White House trade advisor Peter Navarro has said Elon Musk’s platform X has become a breeding ground for “very dark forces” and urged the billionaire-investor to impose stricter controls on anonymous voices he claimed were polluting US political discourse.
“My friend @ElonMusk. How about you start fighting back by cleaning up the cesspool otherwise known as X. No more anonymous posts. No more foreigners swarming your platform and polluting our political discourse. X has become a breeding ground and grooming Academy for the very dark forces. You wanna fight back. Physician, heal itself. Elon, heal X,” Navarro posted Tuesday night.
Navarro was responding to a post by Musk, who had written, “We must fight back or be murdered,” in reaction to remarks by Los Angeles teacher Erik Travis. Travis had advocated violence against far-right individuals, underscoring the surge in political rhetoric following the recent assassination of Charlie Kirk.
Navarro, a close aide of US President Donald Trump, has repeatedly voiced disapproval of the way X is run, after some of his own remarks were flagged by the platform.
Earlier this month, he criticised Musk after Community Notes fact-checked his comments on India’s purchase of Russian oil.
“Wow. @elonmusk is letting propaganda into people's posts. That crap note below is just that. Crap. India buys Russia oil solely to profiteer. It didn't buy any before Russia invaded Ukraine. Indian govt spin machine moving high tilt. Stop killing Ukrainians. Stop taking American jobs,” Navarro wrote at the time.
Musk countered by defending the system of user-generated fact-checks. “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,” he stated.
India also pushed back against Navarro’s assertions. “We have seen the inaccurate and misleading statements made by Navarro, and obviously reject them,” external affairs ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said.
Navarro has argued that India’s high tariffs undermine American workers and that its discounted oil imports from Moscow are helping fund Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine.
