U.S. Representative Mike Levin, a California Democrat, said on Friday that “someone is lying and it’s either Elon Musk or the President of the United States,” pointing to conflicting accounts from Musk and President Donald Trump over who ordered speed limits on the satellite service Ukraine’s military relies on.
“Elon Musk claimed that only the U.S. military or President Trump could impose restrictions on Starlink,” Levin wrote in a post on X. “But new reporting from the WSJ alleges that Musk himself was the one to order the slowdown that hampered Ukraine’s ability to defend itself against Russian attacks.”
“Americans deserve answers. But, everyone in the Trump Administration is pointing fingers and claiming they knew nothing,” Levin wrote. “Either Elon Musk exercised extraordinary power he never should have had, or the President of the United States is lying to the American people.”
Levin linked to a Wall Street Journal report published on Oct. 20, three days before his post. The Journal, citing unnamed U.S. officials and people familiar with the matter, reported that Musk ordered the slowdown of Starshield, the military-grade version of Starlink used by Ukraine. It also reported that some U.S. officials said Musk acted unilaterally, while a person familiar with the situation said Musk spoke with senior administration officials, including Trump, before imposing the cap. Musk, SpaceX and the White House have not publicly confirmed that account, and Trump has denied ordering the restrictions.
The claim Levin referred to came on Oct. 14, after Ukrainian officials reported the slowdown. “Starshield systems are owned and controlled by the US government. Any limits on speed or usage are decided by the US military and ultimately POTUS,” Musk wrote on X in reply to a post by former Ukrainian Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov, who had written that Starlink connectivity at speeds of up to 160 km/h was being restored. Fedorov left the defense post in July, and parliament approved Yevhenii Khmara as defense minister in August.
Levin’s view of who was responsible has shifted with the reporting. On Oct. 20, he shared a Reuters report from Oct. 15 that said, citing two U.S. officials and a Western official, that the order to limit Starshield came from inside the White House. “The Trump Administration deliberately restricted technology Ukraine relies on to intercept Russian drones and ballistic missiles,” Levin wrote then, adding that “the American people deserve to know who made this decision.” A senior U.S. official told Reuters that “no such request was ever made by the president.”
Trump has denied involvement. “Well, I don’t know if it was anybody because it wasn’t me. And I don’t think it was Elon,” he told reporters on Oct. 16, according to White House video of the exchange.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, asked about the Journal’s report in Mumbai on Oct. 21, said he had not read it. Rubio said that “the President has nothing to do with the decisions that are made by Starlink and Starshield and by Mr. Musk” and that neither Trump “nor anyone in our system ever requested that any changes to that system be made,” according to a State Department transcript. “I’m not aware that we knew about this decision beforehand,” he said.
On Oct. 22, the Journal reported that Trump had called Musk and asked him to lift the restrictions. Asked about the call that day, Trump said he did not “want to comment one way or the other,” then added, “I guess the bottom line, he put it back,” according to White House video of his remarks.
On Friday, after Levin’s post, Trump told reporters outside the White House that he had heard the problem “was fixed,” according to White House video of the exchange. He also said he had not spoken with Musk about the service, CNBC reported. Later in the same exchange, Trump said, “Elon will never do anything wrong,” in remarks the White House Rapid Response account posted on X.
Ukrainian officials said the same day that the restrictions remained. “Starshield/Starlink speed restrictions remain in place,” Ukraine’s chargé d’affaires in Washington, Denys Sienik, wrote on X. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in an excerpt of his Hudson Institute address posted on X the same day, “The speed limits on Starlink and Starshield are still there. The speed has not been restored.”
On Saturday, Ukraine’s Defense Ministry said speeds had come back. “The Ministry of Defense’s monitoring systems are recording that Starlink/Starshield has resumed its speed. We are recording speeds exceeding 400 km/h, and the connection is stable,” Khmara told reporters, Ukrinform reported, crediting “direct dialogue” and Zelenskyy’s “firm stance at the highest level.” Sienik wrote on X that the ministry’s monitoring systems had “officially confirmed the restoration of Starlink/Starshield operational speeds” and that it would keep monitoring performance. Neither official said who lifted the limits or when, and the ministry’s account could not be independently verified.
As of Saturday, Musk, SpaceX and the White House had not commented publicly on X about the ministry’s statement or responded to Levin. Musk posted about Ukraine on Friday but had not addressed the Journal’s Oct. 20 report on the platform, and Levin had not commented on the restored speeds.
The claim that “someone is lying” is Levin’s characterization, as is his description of the Journal’s findings as “new reporting.” The Journal’s account that Musk ordered the slowdown rests on unnamed sources, and its Oct. 22 report of a Trump call to Musk has not been confirmed by either man. On the record, Musk said on Oct. 14 that limits were decided by the U.S. military and “ultimately POTUS”; Trump has denied ordering the restrictions, declined on Thursday to say whether he called Musk and said on Friday that he had not spoken with him; and Rubio said he was not aware that the administration knew about the decision beforehand. Ukraine’s Defense Ministry said on Saturday that speeds had been restored, a day after Ukrainian officials said the limits remained. Who ordered the limits, and who lifted them, has not been publicly established.