"Tariff hawk" Navarro hits back at Musk: "He's just protecting his own interests"
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"Tariff hawk" Navarro hits back at Musk: "He's just protecting his own interests"
Following Musk's opposition to trade barriers, a senior trade advisor in the Trump administration continued to push back against Musk.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsBy Yaqi Zhang, Wall Street Insights
After the Trump administration fully launched its "largest-scale tariffs in a century" policy, Musk suddenly opposed trade barriers and called for a U.S.-Europe free trade zone with zero tariffs—sharply diverging from the Trump administration's tariff agenda.
In response, Peter Navarro, chief trade advisor to the Trump administration, strongly pushed back against Musk. On April 7, he pointedly stated on Fox News:
"Elon has been doing well in his DOGE role, but we understand what's going on here. Elon sells cars—he's just protecting his own interests."
Navarro emphasized that although Tesla vehicles are produced at its factory in Texas, "many of their components come from regions like Mexico and Japan," making the company particularly vulnerable to the government’s new tariff regime.
Tariffs Trigger Wealth Decline, Musk Fights Back Publicly
Following Trump's announcement of the new tariff plan last week, Musk lost approximately $18 billion amid the broader U.S. stock market plunge.
On April 6, Musk abruptly broke his silence on trade policy, launching a public attack on Navarro: "Having a Harvard economics PhD [referring to Navarro] is a bad thing, not a good thing," he wrote on X, suggesting such credentials lead people to be "more full of themselves than wise."
More notably, according to Bloomberg, Musk later appeared via video at a political event in Italy on Saturday, where he publicly advocated for eliminating trade barriers.
"In my view, Europe and the United States should ideally move toward a zero-tariff status, effectively establishing a free trade zone between Europe and North America," Musk said during the event.
This stance stands in stark contrast to the Trump administration’s recently announced tariff policies, highlighting a clear divergence on trade issues by Musk, once seen as an ally of Trump.
Musk had previously acknowledged on the X platform: "To be clear, tariffs will affect the prices of parts in Tesla vehicles that come from other countries. The cost impact is not insignificant." In another post, he added: "It's important to note that Tesla is not unscathed here. The impact of tariffs on Tesla remains substantial."
Mark Williams, a finance professor at Boston University's Questrom School of Business, previously told Newsweek:
"If Trump's tariff war triggers a full-blown recession, demand for any vehicle—whether it's a Tesla or a Ford—will decline. A tariff war is a high-risk gamble betting that our largest trading partners will capitulate and accept trade terms favorable to the U.S. but damaging to them."
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