• President Trump’s rally comments about male candidates are getting more and more, er, specific. Maybe he’s listened to “YMCA” too many times?
• President Trump struck a reprehensible deal with the Kremlin. He will waive U.S. sanctions against Russia, in likely violation of federal law, in exchange for a trivial amount of Russian diesel fuel that would have a negligible impact on the sky-high prices currently being paid by Americans — and for no material concessions of any kind from Vladimir Putin. Trump then unilaterally declared an “energy cease-fire,” even though Ukraine’s innovative drone attacks on Russian energy infrastructure have proved to be one of its most effective weapons. When Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky objected, primarily because the Kremlin showed zero inclination to abide by a cease-fire, Trump belligerently lashed out at him again and again, blaming Ukraine for the war, repeatedly insulting Zelensky, and calling for his ouster. It was at this moment that Starshield — the military version of SpaceX’s Starlink, which Elon Musk’s company provides for the Pentagon, and which Ukraine uses to coordinate its air defenses — went down for about 72 hours. During this outage, Russia conducted some of the most intensive aerial attacks against Ukrainian territory since the war began, killing and wounding dozens and shutting down power for 600,000. Trump and Musk each denied ordering restrictions on Starshield, but as we go to press, public reporting strongly suggests that Musk approached Trump with the idea in order to turn the heat up on Kyiv. A bipartisan group of nine U.S. senators has demanded an inspector general investigation into the Starshield disruptions. But Congress should provide real oversight by holding public hearings and calling witnesses under oath to explain why its legislation — both a 2022 sanctions law and another one passed just weeks ago — was so directly undermined. Hanlon’s razor cautions us never to attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by incompetence. Perhaps that explains this fiasco, but we have our doubts.
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