 "Peter Navarro with Musk and Stephen Miller in the White House last month. AFP")
Tesla CEO and head of Department of Government Efficiency Elon Musk took public jabs at US President Donald Trump’s adviser on trade and manufacturing, Peter Navarro, over the sweeping reciprocal trade tariffs proposed by the president earlier this week. The tariffs not only initiated a new kind of tariff war among several nations but have also tanked Wall Street, with investors taking a major hit.
Musk has been typically vocal while supporting and defending Trump and his policies. However, he has been quiet since Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariff announcement led to the US stock market losing a whopping $2.5 million, a loss of value that cost the Tesla CEO more than $30bn, CNBC reported.
In a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, Musk took jabs at Navarro, a Harvard-educated economist who advises Trump on trade. Interestingly, Navarro was originally tapped for a spot on the advice of Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner. A user of X shared a video of Navarro defending the tariffs on CNN and insisting he went to Harvard. Musk responded to the post, calling it a “bad thing.”
He ain’t built s***: Musk
Musk alluded that a PhD from Harvard can result in a big ego. “A PhD in Econ from Harvard is a bad thing, not a good thing,” he wrote. “Results in the ego/brains»1 problem,” he wrote in the post. Another user replied to the Tesla CEO, trying to defend Navarro, but Musk rejected the argument and questioned Navarro’s practical economic experience.
“He ain’t built s***,” the Tesla CEO wrote. It is pertinent to note that Navarro was jailed after a grand jury indicted him in 2022 on two counts of contempt of Congress. The Trump loyalist refused to comply with a subpoena from the White House Select Committee investigating the Capitol riot on January 6, 2021.
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More ShortsThe trade and manufacturing adviser was sentenced to four months in jail and fined $9,500. With this, he became the first former White House official imprisoned on a charge of contempt of Congress.
In another post, an X user shared a quote from conservative American economist Thomas Sowell. “In every disaster throughout American history, there always seems to be a man from Harvard in the middle of it,” the quote, attributed to Sowell, said. Musk replied to the post with a simple “yup”.
According to Fox News, Sowell has been a vocal critic of Trump’s tariffs and warned that the president’s policy could set off a global trade war and even lead to another Great Depression. Navarro is yet to respond to these jabs.