A former Trump administration official says a flimsy excuse from U.S. officials could crack open a new scandal over President Donald Trump’s dealings with Russia.
In a Thursday column, Miles Taylor, who served as chief of staff at the Department of Homeland Security in Trump’s first term, argued that a string of events over the past week amounts to collusion with Moscow and called on Congress to reopen the Russia investigation.
His argument centered on a CBS News report that the U.S. may have withheld warnings to Ukraine ahead of Russian missile strikes this week that killed six people and cut power to 600,000. According to sources, American officials told their Ukrainian counterparts that the system used to detect Russian launches had failed because of “bad weather.” Ukrainian officials told CBS they didn’t believe it and accused the U.S. of “playing” with the system.
Trump has denied cutting Ukraine off, telling reporters, “We are helping them, and we are sharing intel.” CBS’ sources also said overall intelligence sharing had not stopped.
But Taylor wasn't buying the weather explanation.
“Are we to believe this was a coincidence? Missile warnings and battlefield communications all coming down at the same time? Was it all ‘the weather’?” he questioned.
Taylor tied the blackout to Trump’s call with Russian President Vladimir Putin last Friday, after which Trump struck a deal to import Russian diesel, and to Trump’s Sunday announcement of an “energy cease-fire” that caught Zelensky by surprise. Ukrainian forces also lost full use of Starlink and Starshield, the government-controlled military version, for more than a day this week before service was restored Thursday. Taylor noted that Elon Musk pointed the finger at the White House.
Taylor argued that Trump may have switched off Ukraine’s defenses to pressure Kyiv into halting strikes on Russian refineries and to bring down gas prices before the midterms, which he compared to the Ukraine pressure campaign behind Trump’s first impeachment.
“In 2017, it took a special counsel to find out what Trump and Russia were doing together. In 2026, it might get blown open over an alleged lie about a weather report,” Taylor wrote.