Trump Called Musk and Asked Him to Reverse the Starlink Restrictions on Ukraine, per WSJ
A presidential call to the Starlink owner
Trump has called Elon Musk and asked him to reverse the Starlink restrictions on Ukraine, per WSJ. The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday, citing US officials, that President Donald Trump phoned the SpaceX chief executive and asked him to lift the restrictions on Ukraine's use of the satellite network.
Trump told Musk he was frustrated the system's speeds remained capped at around 100 mph (160 kph), the Journal said, citing officials. The cap matters because Ukraine uses Starlink for battlefield communications and drone operations, and restricting the service hampered the country's attack and air defense drone missions against Russia.
Working better, but not fully restored
The Starlink system was working more normally on Thursday, shortly after the Trump-Musk conversation, according to US and Ukrainian officials cited by the Journal. Some Ukrainian officials told the newspaper the system was not restored to full functionality but was working at higher speeds than under the cap.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said earlier on Thursday that Starlink speed had not been restored for Ukraine, adding that he hoped for talks with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in the coming days. Rubio said on Wednesday that decisions regarding Ukraine's access to Starlink were up to its parent company SpaceX and its CEO Musk, not the White House. Trump has denied being involved in the decision concerning the slowdown. Neither the White House nor Musk immediately commented on the reported call.
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SpaceX is private, so Tesla remains the public proxy for Musk headline risk, and Starlink has become a recurring geopolitical lever inside that story: the same network is now the subject of reported Democratic investigation plans and a presidential phone call in the same week. A full restoration eases one friction point between Washington and Kyiv; a continued cap keeps Ukraine's drone operations, and the politics around them, in the headlines. Watch Tesla positioning around any confirmation from Musk or SpaceX, and follow the story on the Unusual Whales news feed.
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