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Investing.com -- Illustrating signs of cracks in the upper echelons of the Trump administration, Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) CEO and DOGE chief Elon Musk continues to lash out publicly at key Trump advisor and tariff architect Peter Navarro, calling him a "moron."
The comments from Musk follow a recent Fox News interview with Navarro, who said Musk is a "car assembler" and is only looking out for his self-interest in his opposition to the administration's sweeping tariffs.
"Tesla has the most American-made cars," Musk said on X. "Navarro is dumber than a sack of bricks.”
He followed up referring to Navarro as “Peter Retarrdo”.
This is not the first time Musk called out Navarro publicly. The tension has been building for a couple of days as markets were bleeding last week after Trump announced his reciprocal tariffs, which go into effect tomorrow.
Over the weekend, in response to a video of Navarro highlighting his Harvard PhD, Musk replied, “A PhD in Econ from Harvard is a bad thing, not a good thing. Results in the ego/brains>>1 problem.”
Also, in a since-deleted response, Musk said, “He ain’t built s—.”
In addition to Navarro's comments on Musk's self-interest on tariffs, he also rejected the car executives' call for a “zero-tariff situation” between Europe and the U.S. Musk advocated for “effectively creating a free-trade zone between Europe and North America,” adding that this has “certainly been my advice to the president.” Under Trump’s current plans, however, EU countries would face a general 20% tariff.
Overnight, the Washington Post reported that Musk had personally appealed to Trump with his case to reduce the severity of his trade tariffs but was ultimately unsuccessful in changing the President’s mind.
The White House is discounting the impact of the feud between the two Trump advisors.
“Whatever,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told CNBC reporter Eamon Javors in response to Musk’s disparaging comments on Navarro. “We are the most transparent administration in history, expressing our disagreements in public.”
Shares of Telsa, while up 4.7% today, are down 42.2% year-to-date. They are down 14% since Trump’s “liberation day” on April 2nd.
