Elon Musk calls Trump trade adviser a ‘moron’ after Tesla boss called for ‘zero tariffs’ with Europe
All is not hunky dory in the White House over Donald Trump's recent tariffs, after Elon Musk called the US President's trade adviser Peter Navarro a 'moron'.
Trump last week announced a long list of tariffs the US was going to impose on other countries, and almost every other nation in the world was on the list.
The tariff list is frankly baffling, at least when approached rationally, as there are some frankly insane one levied on various parts of the world.
Among the places that were hit with tariffs was the Heart and Macdonald Islands, an uninhabited part of the world populated solely by penguins.
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The most punishing tariff was handed out to Lesotho, which was hit with a whopping 50 percent, and it turns out the reason for that is because they sell lots more to the US than the US sells to them, and Trump doesn't like this.
It wasn't long before people figured out how Trump's tariffs were calculated and realised they had nothing to do with the tariffs other countries imposed on US goods.
Instead they seem to be retaliation for countries that dare to have a trade surplus with the United States, so they make sense if you view them through that less than sensible lens.
The economic consequences of Donald Trump have been catastrophic, with stock markets around the world tumbling sharply from the turbulence he has caused, and one guy who is particularly close to the President seems not to be a big fan of them at all.
Tesla boss Elon Musk is sticking with the Trump administration a little while longer, but he seems to be on a different page as far as tariffs are concerned as he called for 'zero tariffs' between the US and Europe.
His cars haven't been selling well for a while anyway, as he seems to be tainted by association with Trump, and also some other things he's been doing, but he's made it pretty clear he's not a fan of the tariffs.
Trump's adviser Navarro suggested in a recent interview that the reason why Musk didn't like the tariffs was due to Tesla making their cars by putting together mostly foreign-made components.
Musk didn't react very happily to this claim, hitting out at Navarro and calling him 'dumber than a sack of bricks' before calling the man a 'moron'.
"Tesla has the most American-made cars. Navarro is truly a moron. What he says here is demonstrably false," Musk said in response to Navarro's comments.
In an attempt to head off potential handbags at dawn between Musk and Navarro, the White House said that 'boys will be boys'.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said: "These are obviously two individuals who have very different views on trade and on tariffs. Boys will be boys, and we will let their public sparring continue."
Topics: Donald Trump, Elon Musk, Politics, Tesla, US News
Joe Harker