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Elon Musk has lambasted the architect of Donald Trump’s trade war in the most public display to date of a potential rift between the US president and the world’s richest man.
In an extraordinary broadside on Tuesday morning, Musk, a long-standing critic of tariffs, called trade tsar Peter Navarro a “moron”, and “dumber than a sack of bricks”, after the economist dismissed the Tesla boss in a TV interview as a “car assembler” and accused him of “protecting his own interests”.
The feud comes after days in which Musk, who spent more than a quarter of a billion dollars on Trump’s campaign and who runs the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (Doge), repeatedly hinted at his dissatisfaction with the White House’s trade policy.
Appearing virtually at a conference organised by Italy’s rightwing deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini over the weekend, Musk said he was hopeful the US and Europe would reach “a zero-tariff situation, effectively creating a free-trade zone”.
Musk also shared a video on his social media platform X in which the free-market advocate Milton Friedman extolled the virtues of a globalised economy by pondering the different parts and labour that are necessary to make a single pencil.
On Monday, Musk’s brother Kimbal, who is on the boards of Tesla and SpaceX, called Trump’s tariffs a “structural, permanent tax on the American consumer”, in a post on X. “A tax on consumption also means less consumption. Which means less jobs,” Kimbal added.
Musk’s political influence was under pressure before Trump unveiled his sweeping tariffs last week, after the billionaire’s preferred candidate in a Wisconsin supreme court race lost heavily in a contest that became a referendum on Doge’s cost-cutting tactics.
The White House also confirmed last week that Musk’s government role, which was originally meant to continue into 2026, could end within weeks, once his work with Doge is complete. Trump said the billionaire was at some point “going to get back to his businesses full time”.
In the meantime, some of Musk’s enterprises appear to have suffered from his association with the president. Tesla’s stock has plunged more than 35 per cent since the start of the year amid concerns about a growing trade war and anger towards the company from consumers opposed to Musk’s aggressive cost-cutting mission within the government.
In an unsigned letter addressed to US trade representative Jamieson Greer last month, Tesla warned that a trade war could make it a target for retaliatory tariffs and increase the cost of making vehicles in America.
The electric-car company’s second-biggest market is China, where Tesla also has a large plant. Musk opened a $200mn battery factory in the country just weeks ago.
Starlink, SpaceX’s satellite internet service, has also lost contracts with various governments as tensions between the US and its allies intensify.
Musk did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Navarro did not immediately respond to a question about Musk’s interventions in US trade policy.
The White House directed the Financial Times to a statement by press secretary Karoline Leavitt that read: “Whatever. We are the most transparent administration in history, expressing our disagreements in public.”
Additional reporting by Demetri Sevastopulo in Washington
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