White House trade advisor Peter Navarro on Monday claimed that “Indian special interests” were trying to “interfere” in the US domestic dialogue with “lies about India buying Russian oil.” This came after he slammed Elon Musk after his social media platform put up a fact-check note on Navarro’s post regarding New Delhi’s purchase of oil from Moscow.“On earlier post, you can see Indian special interests trying to interfere with domestic dialogue with lies about India buying Russian oil. Should X present this crap as comments from ‘diverse viewpoints’?” he questioned.“Should X put up posts like one below where foreign interests masquerade as objective observers and interfere with domestic US economics and politics?” he added. 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,” he had earlier said in a post on X.Musk defended his platform saying that people decide the “narrative” on X.“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 said.The remarks follow a post on Friday in which Navarro said: “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. India can’t handle truth/spins. Leftist American fake news.”Navarro grew frustrated after a Community Note appeared beneath his post on X, stating: “India’s Russian oil purchases are for energy security, not just profit, & don’t violate sanctions. While India has some tariffs, the U.S. has a trade surplus with it in services. US also continues to import certain commodities from Russia which is hypocritical.”On X, Community Notes are written by contributors to add context to posts that may be misleading. When enough contributors with differing perspectives rate a note as useful, it is made visible to the public.Navarro has repeatedly attacked India over its trade ties with Russia, accusing it of profiting from the war and undermining peace efforts. India has dismissed his remarks as misleading and emphasized its commitment to advancing bilateral relations on the basis of mutual respect and shared interests.
