White House advisor Peter Navarro, who has been making anti-India rhetoric ever since the relations between the two countries soured over tariffs, faced a setback after one of his posts on New Delhi’s Russian oil purchase was flagged by a community note on X.
Navarro, the senior counsellor for trade and manufacturing for US President Donald Trump, had alleged in his post that India’s trade with Moscow was “purely to profit/revenues feed Russia war machine”.
His post was in response to a recent article in the Washington Post, which described the conflicting efforts in Trump’s administration over mending the ties with India.
The article had also claimed that the inflammatory language used by Washington towards New Delhi was deepening the crisis.
Navarro’s post was fact-checked by a community of X users, which pointed out that India’s oil trade with Russia was for energy security, not just profit. It also claimed that the trade had not violated any sanctions.
"While India has some tariffs, the US has a trade surplus with it in services. The US also continues to import certain commodities from Russia, which is hypocritical," the community note said.
Wow. @elonmusk 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
Navarro dismissed the note as “crap” and accused X owner Elon Musk of letting propaganda into people’s posts. Interestingly, Musk had served as a senior advisor to Trump before he got into a public feud with the President and left the administration earlier this year.
"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 American jobs," Navarro wrote.
Navarro made several controversial remarks against India in recent weeks after the tariff war broke out between the two countries. He called New Delhi “Maharaja of tariffs” and termed the Ukraine conflict as “Modi’s war”.
In another polemic remark, he said, “Brahmins are profiteering at the expense of Indian people”.
