‘Truly is a moron’: Elon Musk explodes at Trump’s White House

The White House cracks are widening with the Tesla CEO lashing out at one of Donald Trump’s top tariff advisers saying he “dumber than bricks”.

Trump adviser and billionaire Elon Musk is not happy about tariffs and while he’s steering clear of criticising Donald Trump himself he is laying into one of his closest advisers calling him “dumber than a sack of bricks” and a “moron”.

The scathing remarks were directed at White House senior counsellor for trade and manufacturing Peter Navarro, one of Mr Trump’s chief cheerleaders of tariffs, after he called Tesla a car “assembler” who just wants “cheap foreign parts”.

That didn’t go down well with Mr Musk, Tesla’s co-founder and CEO, who has called for the US to have a free trade zone with Europe.

Mr Navarro has admitted in the past to making up an expert “Ron Vara” he quoted in one of his books. Ron Vara is an anagram of Navarro.

In an interview with Fox News on Tuesday, Mr Navarro was asked about Mr Musk’s tariff concerns. He brushed them off as the concerns of someone who was a “car person”.

US President Donald Trump and Tesla CEO Elon Musk speak to the press as they sit in a Tesla vehicle on the South Portico of the White House on March 11. Picture: Mandel Ngan / AFP

“The American people understand that (Mr Musk is) a car manufacturer, but he’s not a car manufacturer. He’s a car assembler in many cases,” said Mr Navarro.

“If you go to his Texas plant, a good part of the engines that he gets, which in the EV’s case is the batteries, come from Japan, come from China. The electronics come from Taiwan.

“And we want the transmissions made in Indianapolis; we want the engines made in Flint and Saginaw and manufactured here,” he continued.

“It’s like this business model where BMW and Mercedes come in to South Carolina and have us assemble German engines and Austrian transmissions.

“That doesn’t work for America. It’s bad for our economics; it’s bad for our national security. We want them to come here.

“And with the Elon, it’s fine. He’s a car person. That’s what he does. And he wants the cheap foreign parts”.

Mr Musk’s Tesla car company has its factories in the US. Some of the vehicle’s components come from overseas, meaning the firm will suffer from tariffs, but it manufactures a substantial amount of its vehicle range in the US using US parts. And certainly more than some foreign car makers in the US.

Mr Musk fired back.

“Tesla has the most American-made cars. Navarro is dumber than a sack of bricks,” he said in an X post on Tuesday.

Replying to another post, Mr Musk replied: “Navarro is truly a moron”.

“What he says here is demonstrably false.”

At the White House, a few hours after Mr Musk’s comments, press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the spat was just “boys will be boys”.

“I think it also speaks to the President’s willingness to hear from all sides,” she said of the advisers.

Musk says he hopes for ‘zero tariffs’ on Europe

Elon Musk earlier said he hopes the US and Europe can move towards a “zero-tariff situation” as stock markets continue to be rocked by the President’s heavy trade tariffs.

The world’s richest man made the comments during a video call with Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini days after Mr Trump announced his sweeping tariffs on over 90 trading partners, including a 20 per cent tariff on the European Union.

The tariffs have since wreaked chaos on global financial markets, despite a modest recovery today.

Mr Musk said he hopes the US and Europe can move towards a “zero-tariff situation” Picture: X

“I hope that the United States and Europe can establish a very close partnership,” Mr Musk told the leader of Italy’s right-wing League Party, Matteo Salvini on Saturday, US time.

“At the end of the day, I hope it’s 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,” he added.

The Tesla and Space X owner said he would like to see greater freedom of people to move between Europe and the US.

“If people wish to work in Europe or wish to work in North America, they should be allowed to do so in my view. That has certainly been my advice to the president.”

Mr Trump’s top trade adviser Peter Navarro later addressed Mr Musk’s comments in an interview with CNBC, dismissing the billionaire as a “car person” when it comes to the issue of tariffs.

“Elon Musk and his DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency) team is making a contribution to America in terms of waste, fraud and abuse. And that’s a very good thing for this country and the American people,” Mr Navarro said when asked about the DOGE head.

“When it comes to tariffs and trade, we all understand in the White House – and the American people understand – that Elon is a car manufacturer. But he’s not a car manufacturer. He’s a car assembler,” he added, noting that he was dependent on Japan, China and Taiwan for parts.

“He’s a car person. That’s what he does, and he wants the cheap foreign parts.”

White House senior trade Peter Navarro weighed in on Mr Musk’s tariff comments. Picture: CNBC

‘Stop the madness’: Wall St finally snaps

Mr Musk’s interview comes as billionaires and Wall Street figures have publicly spoken out against Mr Trump as his tariffs continue to send shockwaves through the market.

According to The Wall Street Journal, high profile names in finance are attempting to send a message to the President to “stop the madness”.

Last week, bank CEOs including Jamie Dimon from PMorgan Chase, and Charlie Scharf from Wells Fargo met with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick in Washington as Mr Trump announced his tariffs.

“The conversation starts out with, listen, nothing’s going to change,” a person familiar with the discussion told the publication.

President Donald Trump attends a meeting with Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, Monday, April 7, 2025. (Pool via AP)

In a post on X, billionaire investor and Trump supporter Bill Ackman, has called for a 90-day “time out” on tariffs, warning going ahead would result in an “economic nuclear war on every country in the world”.

“By placing massive and disproportionate tariffs on our friends and our enemies alike and thereby launching a global economic war against the whole world at once, we are in the process of destroying confidence in our country as a trading partner, as a place to do business, and as a market to invest capital,” Mr Ackman wrote on the social media platform on Monday.

“The president has an opportunity to call a 90-day time out, negotiate and resolve unfair asymmetric tariff deals, and induce trillions of dollars of new investment in our country,” he added.

“If, on the other hand, on April 9th we launch economic nuclear war on every country in the world, business investment will grind to a halt, consumers will close their wallets and pocket books, and we will severely damage our reputation with the rest of the world that will take years and potentially decades to rehabilitate.”

Bill Ackman has called for a 90-day “time out” on tariffs. Picture: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

Mr Ackman added if the President does not fix his “unfair” tariffs, “we are heading for a self-induced, economic nuclear winter, and we should start hunkering down.”

“May cooler heads prevail,” he concluded.

Mr Trump on Monday dismissed “fake news” reports Washington would issue a 90 day pause on tariffs.

“We’re not looking into that. We have many, many countries that are coming to negotiate deals with us,” he said.

Meanwhile, British billionaire and Virgin founder Richard Branson has called Mr Trump’s tariffs a “colossal mistake”, warning the US could” face ruin for years to come”.

“The ongoing market response to last week’s US tariff announcement was both predictable and preventable. Even if you agree with the premise of these tariffs, every reasonable effort should be made to give US companies sufficient time to adapt,” he wrote on X on Tuesday.
“The opposite has happened, and now financial markets everywhere are in free fall, with catastrophic results for ordinary Americans and for the rest of the world.”

“This is the moment to own up to a colossal mistake and change course. Otherwise, America will face ruin for years to come.”

British billionaire and Virgin founder Richard Branson has called Mr Trump’s tariffs a “colossal mistake. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Damian Shaw

Mr Dimon of JPMorgan has also warned the tariffs could lead to higher inflation and are “causing many to consider a greater probability of a recession”.

In his annual leader to shareholders on Monday, Mr Dimon noted that “whatever you think of the legitimate reasons for the newly announced tariffs – and, of course, there are some – or the long-term effect, good or bad, there are likely to be important short-term effects”.

“We are likely to see inflationary outcomes, not only on imported goods but on domestic prices, as input costs rise and demand increases on domestic products,” he continued.

“Whether or not the menu of tariffs causes a recession remains in question, but it will slow down growth.”

Billionaire Stanley Druckenmiller, founder of investment firm the Duquesne Family Office, said on X he did “not support tariffs exceeding 10 per cent”.

Jamie Dimon warned the tariffs could lead to higher inflation. Picture: Saul Loeb/AFP

Billionaire Ken Fisher, the founder and executive chairman of Fisher Investments, has also made his thoughts on the tariffs known – blasting Mr Trump’s “stupid” move in a post on X.

“What Trump unveiled (last) Wednesday is stupid, wrong, arrogantly extreme, ignorant trade-wise and addressing a non-problem with misguided tools,” he wrote on Tuesday.

“Yet, as near as I can tell it will fade and fail and the fear is bigger than the problem, which from here is bullish.”

Mr Fisher added that he wasn’t very vocal on Mr Trump’s first term or that of former US President Joe Biden, but on “tariffs Trump is beyond the pale by a long shot”.

Trump says ‘don’t be stupid’ as markets tumble

As the market turmoil continues, Mr Trump has called for Americans to “be strong, courageous, and patient.”

“The United States has a chance to do something that should have been done DECADES AGO,” Mr Trump said on Monday, US time, in reference to his tariff reforms.

“Don’t be Weak! Don’t be Stupid! … Be Strong, Courageous, and Patient, and GREATNESS will be the result.”

He earlier hit back at accusations that he was intentionally trying to crash the stock market.

“I don’t want anything to go down, but sometimes you have to take medicine to fix something,” the he told reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday.

“We have been treated so badly by other countries because we had stupid leadership that allowed this to happen … What’s going to happen to the markets I can’t tell you. But our country is much stronger.”