The NSA specializes in SIGINT -- signals intelligence -- mostly gleaned from interception of radio signals across the whole usable frequency spectrum, public bands and otherwise. Nowadays that includes cell phones and wireless devices of all kinds, as well as satellite ground stations. The NSA maintains antenna "farms" which capture radio signals from across the whole surface of the globe, and processes enormous volumes of intercepted data and metadata, armed with some of the most powerful IT and cryptographic resources in the whole world, including multiple installations of whichever model of Cray is most current (NSA often gets Cray's first deliverable of new models). The primary job requirements in the NSA are two -- first, the highest level of security clearance possible, and secondly, the highest available level of technical competence. Political appointees -- especially Trump's brand of Dunning-Kruger hyper-overconfident hires -- would fundamentally, and possibly irreversibly, degrade the NSA's abilities to accomplish its mission. Turnip, and especially Musk, must be kept as far away from the NSA as possible -- not only to maintain its abilities at the highest level, but to prevent it from violating its statutory exclusion from retaining data from exclusively domestic signals (something which was probably violated extensively under Bu**sh**/Cheney).
As I was typing this, I was struck by the utterly horrible thought that Musk might decide to take an interest in the NSA, and try to force Starlink technology to be adopted within its secure bubble. More billion-$$$ contracts for Musk (N-ZA), probably the most compromisable national security figure in the entire US gov't. -- and his really iffy AIs providing hallucinatory data summaries on grave issues of national security. That's a clusterfuck we really need to avoid, and the current maladministration lacks the competence, and especially the inclination, to manage that.
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