President Donald Trump on Monday called a 120-million-euro fine imposed on Elon Musk's social media company X by EU tech regulators “a nasty one” and said he did not understand how European regulators could justify the move.
“Europe is going in some bad directions,” Trump told reporters at a White House event, saying he expected to get a full report on the EU fine later Monday.
“I don’t see how they can do that,” Trump said.
He added that Musk had not called him to ask for help on the issue.
“Europe has to be very careful.”
European Union officials imposed the penalty after regulators concluded that X had repeatedly failed to comply with content-moderation and transparency obligations required under the bloc’s Digital Services Act, according to EU officials speaking publicly Monday.
Regulators have accused X of allowing prohibited content to spread during several high-profile news events and of refusing to provide mandated data on how posts are amplified on the platform.
Officials say those lapses prompted what they described as an escalating enforcement response.
Trump in recent weeks has unveiled a new strategy for U.S. relations with the EU that singles out Europe for what he calls systemic failures on immigration enforcement, free-speech protections, and economic competitiveness.
In remarks during a policy rollout earlier this month, Trump said European governments were “losing control of their borders.”
He warned that EU speech regulations were “a threat to Western liberty.”
He argued that American industries were being undercut by what he labeled Europe’s “anti-growth bureaucracy.”
Newsmax wires contributed to this report.
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