Elon Musk publicly clashes with Trump’s trade adviser Peter Navarro, calls for zero-tariff deal with Europe as stock markets crash.
United States President Donald Trump has doubled down on his tariffs plan, even as markets crash around the world.
However, signs of divisions among Trump’s aides are emerging with key ally Elon Musk and trade adviser Peter Navarro clashing in a series of tit-for-tat attacks since Saturday. Others have also presented diverging narratives.
Here is more about what has happened:
What happened between Musk and Navarro?
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 Trump’s tariffs.
In the aftermath, the three major stock indices in the US – the Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P 500 and Nasdaq – dropped by more than 5 percent over the past week. This marked the biggest stock market drop in the US since 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Longtime Trump aide and the administration’s senior counsellor for trade and manufacturing, Peter Navarro, defended the tariffs in an interview with CNN on Thursday.
“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. As of Tuesday morning, the Dow Jones was trading at less than 39,000.
After an X user posted a clip of Navarro speaking to CNN and alluded to the adviser’s doctorate from Harvard University, Musk hit back on the platform, which he owns.
“A PhD in Econ from Harvard is a bad thing, not a good thing,” Musk posted.
The first phase of the new tariffs – 10 percent levies on countries including the United Kingdom, Australia, Argentina and Saudi Arabia – came into effect on Saturday.
Higher levies that Trump calls reciprocal tariffs are scheduled to come into effect on Wednesday against countries that include China and India.
What did Musk say about tariffs on Europe?
The hit against Navarro hasn’t been Musk’s only comment on tariffs in recent days.
On Saturday, Musk – who oversees the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), tasked by Trump to slash government spending – joined a conversation by videolink with Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini, the leader of the far-right League party.
During this conversation, Musk voiced hopes for “a zero-tariff situation” between the US and Europe, even as Trump has imposed 20 percent tariffs on the European Union.
“I hope it is agreed that 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.
Musk – the world’s richest man, who is CEO of SpaceX and Tesla and the largest shareholder of both firms – has seen his firms face setbacks in recent weeks. In Europe alone, Tesla’s sales have plunged by 49 percent in January and February when compared with the same months in 2024, according to a March 25 report published by the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association.
Tesla’s share price has also stumbled. It’s about half of what it was in December.
How has Navarro responded?
In a Fox News interview on Sunday, Navarro responded to Musk’s comments about the tariffs in Europe.
“It was interesting to hear Elon Musk talk about a zero-tariff zone with Europe. He doesn’t understand that,” Navarro said.
“The thing that I think is important about Elon to understand is he sells cars. That’s what he does,” Navarro added, suggesting that Musk’s comments on tariffs were linked to his business interests.
Navarro said during a CNBC interview on Monday: “We all understand in the White House and the American people understand that Elon’s a car manufacturer. But he’s not a car manufacturer – he’s a car assembler.”
The trade adviser and architect of Trump’s tariffs said 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.”
Responding to this in an X post, Musk wrote on Tuesday: “Navarro is truly a moron. What he says here is demonstrably false,” adding that “Tesla is the most vertically integrated auto manufacturer in America with the highest percentage of US content.”
What had Musk said earlier about tariffs?
Last month, Tesla warned the US government that tariffs could harm electric vehicle companies when Trump’s tariff targets impose their own levies on American products.
In an unsigned letter to US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, Tesla said: “US exporters are inherently exposed to disproportionate impacts when other countries respond to US trade actions.”
The company added: “Past trade actions by the United States have resulted in immediate reactions by the targeted countries, including increased tariffs on electric vehicles imported into those countries.”
On March 26, Trump imposed 25 percent tariffs on car imports and certain automobile parts.
In response to this, Musk wrote on X: “Important to note that Tesla is NOT unscathed here. The tariff impact on Tesla is still significant.”
Are there other signs of splits within Team Trump?
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told CBS News on Sunday that the 10 percent baseline tariffs will “stay in place for days and weeks” and the higher reciprocal tariffs would also take effect.
However, on the same day, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told NBC’s Meet The Press programme that more than 50 countries had reached out to Washington for negotiations to cut the levies. “The market consistently underestimates Donald Trump,” he said in response to the market crashes.
Also on Sunday, CNN anchor Jake Tapper asked Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins whether the tariffs are here to stay like Trump and Lutnick have said. Rollins did not directly answer this question.
