President Donald Trump on Wednesday insisted it had nothing to do with the economic slowdown. space x‘s Starlink is in Ukraine, but it’s unclear whether Elon Musk was responsible for speed-limiting the critical satellite service.
Mr. Trump’s latest denial came a day after the Wall Street Journal reported that Mr. Musk had ordered the slowdown and had consulted with Mr. Trump, citing unnamed U.S. officials and people familiar with the matter.
When asked about the decision, President Trump told reporters, “I had no involvement in it,” as he left the White House for a campaign rally in South Carolina.
Asked whether SpaceX founder and CEO Musk ordered the slowdown, Trump said: “I don’t know who did it, but I was not involved.”
Recent sabotage of StarShield, the military version of Starlink, effectively disabled some Ukrainian drones and weakened their defenses against Russian attacks.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Monday that his country’s military still faces “speed restrictions on Starlink and StarShield services in various areas of the front.”
“There has been no clarification from the U.S. side to Ukraine on any of these issues,” he said.
The newspaper reported on Tuesday that two people familiar with the matter said Musk and Trump discussed moves to rein in Starlink “immediately” after the changes were first made public last week.
One of the people who spoke to the news organization claimed that before imposing speed limits on Starlink, Mr. Musk discussed the issue with multiple government officials, including Mr. Trump himself.
Mr. Trump and Mr. Musk have recently stepped up their criticism of Mr. Zelensky. However, it has not yet been determined who ordered the Starlink disruption.
Musk told X last week that the StarShield system is “owned and controlled by the U.S. government,” and that speeds and limits on its use are “determined by the U.S. military and ultimately the president.”
Earlier on Wednesday, Zelesnkyi said he had “detailed discussions with Norwegian Defense Minister Tore Sandvik about the work to start up new satellite communication capabilities for our warfighters.”
“We will engage partners who are capable of providing assistance,” Zelenskiy said in the X post.
Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Wednesday morning that he didn’t think Musk would rein in Starlink without “at least the acquiescence of the White House.”
