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‘Clean up cesspool’: Peter Navarro slams Elon Musk, calls X ‘breeding ground for dark forces’

Navarro, a close aide of Donald Trump, has repeatedly criticised the Musk-owned platform, especially after it flagged some of his misleading remarks on India.

New DelhiSeptember 16, 2025 04:46 PM IST First published on: Sep 16, 2025 at 04:37 PM IST
US President Donald Trump’s senior trade advisor, Peter NavarroUS President Donald Trump’s senior trade advisor, Peter Navarro

White House Trade Advisor Peter Navarro on Tuesday lashed out at Elon Musk, saying X has become a “breeding ground” and “grooming academy for the very dark forces.”

Navarro, a close aide of Donald Trump, has repeatedly criticised the Musk-owned platform, especially after it flagged some of his misleading remarks on India.

His latest attack came in response to Musk’s comments on a Los Angeles teacher who had openly called for more violence.

“My friend @ElonMusk. How about you start fighting back by cleaning up the cesspool otherwise known as X. No more anonymous posts. No more foreigners swarming your platform and polluting our political discourse. X has become a breeding ground and grooming Academy for the very dark forces. You wanna fight back. Physician, heal itself. Elon, heal X,” Navarro wrote on X.

https://twitter.com/RealPNavarro/status/1967706580838912327 https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

Musk, replying to a user’s post about the teacher, had written: “We must fight back or be murdered.”

Navarro has also stirred controversy over India, accusing “keyboard minions” of hijacking X’s Community Notes feature to suppress facts.

He previously made the claim that “(Boston) Brahmins are profiteering” from India’s Russian oil purchases, which X’s fact-checking system dismissed as baseless.

India pushed back. “We have seen the inaccurate and misleading statements made by Navarro, and obviously reject them,” External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said.

Navarro has argued that India’s tariffs are costing American jobs and its discounted oil imports from Moscow are helping fund Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine.

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