Did Elon Musk Commit Some Light Treason?

In the war between Russia and Ukraine, the latter has gained the edge on the battlefield over the last year or so, even rolling up an attempted Russian pincer with Operation Vivaldi. Ukrainian forces have also stepped up their attacks on Russian oil refineries, causing major economic damage. In response, Russia has stepped up its war crimes, striking Ukrainian civilian infrastructure—above all, power plants—and deploying squads of drone operators to murder civilians at random.

Ukraine has built up a fairly effective homegrown interceptor system to track and shoot down Russian drones and missiles. One young Ukrainian boy became a national hero when he spotted a murder drone, waited for it to go past, then dashed out and snapped its fiber-optic line, thereby saving his entire family. But the more sophisticated interceptors rely on Starshield, the military version of Starlink sold by Elon Musk’s company SpaceX.

Last week, without any warning, Starshield abruptly stopped working in Ukraine on any device moving more than about 100 miles per hour, like interceptors. Not only have several massive Russian attacks since gotten through, causing major damage, but Ukraine also had no warning for some of them, meaning people could not evacuate. Dozens have been killed and hundreds injured.

Both top-shelf reporting and top officials in the Trump administration, including Trump himself, have said that Musk made this decision on his own. That would be treason. The traditional way to figure out the truth of such a matter is with a trial.

According to The Wall Street Journal, whose national security reporting is some of the best in the business, the following sequence of events occurred: On October 14, Musk personally decided to restrict Starshield service in Ukraine. On October 21, President Trump called Musk and asked him to restore the service. On October 23, Ukrainian troops reported it was still not working.

Moreover, President Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth have all stated publicly that the Trump administration did not request that Starshield be turned off.

Treason is the only crime mentioned in the United States Constitution. It is described like this: “Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort.”

Is Russia an American enemy? Plainly, yes. The U.S. has been openly on Ukraine’s side in an open shooting war. Under President Biden, America was providing Ukraine extensive financial and military assistance, and even under Trump, intelligence-sharing and weapons sales have continued. Moreover, the core of America’s (admittedly crumbling but still extant) alliance system, NATO and the EU, have been squarely on Ukraine’s side.

Is cutting off Ukraine’s internet service that it uses to shoot down Russian drones and missiles providing “aid and comfort” to Russia? Plainly, yes. At this point, Vladimir Putin’s war strategy is centered around trying to depress Ukrainian civilian morale with terror bombing. Intentionally enabling Russian war crimes—in addition to being a war crime itself and indirect mass murder—plays directly into Russian tactics.

I will also say that this whole situation feels very Musk. As longtime Musk watchers can testify, he is extraordinarily dishonest and petulant, with an immense and easily damaged ego. When offended, which is almost constantly, he is prone to lashing out violently in a fit of pique, then lying about what he has done, then doing it again. See his behavior with the stranded Thai cave divers, falsely claiming he had funding to take Tesla private, repeating misinformation about Paul Pelosi’s assault, espousing antisemitic conspiracy theories, and on and on.

SpaceX Is a De Facto Government Agency. It Should Be Nationalized.

Now, it is certainly possible that Trump ordered Starshield to be turned off, and then blamed Elon for doing so when it provoked public backlash. That would be a very Trumpy move as well. Or perhaps there was some general confusion in the worst-managed administration in history.

But this situation is absolutely intolerable. In this country, government is supposed to derive its just powers from the consent of the governed. That’s why Congress is tasked with passing laws, and the president tasked with faithfully executing them, as well as commanding the military. The richest man on Earth deciding to carry out his own freelance foreign policy is as far from constitutional government as could be imagined.

The fact that Musk has never been elected to any office and is not even eligible to run for president, and his policy is specifically to help Russia cause as much pain, suffering, and death among Ukraine’s civilian population as possible, and the situation is publicly described as such by the president of the United States and his top two foreign-policy officials, only underlines the madness.

By the way, the Space Force—the space-based branch of the U.S. military, in case you forgot—recently attempted to book some launches with SpaceX. The company refused.

So at the earliest practicable date, let us assemble everyone involved with Ukraine and Starshield, put them under oath, subpoena any and all relevant communications, figure out what happened, and apply the appropriate punishment as outlined in U.S. law as necessary. Nothing less than the continued existence of the American state—as opposed to a feudal possession of a billionaire warlord—is at stake.