I wasn't planning to write about this all day but the Wall Street Journal has a new story up claiming that Elon Musk ordered the speed limit on Starshield last week. Let's walk through this carefully because I'm not sure what this story is claiming happened.

Elon Musk ordered the slowdown of a military-grade version of Starlink relied on by Ukraine, a decision that sparked panic in Kyiv and confusion inside the Trump administration, U.S. officials and people familiar with the matter said...

Musk and Trump discussed the Starlink decision in a call soon after the slowdown became public, while the president was campaigning last week, two of the people said. One of the people also claimed Musk and Trump discussed the matter prior to the decision to throttle Starlink.

So which is it? Did they discuss the slowdown before it happened or not? If you've followed this story then you already know that Musk put out a tweet last week denying he was behind it and pointing the finger at Trump.

That made it sound like the decision was definitely Trump's to make and that Trump had made it. However, President Trump also denied having done it.

A story published by the Telegraph last Friday seemed to split the difference. That story claimed that it was Musk's idea but Trump had approved it.

The billionaire tech entrepreneur approached the US president with the proposal to introduce speed limits on the system, which hampered Ukraine’s drone defences, according to four sources familiar with the discussions.

One of the sources said Mr Trump “agreed” with Mr Musk’s suggestion, paving the way for the Pentagon to execute the slowdown on Starshield, the military-grade version of the satellite communications system.

Notice that four sources say it was Musk's idea but only one said Trump "agreed." That doesn't quite square with the WSJ report this afternoon which claims Musk "ordered" the slowdown and that one source said he'd discussed it with Trump in advance. Here's more from the WSJ report:

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Some U.S. officials say that Musk acted unilaterally and that Trump didn’t specifically order any retribution against Ukraine. But a person familiar with the situation said Musk talked to multiple senior administration officials, including with Trump, before imposing the new speed cap, which Ukrainian officials said had allowed Russian missiles to evade their defenses.

So they seem to be undermining their own headline "Musk Ordered Starlink Slowdown That Blindsided Ukraine." If Musk spoke to Trump and other administration officials before the slowdown then it seems the order probably came from the White House. Or are they suggesting that the White House told Musk no and he did it anyway?

Here's the way I'm seeing this. If Musk did this on his own and then panicked after the backlash, why are some sources both this week and last week still saying he spoke to the White House and Trump beforehand? Are those sources just wrong? 

Also, remember that the same night that Starshield was throttled, Ukraine said they did not receive the normal warnings from the Pentagon about an incoming attack. I don't think the timing of the two outages is a coincidence. And that means the White House was definitely involved in the code red on Ukraine. If so, then it seems unlikely that Musk was winging it. He may have suggested the idea of the speed limit, but he didn't do it on his own, contrary to what the WSJ story is suggesting.

But let's wait and see how this develops. Whoever ordered it, it was a terrible idea and for some reason it still hasn't been fixed. There is still a 160 kph speed limit on drones which is about half the top speed of Ukraine's interceptors. If Trump didn't order this in the first place, why hasn't he ordered it fixed a week later?