Defund Elon Musk
No private individual should have the power to determine US foreign policy, as Musk has attempted to do in Ukraine
By Robert Reich/The Guardian
Tue 27 Oct 2026 06.00 EDT
Why billionaires shouldn’t be allowed to buy up major media, and why our government shouldn’t give them huge military contracts.
I’m talking about Elon Musk, of course.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Musk “ordered the slowdown of a military-grade version of Starlink relied on by Ukraine”. The decision “sparked panic in Kyiv and confusion inside the Trump administration, U.S. officials and people familiar with the matter said”.
Musk and Trump, the Journal noted, have both “expressed anger at Ukraine for attacking Russian diesel refineries in recent weeks, which the president blames for high energy prices” – although the high prices are really due to Trump’s war in Iran.
This month, Musk slowed “the speeds at which Ukrainian hardware could stay connected to the satellite-based network … rendering some offensive drones and interceptor drones virtually useless”.
According to the Journal, “Musk and Trump discussed the Starlink decision in a call soon after the slowdown became public.”
Who gave Musk authority to slow his satellite service in the first place? Musk finally admitted this weekend that he had pulled the plug because, he wrote on Twitter/X: “Ukraine military violated Starlink terms of service and used it for offensive drone strikes to kill people.”
So Musk can decide on his own when a foreign country working alongside the United States against a brutal dictator can have access to vital US intelligence?
Every time I list another of Musk’s outrages, someone says: “Yes, but he’s an innovator!”
He’s not. As is made clear in Alex Gibney’s smart new documentary, Musk, Elon didn’t invent Tesla. He didn’t invent X. He got plenty of help founding SpaceX.
Musk is to innovation what Trump is to governing.
We must tax the wealth of billionaires, not just income. California can lead the way
Read more
Both are conmen. Both are megalomaniacs. Both love authoritarians and detest democracy. Neither believes in (or harbors an ounce of) empathy toward anyone. Both think nothing of corrupting governments for personal gain.
Both spout bigoted filth all hours of the day and night to hundreds of millions of people.
OK, let me just say it out loud: both Musk and Trump are loathsome human beings.
Someday historians will come up with an explanation of how two such awful people could have become the two most powerful people in the US, if not the world (what was it about the US in the early 21st century?).
But for now, the goal of all sane people must be to defund both and get them as far away from politics as possible.
That will be difficult, to be sure. Musk has so far sunk roughly $445m into the 2026 midterm election cycle – all to help Republicans retain control of Congress. That makes him the largest single known donor in the entire midterm elections. Will he expect a return on his investment?
By Robert Reich/The Guardian
Tue 27 Oct 2026 06.00 EDT
Why billionaires shouldn’t be allowed to buy up major media, and why our government shouldn’t give them huge military contracts.
I’m talking about Elon Musk, of course.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Musk “ordered the slowdown of a military-grade version of Starlink relied on by Ukraine”. The decision “sparked panic in Kyiv and confusion inside the Trump administration, U.S. officials and people familiar with the matter said”.
Musk and Trump, the Journal noted, have both “expressed anger at Ukraine for attacking Russian diesel refineries in recent weeks, which the president blames for high energy prices” – although the high prices are really due to Trump’s war in Iran.
This month, Musk slowed “the speeds at which Ukrainian hardware could stay connected to the satellite-based network … rendering some offensive drones and interceptor drones virtually useless”.
According to the Journal, “Musk and Trump discussed the Starlink decision in a call soon after the slowdown became public.”
Who gave Musk authority to slow his satellite service in the first place? Musk finally admitted this weekend that he had pulled the plug because, he wrote on Twitter/X: “Ukraine military violated Starlink terms of service and used it for offensive drone strikes to kill people.”
So Musk can decide on his own when a foreign country working alongside the United States against a brutal dictator can have access to vital US intelligence?
Every time I list another of Musk’s outrages, someone says: “Yes, but he’s an innovator!”
He’s not. As is made clear in Alex Gibney’s smart new documentary, Musk, Elon didn’t invent Tesla. He didn’t invent X. He got plenty of help founding SpaceX.
Musk is to innovation what Trump is to governing.
We must tax the wealth of billionaires, not just income. California can lead the way
Read more
Both are conmen. Both are megalomaniacs. Both love authoritarians and detest democracy. Neither believes in (or harbors an ounce of) empathy toward anyone. Both think nothing of corrupting governments for personal gain.
Both spout bigoted filth all hours of the day and night to hundreds of millions of people.
OK, let me just say it out loud: both Musk and Trump are loathsome human beings.
Someday historians will come up with an explanation of how two such awful people could have become the two most powerful people in the US, if not the world (what was it about the US in the early 21st century?).
But for now, the goal of all sane people must be to defund both and get them as far away from politics as possible.
That will be difficult, to be sure. Musk has so far sunk roughly $445m into the 2026 midterm election cycle – all to help Republicans retain control of Congress. That makes him the largest single known donor in the entire midterm elections. Will he expect a return on his investment?
