Europe’s X Fine is Fueling GOP Angst Toward NATO

As Trump administration officials and Republican leaders bash the European Union over its fine against Elon Musk’s X last week, the United States’ involvement in NATO has emerged as a major target of their scorn, with some even floating a US withdrawal.

The EU last week fined the social media platform €120M for breaching the bloc’s landmark Digital Services Act (DSA) regulations, particularly around data access and digital ad transparency. Top Trump administration officials and an array of congressional Republicans condemned the move, accusing the EU of pressuring tech platforms to censor speech.

But some of them have gone a step further and linked the issue to US national security, suggesting the country should not support European nations militarily if they do not reciprocate by championing American values and opt instead to undermine US businesses.

After US Secretary of State Marco Rubio blasted the fine as an “attack on … the American people by foreign governments,” his deputy seemingly upped the ante. “What’s even worse is that the US is in a MILITARY ALLIANCE with the very countries attacking us via the EU,” Deputy Secretary Christopher Landau posted on X.

Landau continued: “The nations of Europe cannot look to the US for their own security at the same time they affirmatively undermine the security of the US itself through the (unelected, undemocratic, and unrepresentative) EU. This fine is just the tip of the iceberg.”

The remarks mirrored ones made by US Vice President JD Vance on the campaign trail last year during an interview with YouTuber Shawn Ryan, when he said that “if NATO wants us to continue supporting them,” they need to “respect American values and respect free speech.”

They signal yet another lever — the threat of a US withdrawal from NATO — that Republicans appear ready to use to exert pressure on global leaders attempting to regulate the tech sector.

The Trump administration has already sought to defang EU tech regulations by inserting the issue into trade negotiations, including over Trump’s threatened tariffs. It has also applied pressure through immigration policy, restricting people’s ability to enter the US if the administration believes they have contributed to the foreign censorship of US citizens.

By tying concerns over social media “censorship” to the US’s role in funding NATO, which Trump has frequently criticized, Republicans are creating a new threat vector for Europe.

The notion, popularized in part by Substack writer Michael Shellenberger, has picked up steam among prominent Republicans in the wake of the EU fine.

“What consequences should the EU face for censoring the free speech of Americans—even as Americans hold the EU’s security umbrella through NATO?” Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT), who has called for the US to abandon NATO, posted on X.

“Explain to me why we should continue to do business with EU and NATO countries when they’re pulling this type of crap on the back end,” Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL), an outspoken Trump ally, posted on X. “Now they’re going to fine @X because they won’t censor speech? This is beyond bizarre.”

The fine dropped soon after the Trump administration released a new national security strategy that sharply criticized the EU for enabling “censorship of free speech” and called on allies to “assume primary responsibility for their regions” when it came to their security.