Photo: Alamy
President Donald Trump on Monday blasted a decision by European Union regulators to impose a 120-million-euro fine against Elon Musk’s social media platform X, calling the penalty “a nasty one” and saying he did not understand the justification behind it.
“Europe is going in some bad directions,” President Trump told reporters during a White House event. He said he expected a full briefing on the issue later in the day. “I don’t see how they can do that,” he added, noting that Musk had not contacted him to seek assistance.
“Europe has to be very careful,” the president added.
EU officials announced the fine after determining that X repeatedly failed to comply with content-moderation and transparency rules under its Digital Services Act. Regulators accused the platform of allowing prohibited content to circulate during major news events and refusing to provide required data on how posts are amplified.
Officials said those violations led to what they described as escalating enforcement measures.
The comments come as President Trump has sharpened his rhetoric toward European governments. In recent weeks, he has outlined a new strategy for the United States’ relationship with the EU, criticizing Europe for what he views as weak border controls, restrictive speech regulations and policies that hinder economic competition.
During remarks earlier this month, President Trump said European nations were “losing control of their borders.” He warned that the EU’s approach to speech regulation posed “a threat to Western liberty,” and argued that American industries were being undermined by what he called Europe’s “anti-growth bureaucracy.”
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong added to the president’s concerns about European regulations against American companies.
“At some point, with enough regulation producing fines, it borders on looting. You can have more fines from over-regulation, or you can have a growing economy, but you can’t have both,” he wrote.
David Fant noted, “EU makes more from fines on US tech, than tax from ALL of public European tech in 2024 EU fined US tech companies €3.8B meanwhile public internet tech companies paid only €3.2B in income tax.”
