 "The feud between Elon Musk and Peter Navarro, who has been the architect of many of President Trump’s trade plans, has been simmering for days. File image/AFP")
“Dumber than a sack of bricks.”
“He’s not a car manufacturer. He’s a car assembler, in many cases.”
“Boys will be boys, and we will let their public sparring continue.”
These three lines depict how US President Donald Trump’s tariffs have not only roiled global markets and years-long alliances — but also disrupted the relationship between two of his top advisors: Elon Musk and Peter Navarro.
As the harsh levies kick in across the world, we take a closer look at the spat between Musk – who oversees the Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) — and Navarro — the US president’s trade advisor and an ardent supporter of Trump’s tariff plan.
Musk takes the first shot
On April 2, Trump announced sweeping tariffs impacting most of America’s trading partners. This marked a major break from decades of US trade policy and sparked criticism and concern from economists and countries targeted by the tariffs.
In the aftermath, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P 500 and Nasdaq dropped by more than five per cent over the past week, marking the biggest stock market drop in the US since 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic.
As concerns increased about the falling markets, Peter Navarro, the Trump administration’s senior advisor on trade and manufacturing appeared on CNN for an interview, defending the US president’s moves. “The market will find a bottom. It will be soon, and from there, we’re going to have a bullish boom, and the Dow is going to hit 50,000 during Trump’s term,” Navarro said.
Reacting to this interview, Musk wrote on X, “A PhD in Econ from Harvard is a bad thing, not a good thing. Results in the ego/brains»1 problem.”
The post was a reference to Navarro’s academic history; he got his bachelor’s degree from Tuft’s University, before going to Harvard for a master’s in public administration and a doctorate in economics.
Navarro dials up the heat
It seems that Navarro took umbrage to Musk’s earlier post on X. The following day, on April 7, he took shots at the Tesla chief while speaking to Fox News.
He told Fox, “The thing that I think is important about Elon to understand is he sells cars. That’s what he does.”
In a separate interview with CNBC, Navarro once again took aim at Musk, saying, the criticism was not surprising from the Tesla CEO because he was a “car assembler” who used parts from other countries.
“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, but he’s not 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,” he added.
The architect of Trump’s tariffs further added that Musk simply wants “the cheap foreign parts” to assemble cars. Navarro added that the difference “is in our thinking and Elon’s”, adding: “We want the tyres made in Akron. We want the transmissions made in Indianapolis. We want the engines made in Flint and Saginaw. And we want the cars manufactured here.”
‘A moron, dumber than a sack of bricks’
The spat between the two went further on April 8 with Musk making it even more personal with a ‘moron’ jibe at Navarro.
Taking to X, the Tesla chief posted Navarro’s interview and posted, “Navarro is truly a moron. What he says here is demonstrably false.”
“Tesla has the most American-made cars. Navarro is dumber than a sack of bricks,” he added below.
Later in the day, Musk doubled down, posting that he wanted to “apologise to bricks.” “That was so unfair to bricks,” Musk wrote. He also referred to Navarro as “Peter Retarrdo.”
And amid the back-and-forth between Musk and Navarro, the Tesla chief’s Kimball Musk also weighed in. On April 8, the other Musk wrote on X, “@realDonaldTrump Mr President, if Peter Navarro has lied to you about Ron Vara, what else has he lied to you about? “Put America first and fire him!”
White House weighs in
Notably, US President Trump has kept mum on the issue even as his advisors trade barbs publicly.
Even the White House has shrugged it off when asked about it. On Tuesday, during its media interaction, White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said, “Look, these are obviously two individuals who have very different views on trade and on tariffs. Boys will be boys, and we will let their public sparring continue."
Leavitt added that the media and the public should be grateful, saying that their jibing was an indication of how transparent the Trump administration is. “I think it also speaks to the president’s willingness to hear from all sides that he has people at the highest levels of this government, in this White House, who have very diverse opinions, on very diverse issues. But the president takes all opinions in mind, and then he makes the best decision based on the best interests of the American public.”
But the important question that we should be asking is — does the Musk vs Navarro spat matter? If one goes by the Wall Street Journal, it does, as it indicates that Musk may be on his way out of Trump’s world.
With inputs from agencies