Critics of President Donald Trump unloaded on his White House after a new report traced a deadly battlefield decision straight to his doorstep.
Reuters reported Thursday that the order to limit Starshield, the military-grade version of SpaceX's Starlink service that Ukrainian troops use for drone operations and battlefield communications, came from inside the White House, according to two U.S. officials and a Western official briefed on the matter.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said people were killed when interceptor drones relying on the system stopped working. On Wednesday, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk pinned the limits on the U.S. military and "ultimately" the president. A senior U.S. official insisted to Reuters that "no such request was ever made by the president."
Marc Polymeropoulos, a former senior CIA operations officer, warned the fallout reached far beyond the battlefield.
"If true, this is a very big deal. Not just in terms of Ukrainian lives that were lost. I'm not sure if people realize that this put the lives of US embassy officials and US citizens at large in Ukraine at great risk," he cautioned on X. "This is madness. The White House did this. I've never seen anything like this in my career. Heads should roll."
California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) zeroed in on a possible motive. "How much did Putin pay. And to whom?" he asked.
Former Illinois Republican Rep. Joe Walsh didn't hold back in his reaction. "Trump is on Putin's side. Always has been," he fumed. "Trump is actively helping Putin kill Ukrainian men, women, and children." Walsh went on to brand the president a traitor who "should be treated as such."
Miles Taylor, who served as Department of Homeland Security chief of staff during Trump's first term, called the revelation "a bigger scandal than Trump's first Ukraine impeachment."
The Bulwark's Tim Miller skewered the White House order as "a huge gift from Trump to our ally Russia." His colleague Sam Stein, The Bulwark's managing editor, hailed the report as a "big scoop."
MeidasTouch co-founder Ben Meiselas argued the order came from the "exact place the orders came from to cover up the Epstein Files, or destroy the Kennedy Center, or chop down the trees at the DC Golf Course."
Journalist Michael Weiss summed up his reaction in a single sarcastic word. "Surprise," he quipped.
If true, this is a very big deal. Not just in terms of Ukrainian lives that were lost. I’m not sure if people realize that this put the lives of US embassy officials and US citizens at large in Ukraine at great risk. This is madness. The White House did this. I’ve never seen anything like this in my career. Heads should roll. If true…
— Marc Polymeropoulos (@Mpolymer) October 16, 2026