The possibility that the former president of the United States, Donald Trump, re -occupies the White House has revived fears about the stability of the country’s critical infrastructure, including one of the most sensitive: Internet. Although disconnecting it completely is not technically viable, there are mechanisms that, under certain political and budgetary decisions, can put in check Your safety and operation.
Trump has already launched alarming messages about his vision of the network. In December 2015, during his first presidential campaign, he proposed openly “close certain parts of the Internet“To stop the use of the network by jihadist groups.” We have to talk to Bill Gates and other people who really understand what is happening. Maybe closing internet parts in some way, “he said. Before the foreseeable criticism, he settled:” Someone will say ‘Oh, freedom of expression’. Those are silly people. “
Beyond the statements, the worrying has been the recent events that occurred under their power. At the beginning of 2025, and within the framework of his second mandate, The so -called Doge (Department of Government Efficient) was launched)a structure that was headed by Elon Musk for several months.
“In the last minute”
Doge had as a mission to reduce what the former president considered “unnecessary expense” of the federal government. One of its first objectives was the Cisa (Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency of the United States), which suffered drastic cuts, including the dismissal of cybersecurity experts, among them key members of the vulnerabilities response team.
These actions caused real alarms in the community of experts in cyberdefense. As reported by the specialized media Cyberscoop, the reductions put at risk The continuity of critical programssuch as the CVE system (Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures), essential to identify and Communicate security failures worldwide.
Although some contracts were renewed “at the last minute”, the episode served to demonstrate a disturbing reality: the most essential infrastructure of the global network depends, in part, in part, in part, in part, in part, of administrative decisions Taken by the US Executive, and are not armored before political agendas or ideological cuts.
Can Trump ‘turn off’ the Internet?
In short, Trump cannot “turn off the Internet” with a button, but he has shown that his administration can seriously compromise security and the operation of the network, either by direct action or by budget omission. In a digitally interconnected world, Internet threats no longer come from cyberspace, but also from political offices.