The right -wing technology is part of President Donald Trump’s White House is casting a doubt about the state of democracy in Romania, disagreeing them with the country’s main American diplomat.
In a large part of Europe, the response to the Romanian presidential election on Sunday was a sigh of relief. The winner, Nicusor Dan, is a centrist who supports Ukraine, and his victory closed the door to the Romanian authorities to say they are an attempted coup supported by Russia.
But for a handful of right -wing technology, Dan’s defeat against George Simion, the 38 -year -old chief of the right -right alliance for the Romanian unit, or Aur, was something else. Two of them, Elon Musk and David Sacks, both Trump advisers, expressed their dissatisfaction with the state of the democracy of Romania.
Sacks, a rich investor, denounced the result Monday in a position on X as “statistically improbable, if not impossible”. The press release was equivalent to an accusation of fraud, although the bags did not obtain any evidence, and it criticized the Romanian authorities to disqualify a main pro-Russian candidate, Calin Georgescu. Simion, the loser candidate, had already conceded the defeat when Sacks displayed.
Sacks, who was named “Tsar” for artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency by Trump in December, made these comments on his personal account on X, where he has 1.3 million followers, not on his government account.
Musk weighed separately. On X, he amplified an accusation by the chief of the Telegram messaging application, Pavel Durov, who said that the French government had asked him to ban conservative voices in Telegram before the elections. Durov, who has the double citizenship of French and united Arab Emirates, said he had refused. The French Ministry of Foreign Affairs denied having never made such a request.
Durov, born in Russia, is involved in a legal battle in France. Last year, French prosecutors accused him of having allowed various forms of crime on the telegram. Durov returned home to Dubai in March, but said that he had met the French authorities this spring in Paris.
“WOW,” wrote Musk, sharing Durov’s allegation with his 219 million followers. Responding to another Durov position who said that Romanian democracy was at risk, Musk wrote: “Listen, listen!”
The White House did not respond to a request for comments on the statements of Musk and Sacks, two of the most important technological personalities of the Trump administration. Neither Musk nor Sacks responded to requests for comments sent by e-mail.
The United States Embassy in Romania displayed on Sunday that it had sent several teams to observe the vote. Tuesday, the interim chief of the United States of Mission Romania, Michael L. Dickerson, published a note of congratulations to the elected president of Romania on X.
“We are impatient to work with you as a new president of Romania and the government to advance our common priorities, including defense, energy and commercial partnerships,” wrote Dickerson, marking Dan.
Dickerson was appointed to an interim diplomatic post Tuesday on Tuesday on Tuesday, when the embassy announced the retirement of the American ambassador to Romania Kathleen Kavalec on Facebook. The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comments.
It is unusual in recent history for the White House advisers to individually comment on the subjects of foreign policy unless their work is specific to national security, but Musk in particular has been far from past practice. He pushed political movements, policies and right -wing political administrations in at least 18 countries, in particular in Europe, according to a count of NBC News.
Musk and Sacks’ social networks on social networks show how Romanian politics has increased importance in the minds of certain wealthy technological personalities in recent years, in particular as a proxy for attitudes with regard to Russia.
Romania borders Ukraine and has provided help to its neighbor as it defends itself. Political candidates in the country have a wide range of points of view on Russia, although the pro-Ukraine candidate Dan prevailed on Sunday.
Musk and Sacks both expressed their support for Russia’s position in his war against Ukraine. In 2022, Musk suggested that Ukraine Cèvre the territory in Russia, and this year, he called Senator Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., A “traitor” to express his support for Ukraine. Sacks has repeatedly criticized the American decision to support Ukraine and said that Russia was “not our enemy.”
Both are also long -standing friends and partners, dating from their stay as the first PayPal leaders two decades ago.
Elections have recently been an accused issue in Romania.
Georgescu won the first round of the presidential election of Romania in 2024, but the country’s senior court canceled the result in December, two days before the final vote of runoff, in the middle of accusations that Moscow had interfere via a Tiktok disinformation campaign. Georgescu, who is the subject of a criminal investigation in the context of the alleged Russian interference, was excluded from the new ballot in March. The same month, the Romanian authorities announced the arrest of six people who, according to them, had a blow against the government in collusion with Russia.
Sacks, on X, overthrew the allegation of the coup: he shared a position of another X user on Monday which accused the European Union of setting up a “silent coup” with the disqualification of Georgescu. However, Georgescu was disqualified by a Romanian electoral authority based on Romanian law, unrelated to the EU membership, according to a Factcheck Reuters. The best EU diplomat, Kaja Kallas, distinguished Russia for allegations to interfere in the elections of Romania.
Moscow denied having interfered, on Monday, the Kremlin criticized the election of Romania as “strange”, according to Reuters.
Sacks and Musk had previously expressed their support for Georgescu, the pro-Russian candidate, remaining on the ballot. Musk called for the decision to prohibit him “crazy”, while Sacks said it represented the death of democracy. Vice-president JD Vance expressed similar opinions, saying that evidence against Georgescu was “fragile”, although he did not comment on election results.
