First a Nazi salute, then deprive Ukraine of Internet access: Musk must be removed from control of Starlink

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Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman wrote an important article this morning. In it, he condemned Elon Musk and his decision to remove Ukraine’s access to Starlink, which allows the country to protect itself from Russian attacks using drone technology.

“Did Elon Musk decide by personal decree to cut off Ukraine’s access to vital communications?” Krugman asks. “Although Musk claims that the decision was made by Trump, according to the Wall Street Journal“Some US officials claim that Musk effectively took it upon himself to disengage Ukraine.”

Krugman reflects that US President Donald J. Trump told him to do it, “sotto voce, mafia style: ‘This Zelenskyy guy is a problem. Someone should do something about it.'” Furthermore, Krugman reminds us, Trump has Musk’s ear and could demand that Musk restore Ukraine’s access.

Of course, that hasn’t happened.

“Decisions about which countries have full access to Starlink capabilities are as much a matter of foreign policy and national security as decisions about which countries will be able to purchase and operate high-tech American weapons,” Krugman continues. “Such decisions cannot and should not be left in the hands of private individuals. This would be true even if these individuals were patriots who supported democracy and American values. They definitely should not be left in the hands of this guy.”

If you have any doubt that Musk was looking over the shoulders of Starlink’s IT engineers when Ukraine’s access to Starlink disappeared and its drones fell from the sky, then perhaps a reminder of Musk’s hand gesture during a speech on US President Donald Trump’s Inauguration Day is in order. In response to the backlash over his heil gesture, Musk professed boredom with the topic. “The ‘everyone is Hitler’ attack is very tiring,” Musk posted on X several hours after leaving the stage.

Tired? No. We remain horrified by Musk’s actions. He is part and parcel of a community of thought that has pushed America into a sewer, a place where betrayal is celebrated and the common good is vilified.

This week Musk presented the redesigned Tesla Roadster, with a supposed ability to fly as if it came out of The Jetsons cartoon. Musk is a billionaire who relies on seemingly harmless pop culture references, right? That’s kind of cute, if sometimes childish. Are you someone on the spectrum who doesn’t understand how their actions affect others? No. That’s a weak excuse. Instead, we should consider their puerile approach to communication as a way of reimposing historical economic conditions from a colonialist and imperialist past.

This is the person who led DOGE to look for fraud. What that really meant was federal job freezes, medical research at risk, massive data theft, loss of consumer protections, and indiscriminate layoffs. It wasn’t a lack of efficiency that turned out to be DOGE’s problem. It was Musk’s complicity that undermined entire lives of career federal workers and delayed scientific research for what could become decades.

He lacks empathy and is a calculating threat to the world.

Perhaps it’s time to admit that Musk’s love of fantasy and his supposed calls to save humanity are actually intertwined with a dystopian form of extreme winner-take-all capitalism.

We cannot allow Musk to continue controlling Starlink, Krugman maintains. “It’s a matter of national security: we cannot allow private individuals to make foreign and defense policy,” he says, “and it would be totally irresponsible to leave a crucial military asset in the hands of a racist, authoritarian conspiracy theorist.”

But will the US Congress listen and take action? It is doubtful.