Peter Navarro, Senior Counsellor for Trade and Manufacturing for United States President Donald Trump, had a meltdown after being corrected over spreading misinformation pertaining to India's purchase of Russian oil on Saturday (US local time).
Calling the community note on X "crap", Navarro alleged that Elon Musk is allowing "propaganda" and reiterated his accusations of India purchasing Russian oil only to make profits.
"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 Ukrainians. Stop taking American job", Navarro wrote on X.
His response came to an earlier post where he had accused India of profiteering from Russian oil in his latest slew of remarks, alongside alleging that India's tariffs cost "Americans' jobs".
In a post on X on Friday, Navarro made the remarks in response to an article by The Washington Post, which described the conflicting efforts in Trump's administration over mending the relationship with India.
The news piece by The Washington Post claimed that the inflammatory language used by Washington towards New Delhi is deepening the crisis in the relationship.
Navarro criticised the report and said, "FACTS: India highest tariffs costs U.S. jobs. India buys Russian oil purely to profit/Revenues feed Russia war machine. Ukrainians/Russians die. U.S. taxpayers shell out more. India can't handle truth/spins @washpo Leftist American fake news."
Navarro's recent post on X comes shortly after the Ministry of External Affairs, during its press briefing on Friday, dismissed comments made by him, with the MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal calling them "inaccurate and misleading statements."
"We have seen the inaccurate and misleading statements made by Navarro, and obviously, we reject them," Jaiswal said.
Last week, Navarro accused India of being an "oil money laundromat for the Kremlin" and described it as "strategic freeloading" New Delhi continuing to buy Russian weapons while urging American defence firms to transfer sensitive military technologies and set up manufacturing plants in India.
The relations between New Delhi and Washington are on a downturn after President Donald Trump doubled tariffs on Indian goods to a whopping 50 per cent including a 25 per cent additional duties for India's purchase of Russian crude oil.
The 25 per cent tariff has already come into effect and additional levies are due from August 27.
India described the US action as "unfair, unjustified and unreasonable" and even wondered why it has been singled out for the punitive action. Surprisingly, the US has not imposed any punitive measure on China, the largest importer of Russian crude oil.
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