Brenna Cooper
Elon Musk has distanced himself from the White House's stance on global tariffs, just days after Donald Trump's controversial 'Liberation Day' move.
Last week, President Trump announced a huge and wide ranging set of tariffs on all of the USA's trading partners, seeing goods from foreign nations taxed anywhere from 10 per cent to 54 per cent, in an attempt to encourage citizens to buy American-made products.
To the surprise of no one, the move has been widely unpopular outside of the States, with several of America's trading partners no imposing retaliatory tariffs of their own.
However, those closest to Trump are still holding the line that tariffs will be beneficial to the US, with one notable exception.
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The billionaire businessman, and head (for now) of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has hit out at the tariffs, even going as far as to share his brutally honest opinion of the man behind them.
Speaking via video link with Italian deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini, Musk said that he hoped a 'free-trade zone' could be established between the United States and Europe.
"I hope that the United States and Europe can establish a very close partnership," he said. "Obviously there's an alliance already but I'm hopeful that there can be a very close relationship with America and Europe.
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"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. That's what I hope occurs."
Trump's new tariffs have seen a rate of 20 percent imposed on European Union nations, while non-EU countries such as the UK, Ukraine, Turkey and Iceland received a 10 percent tariff.
Never one to shy away from sharing his honest opinion online, Musk then ripped into economist and Trump's counsellor for trade and manufacturing Peter Navarro in an astonishing exchange on X.
"A PhD in Econ from Harvard is a bad thing, not a good thing. Results in the ego/brains>>1 problem,' Musk wrote in response to a clip of Navarro explaining the Trump tariff stance on CNN.
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A follower then responded to Musk by saying that Harvard educated Navarro was 'correct' with his analysis, to which the 53-year-old clapped back: "He ain’t built s**t."
Musk's break with the US government comes follows reports that he has seen his net worth plummet by $52 billion (£41 billion) since the start of 2025 due to a dip in market confidence in his businesses.
Meanwhile, Trump's tariffs have seen some of the biggest crashes in the global stock markets since Covid.