Trump Campaign Blasts EU as ‘Enemy of Free Speech’ After It Warns Musk About Broadcasting Misinformation
AP Photo/Alex Brandon
Former President Donald Trump’s campaign issued a statement Monday blasting the European Union in response to a letter it sent to Elon Musk in anticipation of an interview with the ex-president on his platform X (formerly Twitter).
Trump’s own account began posting again in the wee hours of Monday morning, appearing on users’ feeds as promoted ads, but not on his timeline. He and Musk are scheduled to chat at 8 pm ET for a live interview — and the “Chief Twit” has promised that the technical glitches that plagued a previous presidential interview with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis have been resolved.
Trump had been suspended by the previous Twitter management in the wake of the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol, and was later reinstated by Musk. Until this week, he had not posted anything new since regaining his account except for one tweet about his mugshot on Aug. 24, 2023.
His old tweets do remain up and publicly viewable. Mediaite reported last week that the ability to search these tweets was limited. That function has now been restored, as of Monday afternoon, a few hours before the interview is set to begin.
Monday afternoon, EU Commissioner for Internal Market Thierry Breton sent a letter to Musk — with a copy to Musk’s hand-picked CEO Linda Yaccarino — that he also posted on X.
“With great audience comes greater responsibility,” Breton wrote in what seems to be a reference to Uncle Ben’s famous quote to Spider-Man. “As there is a risk of amplification of potentially harmful content in [the EU] in connection with events with major audience around the world, I sent this letter to [Elon Musk].”
Trump has infamously engaged in a remarkably prolific production and promotion of misinformation throughout his political career, especially in the wake of his 2020 election loss. A press conference the ex-president held at Mar-a-Lago last Thursday managed to rack up a stunning 162 “lies and distortions” by fact-checkers, and he followed that up with a wild conspiracy theory that Vice President Kamala Harris was faking her crowd sizes using AI.
In the letter, Breton wrote that he was “compelled to remind” Musk of the “due diligence obligations set out in the Digital Services Act (DSA),” and added that this “means ensuring, on one hand, that freedom of expression and of information, including media freedom and pluralism, are effectively protected and, on the other hand, that all proportionate and effective mitigation measures are put in place regarding the amplification of harmful content in connection with relevant events, including live streaming, which, if unaddressed, might increase the risk profile of X and generate detrimental effects on civic discourse and public security.”
Yaccarino replied in a tweet, denouncing Breton’s “unprecedented attempt to stretch a law intended to apply in Europe to political activities in the US,” adding that his letter “also patronizes European citizens, suggesting they are incapable of listening to a conversation and drawing their own conclusions.”
As for Musk, he replied with a meme from the movie Tropic Thunder which encouraged the letter writer to “take a big step back and literally, f*ck your own face!”
The Trump campaign offered a more eloquent response than “Chief Twit” Musk, by issuing a statement obtained by Mediaite from communications director Steven Cheung:
The European Union should mind their own business instead of trying to meddle in the U.S. Presidential election. Only in Joe Biden and Kamala Harris’ America can an un-Democratic foreign organization feel emboldened enough to tell this country what to do. They know that a President Trump victory means America will no longer be ripped off because he will smartly utilize tariffs and renegotiated trade deals that puts America First. Let us be very clear: the European Union is an enemy of free speech and has no authority of any kind to dictate how we campaign.
