Musk lashes out at ‘moron’, as China tariff deadline looms
Tech billionaire Elon Musk has lashed out at the architect of Donald Trump’s global tariffs in a heated public spat over the hit to his Tesla manufacturing business.
Musk, who has called for zero tariffs with Europe, posted to social media that top trade official Peter Navarro was a “moron” and “dumber than a sack of bricks”.
It came after Navarro claimed Musk wanted to protect Tesla from tariff impacts only because most of its car parts were imported from overseas.
Navarro said on Fox News on Tuesday (US time) that Musk was a “car assembler” – not a car manufacturer.
“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,” he said.
“We want the transmissions made in Indianapolis; we want the engines made in Flint and Saginaw and manufactured here.”
Navarro said Musk was a car person who wanted “cheap foreign parts”, while the Trump administration wanted to bring back American manufacturing.
Musk fired back on X, linking to a 2023 article by car valuation firm Kelley Blue Brook that stated Tesla had the most parts produced in the US.
“Tesla has the most American-made cars. Navarro is dumber than a sack of bricks,” said Musk, adding in another post that: “Navarro is truly a moron”.
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“What he says here is demonstrably false.”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt simply responded that “boys will be boys” when asked about the spat.
“I think it also speaks to the President’s willingness to hear from all sides,” she said.
Navarro is widely seen as the architect of President Donald Trump’s wide-ranging tariff plans.
The policy is intended to revive US manufacturing and shore up national security but has hammered markets and thrown global supply chains into uncertainty.
Leavitt confirmed that tariffs of 104 per cent against China would take effect shortly after midnight on Wednesday (US time) after Beijing remained immovable.
“The President, when America is punched, punches back harder,” she said.
Trump posted to Truth Social that he believed China was ready to make a “deal”. However, China appeared publicly resolute to push ahead with its own 34 per cent retaliatory tariff on the US.
Administration officials said they would not prioritise negotiations with China, the world’s No. 2 economic power.
The White House has scheduled talks with South Korea and Japan, two close allies and major trading partners, and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is due to visit next week.
But the White House made clear that country-specific tariffs of up to 50 per cent would nevertheless take effect at 12.01am Eastern Time (2pm on Wednesday AEST), as planned.
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Those tariffs will be especially steep for China, as Trump has ratcheted up duties on its imports to 104 per cent in response to counter-tariffs Chinese officials announced last week.
Trump’s sweeping tariffs have raised fears of recession and upended a global trading order that has been in place for decades.
“Right now, we’ve received the instruction to prioritise our allies and our trading partners like Japan and Korea and others,” White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett said on Fox News.
The White House said Trump instructed his trade team to create “tailor made” deals for the nearly 70 countries that have reached out for talks.
“The President will talk to any country that picks up the phone to call, and I can tell you, the phones have been ringing off the hook,” Leavitt said on Tuesday.
Trump’s lead trade negotiator, Jamieson Greer, told Congress that his office was trying to work quickly but faced no particular deadline.
“The President has been clear, again, that he’s not doing exemptions or exceptions in the near term,” Greer told a hearing.
China is bracing for a war of attrition, and manufacturers are warning about profits and scrambling to plan new overseas plants.
Citing rising external risks, Citi cut its 2025 China gross domestic product growth forecast to 4.2 per cent from 4.7 per cent.
Chipmaker Micron told customers it will impose a tariff-related surcharge from Wednesday while US clothing retailers said they were delaying orders and pausing hiring.
Running shoes made in Vietnam that retail for $US155 ($A256) will cost $US220 when Trump’s 46 per cent tariff on that country takes effect, according to an industry group.
Consumers are stocking up while they can.
“I’m buying double of whatever – beans, canned goods, flour, you name it,” Thomas Jennings, 53, said as he pushed a shopping cart through the aisles of a New Jersey Walmart.
Stock markets found a firmer footing on Tuesday after a gut-wrenching few days for investors that prompted some business leaders, including those close to Trump, to urge him to reverse course.
European shares bounced off 14-month lows after four straight sessions of heavy selling, while global oil prices steadied after falling to four-year lows.
Wall Street’s main indexes had posted gains earlier in the day but fell after the White House said the tariffs on China would go ahead.
The European Commission, meanwhile, is mulling counter-tariffs of 25 per cent on US goods such as soybeans, nuts and sausages. Other potential items like bourbon whiskey were left off the list.
Officials said they were ready to negotiate.
