All posts tagged "Elon Musk"

The Trump administration's insistence that it has no say over Elon Musk's satellite network just ran headlong into a damning new account.

Reuters reported Friday that the Biden and Trump administrations both asked SpaceX several times over the years to switch its Starlink service on or off in various countries, long before this month's slowdown of Ukraine's military access. Six former senior U.S. officials described the requests to the outlet, which said they had never been reported before.

The report lands two days after Secretary of State Marco Rubio insisted the decision over Ukraine's access belonged to Musk and SpaceX rather than the White House....

A Republican lawmaker who worked as an FBI agent in Ukraine demands sworn testimony over a decision he warned "costs human lives."

Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) told CNN's Kaitlan Collins on Tuesday that if Elon Musk ordered a lapse in Starshield coverage for Ukraine, as a report says, "that is likely a violation of the law." Fitzpatrick said Musk has authority over Starlink, the commercial satellite internet service, but not Starshield, which the congressman called "a military-grade national security tool."

"No individual civilian should have any decision-making authority on how that's deployed," he said....

Elon Musk's attempt to distance himself from a move Ukraine says put lives at risk took a major hit with a new report.

The SpaceX founder personally ordered the slowdown of a military-grade version of Starlink that Ukrainian forces rely on, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday, citing U.S. officials and people familiar with the matter. The speed cap rendered some of Ukraine's attack and interceptor drones close to useless, according to the report.

That account clashes with what Musk told the public. Hours after the slowdown came to light, he posted on X that "any limits on speed or usage are decided by the US military and ultimately POTUS."...

Republican groups have put more than $740 million into congressional races since Labor Day, but according to CNBC, the money has done little to shift the battlefield.

AdImpact data shows GOP groups spent that sum from Labor Day through October 14, with at least $220 million from Trump-aligned organizations. Elon Musk, the biggest known donor of the cycle, has given another $276 million to Republican groups since July. Even so, Democrats still lead polling averages across the nine competitive Senate races CNBC tracked, much as they did before the surge.

Republican pollster Neil Newhouse explained the limits. “Money is an amplifier, not a magic wand,” he said, noting that ad volume can’t change a hostile climate....

Elon Musk’s attempt to wash his hands of a decision Ukraine says proved deadly blew up in his face after a new report tied him to it, and critics wasted no time pouncing.

The Telegraph reported Friday that Musk brought President Donald Trump the idea of slowing Ukraine’s access to Starshield, the military-grade version of SpaceX’s Starlink satellite network, citing four sources familiar with the discussion. One source said Trump “agreed,” after which the Pentagon capped the system’s speed, crippling Ukraine’s drone defenses.

The report came two days after Musk publicly pinned the blame on Trump. Replying on X Wednesday, the SpaceX chief insisted, “Any limits on speed or usage are decided by the US military and ultimately POTUS.”...

Critics of President Donald Trump unloaded on his White House after a new report traced a deadly battlefield decision straight to his doorstep.

Reuters reported Thursday that the order to limit Starshield, the military-grade version of SpaceX's Starlink service that Ukrainian troops use for drone operations and battlefield communications, came from inside the White House, according to two U.S. officials and a Western official briefed on the matter.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said people were killed when interceptor drones relying on the system stopped working. On Wednesday, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk pinned the limits on the U.S. military and "ultimately" the president. A senior U.S. official insisted to Reuters that "no such request was ever made by the president."...