Over the weekend, Tesla (TSLA-2.56%) CEO Elon Musk took to his social media site, X (formerly Twitter), to criticize President Donald Trump’s tariff policies — and Peter Navarro, the administration’s top trade adviser, who is widely believed to be their architect.
[Continue reading below]“A PhD in Econ from Harvard is a bad thing, not a good thing. Results in the ego/brains>>1 problem,” Musk replied under a video of Navarro, who has a PhD from Harvard, explaining the administration’s reasoning for these tariffs. And in a post that appears to have been deleted, Musk said, “He ain’t built s—.”
Musk, on Monday morning, posted a video of economist Milton Friedman touting free trade.
Later on Monday, Navarro went on Fox News (FOXA-2.37%) and said Musk is a “car assembler” who wants to keep his manufacturing costs down.
“When it comes to tariffs and trade, we all understand in the White House — and the American people understand — that Elon is a car manufacturer … he’s a car assembler,” Navarro said. “He’s a car person. That’s what he does, and he wants the cheap foreign parts.”
Navarro noted that many of Tesla’s car parts come from Japan, China, Mexico, and Taiwan, all of which will be hit hard by Trump’s tariffs.
“(Musk is) simply protecting his own interests as any business person would do,” Navarro said. “We’re more concerned about Detroit building Cadillacs (GM-1.47%) with American engines.”
The trade adviser dismissed Musk’s call for a “zero-tariff situation” between Europe and the U.S. that the Tesla CEO made over the weekend via video at a congress of Italy’s right-wing League Party. Musk said a move to “effectively (create) a free-trade zone between Europe and North America” has “certainly been my advice to the president.” As it stands, Trump’s plans would mean countries in the EU would face a 20% general tariff.
Tesla’s stock has fallen almost 20% since Trump announced the sweeping tariffs. The company has been struggling since Musk took a role leading the administration’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) — its stock is down over 52% since December. The stock rose after the White House confirmed Musk would leave his governmental role by June at the latest, before the stock fell again in connection to the tariffs.
Navarro said that there’s no rift between him and Musk and that Musk’s personal dig was “no big deal.” The trade adviser said that Musk is great “when he’s in his DOGE lane” and that it would be business as usual when the two men see each other at the White House on Monday.
Meanwhile, markets have continued to swirl — the S&P 500 touched bear market territory and the Dow Jones Industrial Average shed as much as 1,700 points early Monday.
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