all.
The fact that the federal government has not pressed the issue is telling as to which way they think courts will rule.
Add to that his level of importance (vs some military office worker with a clearance) and I’d say he’s at a much higher risk.
Flaunting it actually makes it less of a security risk in some ways; for one things no one is going to blackmail him with the threat of exposing it.
I thought it looked off but I figured she knew better than I did. It’s not exactly word I use all the time.
The agent who interviewed me said, "Are you the kind of person who speeds and owns up to it, or are you the kind of person who speeds and lies about it?" One of those is risky but generally acceptable.
I dunno. We're in a weird time. I can point to a few people that, i think, should not have clearances. But compartmentalization is a thing, perhaps those folks don't have a need to know the kinds of things i worry about.
My super casual, outside observer view is, the military might provide some facts and figures about payloads, but they're not saying this telescope can resolve .1mm from geosynchronous orbit. they're saying, it weighs this much and can withstand this much acceleration. There will likely be new revised policies on what's shared with spaceX about their payloads. But does anyone think Musk actions would lead him to be compromised?
(That represents my understanding of the clearance processes' view of the issue, not my personal beliefs).