Billionaire lashes out at officials after social media platform X incurred €120m fine for transparency breaches

Elon Musk has escalated his war of words with Brussels, declaring that the European Union “must be abolished” after his social media platform X was hit with a €120m (£105m) penalty for transparency breaches under the bloc’s Digital Services Act.

In a series of posts published on X, the billionaire sharply criticised EU officials responsible for issuing the fine and suggested he would now challenge European governments on an individual basis.

“The EU should be abolished and sovereignty returned to individual countries, so that governments can better represent their people,” he wrote, igniting a wave of political reaction across the continent.

Hours after Musk’s comments, Polish prime minister Donald Tusk responded on X with a pointed message addressed to the United States.
“Dear American friends, Europe is your closest ally, not your problem. And we have common enemies. At least that’s how it has been in the last 80 years,” he said. “We need to stick to this; this is the only reasonable strategy for our common security. Unless something has changed.”

Musk’s intervention comes at a moment of mounting tension between Washington and Brussels. On Thursday night, the Trump administration unveiled a national security strategy describing the EU as undermining “political liberty and sovereignty,” stifling free speech, and enabling uncontrolled migration.

The 33-page document also emphasised that protecting “fair treatment of US workers and businesses” would become a central pillar in America’s dealings with the bloc.

The tensions have rippled into the UK as well. Prime minister Sir Keir Starmer has worked to maintain amicable ties with President Trump, and suggestions from some Labour MPs about reversing aspects of Brexit could potentially strain that relationship.

Meanwhile, the White House has been applying substantial pressure on EU officials to abandon their flagship case against X — proceedings brought under the EU’s new content-moderation regime, the Digital Services Act (DSA).

As speculation swirled over the impending ruling, US vice-president JD Vance criticised Brussels, saying the EU should be “supporting free speech, not attacking US companies over garbage.”

The clash between Musk and European regulators now appears to be expanding into a broader geopolitical dispute, drawing in US–EU relations, questions of sovereignty, and the global debate over the limits of online expression.