A senior US Democrat has hit out at Donald Trump’s attempt to reset relations with Russia following revelations that the president’s administration is retreating from the fight against Russian cyber threats, calling the reported move “a critical strategic mistake”.
In a statement on Sunday making reference to the Russian leader, New York’s Chuck Schumer – the US Senate’s Democratic minority leader – said Trump was “so desperate to earn the affection of a thug like Vladimir Putin he appears to be giving him a free pass as Russia continues to launch cyber operations and ransomware attacks against critical American infrastructure, threatening our economic and national security”.
Schumer called the administration’s move “a critical strategic mistake” in his statement, which he posted on X.
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The criticism comes after the Guardian reported on Friday that Trump’s administration had publicly and privately signaled that it does not believe Russia represents a cyber threat against US national security or vital infrastructure in a radical departure from longstanding intelligence assessments.
Furthermore, on Sunday, the New York Times reported that the US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, had ordered a pause on all of the country’s cyber operations against Russia, including offensive actions. Hegseth’s reported maneuver came as the Trump administration looks to reset Washington’s relations with Moscow ahead of US-led peace negotiations between Russia and Ukraine, which Russian forces invaded in February 2022.
Meanwhile, Britain and France have announced a rival plan for a “coalition of the willing” to secure a peace deal to end the three-year war.
The order to US Cyber Command to halt offensive operations against Russia was issued before the dramatic public breakdown of relations between the Trump administration and Ukraine’s president, Volodymr Zelenskyy, at the White House on Friday.
According to the Record, a cyber-focused US publication that first reported the instruction, Hegseth’s order to the cyber command chief, Gen Timothy Haugh, does not appear to apply to the National Security Agency or its signals intelligence work targeting Russia. The outlet cited sources.
The duration of Hegseth’s order has not been revealed – nor is it known what offensive digital operations are being suspended.
While it is not uncommon for there to be a pause in military operations between countries engaging in diplomatic negotiations, the suspension of US “shadow war” operations invites reciprocation.
It is unclear if a similar suspension has or will be enacted by Russia. On Sunday, a Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, welcomed a Washington-Moscow reset, saying the second Trump presidential administration was rapidly changing all foreign policy configurations. “This largely aligns with our vision,” Peskov said.
But speaking to CNN on Sunday about reopening links to Russia, the US national security adviser, Mike Waltz, denied reports of the cyber policy change. “That has not been part of our discussions,” Waltz said. “There will be all kinds of carrots and sticks to get this war to an end.”
A US defense official cited by NBC News declined to comment on the decision but said: “There is no greater priority to Secretary Hegseth than the safety of the warfighter in all operations, to include the cyber domain.”
The order does not apply to the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (Cisa), which is part of the Department of Homeland Security and is responsible for protecting domestic US cyber infrastructure.
The agency reportedly said in a statement that its “mission is to defend against all cyber threats to US Critical Infrastructure, including from Russia”.
“There has been no change in our posture,” the Cisa statement said.
In February, the Pentagon ordered a review of US Cyber Command operations to be fast-tracked, the Record reported, in line with the Trump administration’s belief that the US must become more confrontational in cyberspace in the wake of hacks and espionage campaigns by China.
In its reporting on Friday that the US no longer characterized Russia as a cybersecurity threat, the Guardian pointed to a speech delivered by Liesyl Franz, deputy assistant secretary for international cybersecurity at the state department, to a UN working group. Franz said the US was concerned by threats posed by some states but only named China and Iran – without mentioning Russia.
Meanwhile, Trump officials have been advocating for stepped-up military actions against Mexican cartel operations to stem the flow of fentanyl into the US – which could draw intelligence resources from Cyber Command.
On Saturday, officials said they were sending roughly an additional 3,000 active-duty troops to the US-Mexico border.
In a Truth Social post on Sunday, Trump expounded his belief that the US faces other more pressing topics than Russia.
“We should spend less time worrying about Putin, and more time worrying about migrant rape gangs, drug lords, murderers, and people from mental institutions entering our Country – So that we don’t end up like Europe!” Trump wrote.
