SpacexAI Founder and CEO Elon Musk and Nvidia President and CEO Jensen Huang look on at the White House driveway following a luncheon for tech leaders in the East Room, in Washington, D.C., US, September 29, 2026. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
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.
"I don't think he's telling the truth. 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."
"They were basically trying to pass the hot potato back and forth when things blew up in them, so to 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 just kind of ridiculous that we even play these games with these people," 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 an incredible idea to do something to slice up dominion, essentially. It feels like we're back in another century," she said.
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