White House trade adviser Peter Navarro said Donald Trump’s ‘first buddy’ Elon Musk does not understand trade after the right wing billionaire criticized him last week.
Musk has lost nearly $18 billion just on his Tesla stock in the two-day market crash. The crash came after Trump’s announcement on Wednesday that he will be imposing a 10% tariff on some of US trading partners and more targeted tariffs on many countries, including 34% on China, 20% on the European Union, 46% on Vietnam and 32% on Taiwan.
In posts on his X platform, Musk mocked Navarro’s education writing, “A PhD in Econ from Harvard is a bad thing, not a good thing. Results in the ego/brains>>1 problem.”
He also said that Navarro, “ain’t built shit.”
On Fox News Sunday, Navarro said Musk is only looking out for his own interests.
“We just have to understand Elon sells cars and he’s, in Texas, assembling cars that have big parts of that car from Mexico, China, the batteries come from Japan or China, The electronics come from Taiwan. And he’s simply protecting his own interests as any business person would do,” Navarro said. “We’re more concerned about Detroit building Cadillacs with American engines. And that’s what this is all about.”
On Saturday, Musk appeared by video at an event for an Italian political party, where he called for no barriers to trade between the US and Europe, according to Bloomberg.
“Both Europe and the United States should move, ideally, in my view, to a zero-tariff situation, effectively creating a free trade zone between Europe and North America,” Musk said.
Navarro slammed Musk over his comments saying he does not understand trade and should focus on selling cars.
“It was interesting to hear Elon Musk at the beginning talk about a zero-tariff zone with Europe,” Navarro said. “He doesn’t understand that. And the thing that’s, I think, important about Elon to understand, he sells cars. That’s what he does.”
