Tensions rise in White House amid intense tariff fallout

Elon Musk is leading a pressure campaign of White House insiders on Trump to reverse his tariff policy but is coming under attack as a war of words breaks out between advisers.

Elon Musk and Peter Navarro are at loggerheads over tariffs.

Elon Musk is leading a pressure campaign of White House insiders on President Trump to reverse his tariff policy but is coming under attack as a war of words breaks out between advisers.

Musk – the world’s richest person, and a cost-cutter for Trump – posted a video clip of the economist Milton Friedman on X, in which he talked up the benefits of free trade for innovation, value and world peace.

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— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 7, 2025

This came after Peter Navarro, Trump’s chief adviser on trade and tariffs, dismissed earlier calls by Musk for free trade with Europe, saying: “Elon Musk sells cars. He’s simply protecting his own interests as any business person would do.”

The escalation in tensions in Trump’s inner circle springs from the clash of two opposing ideological views: one side believes tariffs are part of a long-term protectionist reorientation of the US economy to fund Trump’s tax cuts; the other side wants them to be a short to medium-term negotiating tool to enable Trump to cut deals and improve free trade.

Musk told a conference in Italy on Saturday that he hoped the US and Europe would move “ideally in my view to a zero-tariff situation, effectively creating a free-trade zone.”

Navarro hit back on Fox News, saying: “Elon, when he’s in his Doge [Department of Government Efficiency] lane, is great. But we understand what is going on here. Elon sells cars.”

Yesterday (Monday) morning Musk posted a clip of Friedman talking about how it took thousands of people around the world co-operating to make a pencil, concluding that “the free market is essential, not only to promote productive efficiency but, even more, to foster harmony and peace among the peoples of the world”.

Navarro then told CNBC: “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.”

“His Tesla parts came from Japan, China and Taiwan, Navarro said. “He’s a car person. That’s what he does, and he wants the cheap foreign parts.”

Trump was also criticised by one of his biggest supporters on Wall Street.

Calling for a 90-day pause on the tariffs, Bill Ackman, a billionaire hedge fund manager, said the US was “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”. He added that Trump should “call a time-out” or “risk a self-induced, economic nuclear winter, and we should start hunkering down”.

Ken Langone, the co-founder of Home Depot who has been a longtime Republican donor, criticised Trump’s wide-ranging tariffs for being set too high and implemented too quickly. Home Depot has a market capitalisation of US$340 billion.

Langone told the Financial Times that the president was being “poorly advised”, describing the 46 per cent tariff on Vietnam as “bullshit”. He also said that the additional 34 per cent tariff on China was “too aggressive, too soon” and did not give “serious negotiations a chance to work”.

Larry Fink, the chief executive of BlackRock, said the US economy was “weakening as we speak”, warning that the market chaos prompted by Trump’s tariffs was rippling across corporate America. “When you see a 20 per cent market decline in three days obviously it has significant impacts and the ripple effects of the potential of tariffs are going to be longstanding,” Fink said at a meeting in New York. “The market is impacting main street.”

Stanley Druckenmiller, a billionaire investor and mentor to Scott Bessent, the US treasury secretary, also voiced concern, posting on X on Sunday: “I do not support tariffs exceeding 10 per cent.”

Other advisers are positioning themselves in the two camps.

Howard Lutnick, the commerce secretary, appears to be one of the hardliners in the long-term tariff camp. Lutnick told CBS on Sunday: “The president needs to reset global trade. Everybody has a trade surplus and we have a trade deficit.”

Bessent has been straddling both worlds but has recently been leaning into uncompromising long-term tariffs. “More than 50 countries have approached the administration about lowering their non-tariff trade barriers, lowering their tariffs, stopping currency manipulation,” he told NBC News. “They’ve been bad actors for a long time. And it’s not the kind of thing you can negotiate away, be it in days or weeks … what I have said are tariffs are a one-time price adjustment.”

Kevin Hassett, the director of Trump’s National Economic Council, appears to be trying to keep both options open. “He’s doubling down on something that he knows works, and he’s going to continue to do that,” he told Fox News. “But he is also going to listen to our trading partners.”

Trump has been posting on his Truth Social site, urging America to stay the course. “The United States has a chance to do something that should have been done DECADES AGO. Don’t be Weak! Don’t be Stupid! Don’t be a PANICAN (A new party based on Weak and Stupid people!). Be Strong, Courageous, and Patient, and GREATNESS will be the result!”

The Times