There’s trouble in Trumpland; Tesla CEO and head of the Department of Government Efficiency, Elon Musk, has taken public swipes at Donald Trump’s adviser on trade and manufacturing, Peter Navarro, who helped shape the president’s reciprocal tariff policy that tanked markets across the world.
Musk is typically vocal in his support and defense of the president, but has been quiet since Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariff announcement that killed $2.5 trillion from the U.S. stock market — a loss of value that cost the Tesla CEO more than $30bn, according to CNBC.
On X, which Musk owns, he took swipes at Navarro, a Harvard-educated economist who advises Trump on trade. Navarro who was originally tapped for a spot in the White House by Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, is the author of books on China and the economic threats he says the nation poses to the U.S.
A user on X posted a video from CNN in which Navarro defends the tariffs, noting positively that he went to Harvard. Musk took issue with that, calling it a “bad thing.”
“A PhD in Econ from Harvard is a bad thing, not a good thing,” he wrote. “Results in the ego/brains>>1 problem.”
Another user replied, insisting that Navarro was correct in his defense, but Musk rejected that and questioned Navarro’s practical economic experience.
“He aint built s***,” Musk wrote.
Navarro was jailed after a grand jury indicted him in 2022 on two counts of contempt of Congress. He refused to comply with a subpoena from the White House Select Committee investigating the Capitol riot on January 6, 2021.
The economist was sentenced to four months in jail and was fined $9,500. He was 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 that critiqued Harvard-trained professionals.
“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.”
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 potentially another Great Depression, according to Fox Business.
Despite the shock and condemnation of Trump’s tariffs even by some conservatives, it hasn’t dulled the negative attention Musk is facing for his actions as the head of DOGE. Under Musk, the agency has demanded the firing of tens of thousands of federal workers, effectively shuttered entire agencies, and has crippled some agencies’ ability to work efficiently. Protesters took to the streets on Saturday to voice their anger at Trump and Musk for their dismantling of the federal government.
Americans frustrated by Musk — who was not personally elected — meddling in the federal government have responded by protesting outside Tesla facilities and boycotting the company’s vehicles. Some have gone so far as to vandalize or even destroy Tesla vehicles and showrooms.
Tesla announced a 13 percent drop in its first quarter sales this year when compared to last year, making it the company’s worst quarter since 2022, according to a company statement. As of Friday, Tesla’s stock price was down 10 percent between Musk-related blowback and Trump’s tariffs.
Musk’s comments come shortly after news broke that Trump told his inner circle that the Tesla CEO will be stepping back from his duties at the White House, although he has not given a timeline for this happening.
