What did Donald Trump do today?
He admitted he's not in control of military decisions in his own administration, or worse.
Last week, the satellite communication service provided to the Ukrainian military by Starlink was abruptly throttled. The resulting breakdown in communications forced the Ukrainian military to scrap missions.
Starlink is a subsidiary of SpaceX, which is largely owned by its CEO, Elon Musk. When asked if he was responsible for the denial of service to Ukraine, Musk shifted the blame to the White House, saying that the particular service Ukraine was using was controlled by the United States government.
Asked about the matter today, however, Trump adamantly insisted he had nothing to do with it. "I wasn’t involved," Trump said. "I don’t know who did it, but I was not involved."
Trump's categorical denial that he knew what was happening with the Starlink shutdown leaves exactly three possibilities, all of them damning.
- Trump is outright lying. This is the most straightforward explanation, and in some ways the least problematic, but it's also the least likely. Trump is now openly siding with the Putin regime, supporting it both financially and diplomatically in its invasion of Ukraine.
- Trump has been cut out of the loop by his own subordinates. According to reporting, crippling the Starlink service to Ukraine was Musk's idea, although Musk also immediately denied responsibility. But Musk, who poured hundreds of millions of dollars into the 2024 election and essentially forced himself on to Trump's campaign, has reveled in his control over Trump and Trump's agenda. Furious Trump staffers complained to reporters that Musk was acting as a "co-president" on Trump's return to the White House.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth also has a history of making decisions about Ukraine without informing Trump—in fact, he's done it more than once. Trump has been unwilling or unable to hold Hegseth accountable. - Trump was kept fully informed about Musk's plan, but couldn't understand it, or has already forgotten about it. Trump is notoriously lax about doing even basic preparation for the national security aspects of the presidency, and his fragile mental and cognitive health has been a concern since his first term. On Monday, for example, he stopped before boarding a helicopter to wave at crowds and salute troops that were not there.
It is entirely possible that Trump signed off on these and any number of other plans without understanding or bothering to take note of what he was ordering.
Why does this matter?
- Presidents don't just get to shrug and say "it's not my fault" when something goes wrong.
- Having a monstrously incompetent president in charge is bad; having it be unclear who is exercising the powers of the presidency is worse.