NEW DELHI – Elon Musk and Peter Navarro, a prominent assistant to President Donald Trump, are fighting in public about X’s fact-checking system. Navarro started the fight by posting a series of charges against India, saying that its imports of Russian oil were “purely to profit” and were paying for Russia’s “war machine.” The post instantly got a Community Note, which is X’s user-driven fact-checking mechanism. It called Navarro’s comments “hypocritical.”
A group of participants from diverse points of view contributed the note, which said that India’s imports are for “energy security” and do not break any sanctions. It also brought up a “clear double standard,” saying that the U.S. “continues to import certain goods from Russia,” like uranium and fertilizers.
Navarro was so angry at the fact-check that he posted again, this time calling the note “crap” and accused Musk of “letting propaganda into people’s posts.”
Musk defended the main concepts of his platform in response to Navarro, even though he didn’t name him personally. “The people make the story on this platform. You hear both sides of an argument. He wrote, “Community Notes corrects everyone, no exceptions.” He also said that the notes, data, and code are all from public sources and that his AI, Grok, “provides further fact-checking.”
Navarro has spoken out against India’s policy in public before. Navarro has blasted New Delhi many times since the Trump administration put more tariffs on Indian goods, which boosted the total penalties to more than 50%. He has branded the battle between Russia and Ukraine “Modi’s war,” said that India is a “laundromat for the Kremlin,” and made a casteist comment saying that “Brahmins are profiting” from the oil trade.
Navarro’s most recent criticism and fight with Musk come at a time when the U.S. and India are having a hard time getting along. The tariff disagreement has caused a lot of diplomatic activity. At first, President Trump said that the U.S. had “lost India to China,” but he later made it clear that he and Prime Minister Modi “will always be friends.” Modi has since returned the sentiment, indicating at efforts to fix the broken relationship.