European Commission president did not approve letter warning Musk over Trump interview

The European Union official who posted a letter warning X platform owner Elon Musk about promoting hate speech ahead of his interview with former President Donald Trump did not receive approval from the president of the European Commission, the body confirmed Tuesday.

“The timing and the wording of the letter were neither co-ordinated or agreed with the president nor with the [commissioners],” the European Commission stated, according to the Financial Times.

EU Commissioner for Internal Market Thierry Breton on Monday posted the letter to the platform, suggesting that the content of the Trump interview could potentially be relevant to an ongoing probe of X.

"Let me clarify that any negative effect of illegal content on X in the EU … may be relevant in the context of the ongoing proceedings and of the overall assessment of X’s compliance with EU law," he wrote.

Musk, for his part, responded with a meme from the film Tropic Thunder that featured the text "take a big step back and literally, f*** your own face!"

X faces an ongoing probe from Brussels in connection with its Digital Services Act.

“The [investigation] on dissemination of illegal content and information manipulation is ongoing, we are looking into it, and of course everything that happens on the platform feeds into this assessment," the Commission also stated. “The response of X to the management of this type of content is taken into account in the course of the investigation.”