Elon Musk threatens EU commissioners

News blog about US politics

Musk threatens EU commissioners

The Pentagon is said to have informed the European NATO partners of a tight deadline. Elon Musk threatens EU commissioners. All developments in the news blog.

Elon Musk has threatened EU officials with personal consequences. The EU Commission imposed a fine of 120 million euros on Musk’s Platform X on Friday. “The ‘EU’ imposed this crazy punishment not only on @X, but also on me personally, which is even more crazy! Therefore, it seems appropriate to direct our response not only to the EU, but also to the people who took this action against me,” Musk wrote on X.

According to the EU decision, the penalty is made up of three parts: 45 million euros for the verification checkmarks, 40 million euros for the lack of data access for researchers and 35 million euros for the lack of transparency in advertising.

The EU Commission justified the amount of the penalty. The fine is proportionate to the violation, an EU official stressed. The annual turnover of Musk’s company does not play a direct role in calculating the penalty.

The US Supreme Court will deal with US President Donald Trump’s planned restriction of the “place of birth principle”. According to the principle that has been in effect since the 19th century, every child born in the USA automatically receives US citizenship. According to Trump’s executive order, children should be denied citizenship if neither parent is a US citizen or has a permanent resident permit (“green card”). The US Supreme Court judges accepted an appeal from the US Department of Justice on Friday and will decide on the legality of Trump’s order.

According to the Pentagon, Europe will apparently take on the brunt of NATO’s conventional defense by 2027 – from troops to reconnaissance systems. According to the Reuters news agency, US officials made this demand at a meeting with European delegations in Washington. If Europe fails to deliver, Washington could withdraw from parts of NATO military coordination. However, how progress would be measured remained unclear.

Several European diplomats described the US window of opportunity as unrealistic: military equipment was sometimes years behind schedule, and important capabilities such as US reconnaissance could hardly be replaced. The EU aims to have its own defense capability by 2030 – even this goal is considered ambitious.

The background to the demand is the increasing pressure from parts of US politics to shift Europe’s security burden more onto the continent itself. Although European states emphasize their willingness to take on more responsibility, given limited production capacities and a lack of key technologies, many doubt that true independence from the USA is possible in just over a year.