Musk hits Navarro rages over flagged X post on India ‘People decide narrative’
By Anjali Sharma
WASHINGTON – White House advisor Peter Navarro on Monday lashed out at India’s Russian oil imports after his post on X was flagged with a Community Note.
Navarro accused India of profiteering and slammed Elon Musk for “letting propaganda in,” Musk defended the platform, stated Community Notes “corrects everyone without exception” and that people, not legacy media, shape narratives on X.
Navarro was left fuming on Sunday after one of his posts attacking India’s Russian oil purchases was marked with a community note on X.
He slammed India for trading with Russia “purely to profit/Revenues feed the Russian war machine.”
The X users fact-checked him, noting that India’s oil imports were largely “for energy security, not just profit,” and that they did not violate sanctions.
Navarro disregarded the flagging as “crap” and rebuked Elon Musk for “letting propaganda into people’s posts.”
He reiterated his allegations, accusing India of only beginning to purchase Russian oil after the Ukraine invasion and was “solely profiteering.”
“That crap note below is just that. Crap. India buys Russian oil solely to profiteer. It didn’t buy any before Russia invaded Ukraine.
Elon Musk reacted to Navarro’s criticism of his post being flagged.
He said that Community Notes “corrects everyone without exception.”
Musk neither mentioned Navarro by name nor directly responded to him in his post.
He said, “On this platform, the people decide the narrative. You hear all sides of an argument. Community Notes corrects everyone, no exceptions. Notes data & code is public source. Grok provides further fact-checking.”
Musk also re-shared a post asserting that X has become a real-time, fact-checkable news platform.
He argued that legacy media has lost credibility, remarking, “As recent events have shown all too clearly, you can’t trust the legacy (formerly mainstream) news at all. They lie relentlessly or simply ignore major stories that don’t fit their collectively decided narrative.”
Navarro had sharply criticized PM Modi’s camaraderie with Xi and Putin at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Summit in Tianjin, described it as a “shame” for the leader of the world’s largest democracy to be “getting in bed” with the “two biggest authoritarians.”
“That doesn’t make any sense. I’m not sure what he’s thinking, particularly since India has been in a cold war – and sometimes a hot war – with China for decades,” Navarro told reporters.
Modi visited China to attend the SCO Summit, met with Xi and Putin in what many observers see as a show of Global South solidarity against Trump’s trade policies.
Navarro said the US hoped Modi would “come around” to support the US, Europe, and Ukraine.
