Veteran technology journalist Kara Swisher was flabbergasted Monday as President Donald Trump and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk seemingly played games in Ukraine with people's lives at stake.
Over the last week, reports indicate that Trump's White House gave an order to slow down Ukraine's access to Starshield systems, a Musk-developed product that helps the Ukrainian military defend against Russian ballistic missile attacks. Trump and Musk have both pointed fingers at each other about the incident, even though both were at least aware of the incident, Swisher said.
"Idon't think he's telling thetruth. Obviously someone knows how it happened, and I would tend to believe the Ukrainians over Musk or Trump at any time," Swisher said on CNN's "Anderson Cooper 360."
"Theywere basically trying to passthe hot potato back and forthwhen things blew up in them, soto speak," she added.
The slowdown of Ukraine's Starshield capabilities was followed up by a series of moves by Trump that have some Republicans up in arms. Trump has agreed to purchase millions of barrels of diesel fuel from Russia, which gives the country more money to fight its war of aggression against Ukraine, and has suspended sanctions on Russia that were due to go into effect this week.
Swisher noted that Trump and Musk's finger-pointing has served both men as a distraction.
"This is justkind of ridiculous that we evenplay these games with thesepeople," Swisher said.
She also noted that it is "hard to square" how Trump can deny he knew about the order coming from his White House. It raises questions about why he didn't know and who is making decisions about a war that has resulted in American casualties.
At the same time, Trump appears to be entertaining a hypothetical summit between himself, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and China's Xi Jinping to end the war in Ukraine. Such a summit would seem like a blast from the distant past, according to Swisher.
"It's anincredible idea to do somethingto slice up dominion,essentially. It feels like we'reback in another century," she said.