An exclusive report Friday that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered U.S. Cyber Command to abandon planning against Russian aggression panicked policy experts and political observers.
The latest transformation in the relationship between the United States and Russia under President Donald Trump’s new administration came last week when Hegseth delivered the new guidance, which includes withdrawing U.S. efforts against Russia’s “offensive digital actions,” according to a new report in The Record, which covers cybersecurity news.
While the full range of Hegseth’s order remains unknown, social media users sharply criticized the Trump administration over its impact on American foreign policy.
“Annnnnnnd there you have it. We've literally & officially surrendered to Vladimir Putin,” health care analyst Charles Gaba wrote on Bluesky.
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“An admin throwing away all its leverage,” Shashank Joshi, The Economist's defense editor, told Bluesky followers.
Alina Polyakova, president and CEO of the Center for European Policy Analysis, painted a grim picture of what she believes the move represents.
“This is the moment the US aligns itself with a Russian dictator who has worked every min to kill US global dominance,” Polyakova, a senior fellow at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, wrote on X. “And we are doing it for him.”
“It is no longer hyperbole to suggest that these folks are Russian agents,” political scientist Steve Saideman said on Bluesky. “You don't stand down Cyber Command from planning this kind of stuff. That is what Commands do, they plan.”
Ronnie Adkins, a U.S. Army veteran and host of the History Channel’s “Military Mysteries,” told his X followers: “I stood up US Cyber Command in 2010. I am certain that they’ll execute this order. I’m not certain that Russia will reciprocate.”
