Transatlantic Tensions Surge After X Fine and Harsh New U.S. Security Strategy

Relations between the United States and the European Union appear somewhat fraught after two Friday announcements triggered outrage on both sides of the Atlantic.

First, Brussels imposed a €120 million fine on the social-media platform X—and its owner Elon Musk personally—for breaching transparency rules of the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA). Marco Rubio, the U.S. Secretary of State, called the fine “an attack on all American tech platforms and the American people by foreign governments.”

Then, the Trump administration published its new National Security Strategy, stating that Europe is undergoing an internal crisis that threatens to turn it into an irrelevant actor in the new multipolar order—leading some European politicians to denounce the U.S. as “dangerous” and “no longer an ally.”

America’s free speech absolutism vs. Europe’s ‘regulated dignity’

The difference in views over online freedom of expression is indicative of a deeper difference in how Americans and Europeans relate to individual freedom, especially in the area of the spoken and written word. While the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution guarantees near-unlimited protection of expression, Europe has opted to ‘balance’ the right to free speech with protection against harm or defamation—often framed as safeguarding collective dignity over individual rights of expression. It’s not the first time the two approaches have clashed since the EU’s Digital Services Act took effect. 

Elon Musk dismissed the ruling against X as “Bulls**t” and accused the EU of targeting free speech and U.S. tech companies. He reiterated his support for the free exchange of ideas, saying:

You can tell the good side from the bad side by who wants to restrict freedom of speech. … Ideas should win because they’re stronger—not because the others are silenced.

MEP Andreas Schwab, spokesman for the The European People’s Party (EPP), defended the fine, promising even harsher future crackdowns from the EU Commission.

Conservative European voices, including Alternative für Deutschland’s Alice Weidel, sided with Musk. Hungarian PM Viktor Orbán also expressed his support for Musk on X:

When the Brusselian overlords cannot win the debate, they reach for the fines. Europe needs free speech, not unelected bureaucrats deciding what we can read or say. 

The Commission’s attack on X says it all. When the Brusselian overlords cannot win the debate, they reach for the fines. Europe needs free speech, not unelected bureaucrats deciding what we can read or say. Hats off to @elonmusk for holding the line.

— Orbán Viktor (@PM_ViktorOrban) December 6, 2025

The White House has not announced any direct repercussions in response to the EU’s fines against X, like tariffs or sanctions, but officials have explicitly threatened retaliation. If the U.S. were to retaliate, it would be in alignment with broader U.S. criticism of EU digital regulations as “overseas extortion” and “censorship.”

U.S. Undersecretary of State Jacob Helberg called the fine “censorship and a backdoor cash grab by an EU bureaucracy that can’t levy taxes openly, so it weaponizes fines instead.”

Allies or Enemies?

Alongside the dispute over freedom of speech, relations between Washington and Brussels are tensing up after the publication of President Trump’s new Security Strategy document. While EU officials have so far taken a diplomatic approach to it, the same is not true for other European politicians and pundits.

On Saturday, December 6, in an interview from Doha, Qatar, Kaja Kallas, the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, said the U.S. is “still our biggest ally” despite the document’s “explicit support for Europe’s nationalist far-right parties.” Kajas went as far as to say, “Of course, there’s a lot of criticism, but I think some of it is also true.”

German foreign minister Johann Wadephul (CDU) told the media that Germany does not want advice on how to organize its society “from any country or party,” adding that while the U.S. is his country’s most important NATO ally, “questions like freedom of expression, freedom of opinion and how we organize our liberal society … are not part of that.”

Renew group leader MEP Valérie Hayer (of Macron’s Renaissance party), however, pulled out the big guns, calling the American National Security Strategy “unacceptable and dangerous” and saying, “The Trump administration has no business meddling in our domestic policies. It has no right to question what makes the European Union, its values, its democratic choices.” Hayer went as far as calling the Trump administration “an enemy of Europe,” saying, “We must stop behaving as a friend toward it.”

Gerald Knaus, founder of the European Stability Initiative (ESI), a liberal Austrian think tank, also did not mince words about the American document. He called the U.S. “a direct threat to European democracy and peace. And no longer an ally,” warning that the Trump administration’s goal is to “destroy the EU and NATO.”

By contrast, Balász Orbán, the Hungarian prime minister’s political director, said the American analysis of Europe is stating the same thing Hungary has been saying for 15 years: 

According to the strategy, Europe has a future only if it “regains its civilizational self-confidence” and breaks with Brussels’ regulatory model, which is suffocating the European economy.