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Peter Navarro, Senior Counselor for Trade and Manufacturing in the Trump administration, lashed out at Elon Musk on Sunday after his post criticising India’s purchase of Russian oil was flagged by X’s relatively new community notes feature. “Wow. @elonmusk is letting propaganda into people’s posts. That crap note below is just that. Crap.”
He added, emphasising on his last post from a day before, “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.”
One of the community notes under Navarro’s post stated that India’s purchases of Russian oil were for “energy security, not just profit,” and that they did not violate sanctions. It also noted that the US maintains a trade surplus with India in services and continues to import certain commodities from Russia.
Wow. @elon musk 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 Ukranians. Stop taking… https://t.co/Uj1NMUrVOM
— Peter Navarro (@RealPNavarro) September 6, 2025
Another note added that “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.”
Navarro’s flagged post
In the flagged post, dated September 6, Navarro claimed that India’s “highest tariffs” hurt American workerswhile also accusing New Delhi of continuing to purchase Russian oil for profit. “India highest tariffs costs US jobs. India buys Russian oil purely to profit/Revenues feed Russia war machine.” he wrote. “Ukrainians/Russians die. US taxpayers shell out more,” he added.
The criticism comes amid continuing tensions between Washington and New Delhi over tariffs and India’s energy imports from Moscow.
The United States has repeatedly expressed concern that revenues from Russian oil sales are helping finance the Kremlin’s war in Ukraine, while India has maintained that its purchases are driven by economic and commercial considerations.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Friday that New Delhi will continue to buy oil from Moscow as India’s oil purchases are driven by economic and commercial considerations.
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Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump on Friday downplayed tensions with India, calling ties ‘special,’ a day after suggesting that Washington had ‘lost India and Russia’ to China.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday responded to his latest remark and said that he deeply appreciates and fully reciprocates the US President’s sentiments and “positive assessment” of the bilateral relationship.
Community notes feature
Community Notes was first piloted as a programme called ‘Birdwatch’ by Twitter in 2021, before Elon Musk purchased the platform for $44 billion and rebranded it to X.
The crowdsourced fact-checking model allows users to add facts and context below a specific post. A Community Note shows up below a post only if enough contributors vote that the context it provides is helpful.
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Anyone on X can become a contributor and add Community Notes as long as they meet certain criteria such as having a six month-old account, verified phone number, and zero violations of X’s rules.
Initially, contributors are only allowed to rate Community Notes as helpful or not. Over time, they are allowed to write and attach their own Community Notes that will be rated by other contributors.
