Overnight Wednesday, Ukrainian officials accused Elon Musk’s SpaceX of throttling their nation’s access to Starshield, the military version of the company’s Starlink satellite internet service that’s been vital to Ukraine’s war effort over the past four-plus years. Musk claimed Donald Trump and the U.S. government were responsible for decisions to limit Ukraine’s access to Starshield. The restrictions were implemented hours after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned the Trump administration could cut off intelligence sharing with Kyiv if the Ukrainian military continued its long-range drone strike campaign against Russian oil refineries and data centers.
There’s no reason to suspect these efforts will prove any more successful than previous bids to coerce or restrict Ukraine. But it is a reminder that, should Democrats take one or both houses of Congress, they must Trump-proof and Musk-proof U.S. foreign policy as much as possible.
For Ukrainians, the war is existential. Putin has made it abundantly clear that he does not see Ukraine as a real nation and that he aims to destroy it — an aim that has not fundamentally changed over the past four years.
This attempt to pressure Kyiv into capitulation isn’t exactly novel: In September 2022, for instance, Musk personally ordered a shutdown of Starlink to thwart a Ukrainian strike on Russian ships anchored off the Crimean Peninsula. Since Trump began his second term, his administration has sought to strong-arm Zelenskyy by temporarily suspending intelligence sharing and effectively ending the flow of American military aid to Ukraine.
Those efforts haven’t worked the way Trump or Musk hoped. A month after the aborted operation in Crimea, Ukraine launched a similar attack using a different communications network. And halting direct military aid to Ukraine has given the U.S. less of a say over Kyiv’s strategies and tactics, including the deep strike campaign that has so vexed Trump of late. European nations have stepped up their military assistance to fill the gaps in assistance, while Ukrainian troops have held their own and even mounted a recent counteroffensive against invading Russian forces. Further withdrawal of American help will only encourage Ukraine to be even bolder in its attacks against strategic targets within Russia.
Trump and his envoys, son-in-law Jared Kushner and business partner Steve Witkoff, do not understand the stakes of the conflict. They treat the conflict and surrounding negotiations like a real-estate transaction, but for Ukrainians, the war is existential. Putin has made it abundantly clear that he does not see Ukraine as a real nation and that he aims to destroy it — an aim that has not fundamentally changed over the past four years.
For Europeans, the war remains their primary national security threat: a revanchist Russia that has swallowed and digested Ukraine will be far more dangerous to European nations, and they therefore maintain a vital interest in ensuring the Kremlin does not achieve its goals.
For all the obvious admiration Trump expresses for Putin’s ruthless gangster-style methods and his desire for some sort of global geopolitical carve-up with the Kremlin, Trump does not — and seemingly cannot — truly understand the Russian dictator’s motives or goals. Nor does he comprehend that there’s no rational case to be made that the national interests of the U.S. align with the personal ambitions and grievances of Vladimir Putin.
Coercing Kyiv while discounting Moscow’s support for Iran would be bad enough on its own, but it’s especially dangerous in this geopolitical moment.
Moreover, Trump’s renewed pressure on Kyiv comes at the same time Russia has reportedly been aiding Iran in its war with the U.S., providing Tehran with targeting information to guide its attacks on American bases in the Middle East and helping it replenish its missile and drone arsenals. Trump has outright denied these reports of Russian support to Tehran — unsurprising given his longstanding fondness for Putin.
Coercing Kyiv while discounting Moscow’s support for Iran would be bad enough on its own, but it’s especially dangerous in this geopolitical moment. Putin appears to be testing NATO’s resolve and credibility, sending drones into the airspace of NATO member nations and harassing civilian airports. It’d certainly be reasonable for the Kremlin to look at Trump’s actions and conclude that he would treat America’s NATO allies the same way he’s treated Ukraine: looking the other way while Russia attacks and pressuring nations under Russian attack to give in to Moscow’s demands. That dire outcome may yet be avoided, if only because Putin can choose to wait and see if Russia-friendly politicians win upcoming national elections across Europe.
But this latest episode in Trump’s campaign to force Ukraine’s defeat also illustrates the perils involved in granting one private individual — Musk — far too much influence over questions of national and global security. From SpaceX’s rocket business to his social media platform and artificial intelligence companies to his effective monopoly on satellite internet services, Musk has enough power to shape the fate of nations based on nothing but his own ideological whims. Worse, he faces zero accountability for his actions.
America should have Musk-proofed its foreign policy long ago, when it would have been far easier to foster competition and prevent Musk from establishing himself as a global power broker. As things stand, it will prove extremely difficult to disentangle Musk and his companies from the basic operations of the U.S. government and, in particular, the U.S. military. We have simply become too dependent on Musk’s companies and products, useful as they may well be in many cases. Stronger and more robust oversight from a Democratic Congress will be part of the equation, but it will only be the start of a long, hard political fight.
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