Peter Navarro accused Elon Musk of allowing “propaganda” after his post on India’s Russian oil imports was flagged by Community Notes.
Notes on his post highlighted US imports of Russian goods and stressed India’s purchases were legal and tied to energy security, not profiteering.
Amid growing trade tensions over India’s purchase of Russian oil, US President Donald Trump’s trade adviser Peter Navarro on Sunday criticised Elon Musk after one of his posts on X was flagged by the platform’s Community Notes feature.
“Wow. @elonmusk is letting propaganda into people’s posts. That crap note below is just that. Crap,” Navarro said, hitting out at Musk, the billionaire owner of the platform.
Referring to an earlier comment he made, Navarro added, “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 Ukranians. Stop taking American jobs.”
The community note described Navarro's claims as hypocritical. "India's legal, sovereign purchases of Russian oil for energy security do not violate international law," it stated.
The flagged post dated September 6 accused New Delhi of harming American workers: “India highest tariffs costs US jobs. India buys Russian oil purely to profit/Revenues feed Russia war machine. Ukrainians/Russians die. US taxpayers shell out more,” Navarro wrote.
The Community Notes feature attached multiple fact-check style clarifications to his posts. One note stated: “The US, while pressuring India,continues to import billions in Russian goods, like uranium,exposing a clear double standard.”
Another note said India’s purchases were for “energy security, not just profit,” and highlighted that they did not violate sanctions. It also pointed out that the US continues to maintain a trade surplus with India and itself imports commodities from Russia. Yet another addition read: “India’s legal, sovereign purchases of Russian oil for energy security do not violate international law. The US, while pressuring India, continues to import billions in Russian goods, like uranium, exposing a clear double standard.”
The controversy comes against the backdrop of Washington’s repeated concerns that oil revenues are sustaining Russia’s war effort in Ukraine. India, however, has consistently maintained that its energy imports are based on commercial and economic needs.
India on Friday rejected as "inaccurate and misleading" Navarro's comments on New Delhi for its procurement of Russian crude oil.
On Friday, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman reiterated that New Delhi would continue buying from Moscow on those grounds.
"We have seen the inaccurate and misleading statements made by Navarro, and obviously reject them," External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said.
Last week, Navarro had accused New Delhi of being an "oil money laundromat for the Kremlin" and described it as "strategic freeloading" India continuing to purchase Russian weapons, while urging American defense firms to transfer sensitive military technologies and set up manufacturing plants in India.
"If India, the world's largest democracy, wants to be treated like a strategic partner of the US, it needs to act like one," he said, in a series of posts on X.
Meanwhile, Trump attempted to ease tensions, calling the US–India relationship “special.” His remarks came a day after suggesting that Washington had “lost India and Russia” to China. Prime Minister Narendra Modi responded on Saturday, saying he deeply appreciated Trump’s “positive assessment” of bilateral ties.
The Community Notes system itself was piloted as “Birdwatch” in 2021 before Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion and rebranded it as X. The crowdsourced model allows verified contributors to add clarifications under posts, visible only when enough users agree the context is helpful.
