Washington, D.C., US – US President Donald Trump on Monday escalated his criticism of Europe, saying the continent was ‘going in some bad directions’ as he condemned a multimillion-euro EU penalty against Elon Musk’s social media platform X.

Speaking at the White House, Trump said that Europe was ‘very bad, very bad for the people’ and warned that the United States did not want the continent ‘to change so much’.

He did not specify what he meant, but said Europe ‘has to be very careful doing a lot of things’.

Trump was responding to questions about last week’s €120mn fine imposed by EU tech authorities on the X social media platform for violating digital transparency and content-management rules.

“I don’t see how they can do that,” Trump commented, adding that Musk had not contacted him for help and that he expected a full briefing later in the day.

Musk rejected the penalty, responding sharply to the European Commission’s announcement and reposting messages criticising the decision. “Freedom of speech is the bedrock of democracy,” he wrote.

Senior US officials, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio and FCC Chairman Brendan Carr, also condemned the EU’s action as unfairly targeting American companies.

Brussels rejects bias claims

EU regulators defended the fine as proportionate, saying X failed to meet transparency obligations by withholding data for researchers, maintaining an incomplete advertising repository and using deceptive design in its blue-check verification system.

Tech chief Henna Virkkunen said the Digital Services Act ‘has nothing to do with censorship’ and applies equally to all platforms.

The dispute comes days after Washington released a national security strategy warning of a decline in democratic norms in Europe.

The document cited ‘censorship of free speech, suppression of political opposition, cratering birthrates, and loss of national identities and self-confidence’ as major challenges for the continent.

TikTok, which faced similar scrutiny in May, avoided a penalty by pledging improvements to its advertising transparency systems and urged the EU to enforce the rules consistently.

DW