The fourth “K” (see last post) was fired today after only five days in the job of White House Press Secretary. Katie Zacharia was offered the job just a week ago. Per the New York Times: “She was not a deft communicator.” For the Times, that’s going out on a limb. But I suspect she will enjoy holding the record as the shortest-serving White House Press Secretary for a long time. See also Anthony Scaramucci Weighs in on Katie Zacharia Breaking His Record,
Alexandra Petri predicted that since Trump chooses White House Press Secretaries by turning on the teevee and pointing, Zacharia’s replacement will be a Kalshi commercial.
For another bad idea that thankfully died on the vine, Pentagon Pete’s plan to livestream the firing squad execution of Nidal Hasan on YouTube has been canceled. Apparently Trump was for it, but then got swamped by pushback from Congress and even from some of his own staff, and he has nixed it. The livestreaming, anyway. The execution by firing squad is still on. I hate the death penalty. It’s barbaric.
The big story today, IMO, regards Ukraine being cut from Starlink. We’ve known this for a while. Was this Elon Musk’s decision? Apparently not. It’s near certain that the order came from within the White House. But reporting is contradictory. Trump is denying he ordered anything to be cut off from Ukraine. Musk says that Starshield systems are controlled by the U.S. government, Hafiz Rashid writes at The New Republic that Elon Musk and Trump Were Both in on Ukraine Starlink Shutoff. Sounds about right.
Tech CEO Elon Musk reportedly approached President Trump on slowing down his Starlink communications service in Ukraine earlier this week, contradicting both Musk’s statement that it was Trump’s idea and Trump’s statement that he has no idea who did it.
The Telegraph, citing four anonymous sources, reports that Musk proposed slowing down Starshield, the military-grade version of Musk’s Starlink satellite communications system, and that Trump agreed. The move hindered Ukraine’s drone defenses of Russian attacks, and came while Trump is upset with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s decision to target Russian oil refineries and infrastructure after Trump lifted sanctions on Russian fuel. After Ukraine’s Starlink access was restricted, Russia launched a massive aerial attack on Wednesday that continued into the next morning.
Again, we’ve become allies of Russia against Ukraine. Trump and Musk are both denying they had anything to do with this. Sure.