Top economist and Nobel Laureate Paul Krugman slammed President Donald Trump as well as Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (NASDAQ:SPCX) CEO Elon Musk, warning that decisions regarding critical national security infrastructure should not be in the hands of billionaires.

Billionaires Shouldn't Make National Security Decisions, Krugman Says

In a post on his Substack on Friday, Krugman addressed reports that the SpaceX CEO had abruptly authorized capped transmission speeds on Starshield, which is a high-frequency version of Starlink and is used in defense applications.

The economist pushed for federal intervention over private defense technology, warning that critical foreign policy decisions are improperly resting in the hands of individual plutocrats.

“Billionaires should not be making decisions critical to national security. That’s straightforward,” Krugman wrote. “And the case of Elon Musk and his attempt to undermine Ukraine makes that clearer than ever.”

Contradictory accounts quickly followed the service downgrade. While reports pointed to Musk giving the green light to cap speeds, the billionaire claimed that Starshield operations were under White House’s control, which the Trump administration has denied.

No ‘Reliable Narrators’

“In fact, none of the parties to all of this are credible. None of them are reliable narrators,” Krugman said. He argued the setup creates an unacceptable “gray zone,” emphasizing that defense assets must be governed by elected leaders rather than “some guy who happens to have a lot of money.”

The economist also pointed to reports that Trump reached out to Musk to request the cap to be removed, but noted it remains completely unclear whether speeds have actually been restored. However, Ukrainian military officials on Saturday confirmed that the network’s functionality had been restored.

Musk said Ukraine’s military had violated Starlink’s terms of service by using the civilian commercial service for offensive drone strikes, adding that such use had never been allowed.

“The president asked a private business to stop killing Ukrainians,” Krugman remarked, characterizing the dynamic as Trump saying, “pretty please, Elon, don’t let quite so many Ukrainians die.”

Krugman also said that it did not matter if officials gave the order to slow down the network or if it was Musk, but the incident “allowed Trump to hide behind, or he thought it would allow him to hide behind, the fact that this was a private enterprise,” he said.